Director: Barry Sonnenfeld
Cast: Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Jemaine Clement, Emma Thompson, Bill Hader
Rating: (M)
3 stars (out of 5)
It was Tommy Lee Jones as the deadpan Agent K who tickled my funny bone and even got me through the unpopular Men in Black II. What makes fans nervous is that Men in Black III (Rialto and Hoyts) might be closer in spirit to the second movie than the first. Or even worse, just an exercise in jumping on the 3-D bandwagon.
Well, the news is mixed.
The story is competent. Agent J (Will Smith) has to travel to the past to save K and the world from a unpleasant alien, Boris the Animal (Jemaine Clement). While there, he bonds with the young K, played with startling accuracy by Josh Brolin.
Where the problem lies is that Men in Black was not a success because the storyline added up. It relished how absurd it was and let us in on the joke as it did so. Now the jokes that remain are underplayed into nothingness.
Everyone, including the normally effervescent Smith, seems below par and vaguely grumpy. This is not a triumphant return, instead it is just another time-travel movie.
Best thing: I want to say it was our own Jemaine Clement but for some warped reason they fail to have him do anything funny. Josh Brolin is freakishly good as Tommy Lee Jones though.
Worst thing: Seeing how much care has gone into this but in such a wrong-headed manner. Instead of labouring over logical coherence they needed far more of the wacky logic that we loved in the first place.
See it with: The sort of devoted fans who are gutted that Will Smith is not performing the title music.
- By Christine Powley.
