Men in Black-Funny Science-Fiction?
Men in Black is easily the hippest of any of Barry Sonnenfeld’s directing excursions. Men in Black is a very welcomed departure from most of the rest of Sonnenfeld’s script decisions.
Most people forget that Men in Black is based on a comic book series that had a decent following and in that regards makes it one of the stronger films ever made based upon a comic. The Men in Black universe zeros in on a a secret organization that is in contact with and protects earth from all sorts of aliens. Will Smith plays James Edwards who essentially gets spotted by Al Gore’s former college roomie Tommy Lee, no not that amateur filmmaker, Tommy Lee Jones and embarks upon recruiting him into the organization. The two have great chemistry and the film works because it doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Every now and then a studio decides to take an innovative script and run with it instead of grabbing another piece of crap off the crap pile of “we have to make so and so’s next film.” By the way, that seems to be the pile that is most frequently grabbed from, so it is extra special when a script from the other pile marked, “good” gets picked from instead. Part of the problem is that most of the studio executives are dweeby little guys with tons of allergy problems and the “good” pile has a lot of dust on it. The dust starts flying, they start sneaking, they have an allergy attack and thus find it difficult to do lines of coke off their mistresses (or prostitutes) posteriors. Its tough out there. Now, you know why Hollywood isn’t producing more scripts with originality and quality built into them.
The visual and special effects are top notch. Unlike a lot of sci-fi films the effects in Men in Black help move the story along and do not serve as a replacement for the story. How nice for a change. There are many fun weapons and gadgets, which serve as great props. Overall, Men in Black made fairly decent use of its $90-$100 million dollar budget.
With a film loaded down with great ideas, great effects, fine acting, cinematography and art design it would be easy to forget the guy who started it all. The real genius at the heart of this film is Lowell Cunningham who developed the original Men in Black comic book. And Lowell has not received enough credit. Men in Black is funny science-fiction, which is a very tough nut to crack. Bravo Mr. Cunningham.
Story A
Acting A
Visuals A (There are some crazy visuals in the film.)
Originality/Innovation A
Enjoyability Grade A
Home Theater/HD Factor A-
Overall Grade A
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