Men in Black

Scott Hardie: “It ruled.”

While discussing the continuing series of flops that are the sequels to this movie, it occurred to me once again that I had never seen the original, generally considered the sole good title in the series. So I made a point to see it and yeah, it's really fun, but you don't need me to tell you that, because you (all of you!) saw this movie long ago, and I don't know why it took me 23 years. All that I can add, as someone seeing it for the first time in 2020, is that:

1) While the alien puppets are great, some of the the special effects don't hold up so well. For instance, we see Will Smith shoot his high-tech gun, then there's a second shot of a truck exploding, then there's a third shot of Will Smith flying back into some clutter. Today those would all be in the same continuous shot.

2) It really does feel like a fluke. On paper, none of this material should have worked. Tommy Lee Jones had to be convinced to do the movie because it seemed like it was going to be terrible. Linda Fiorentino wasn't even supposed to be in it; she won her part in a poker game. The filmmakers really did just get lucky. The ongoing problems with the sequels do not seem surprising at all.

− January 19, 2020 • more by Scott • log in or create an account to reply