Worth Seeing...

Rating: Null/10 (8 November 2002)

Men In Black is an excellent film, if only for its subtle exploration of our society's paranoid alien folklore. Every conceived alien conspiracy theory is covered (with the exception of crop designs) and handled creatively, often tying into several neighboring conspiracy theories. For years, America has murmured quietly about UFO/FBI cover-ups, alien life and the mysterious `Men In Black' who show up asking questions after every unnatural phenomenon  finally Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones give us the answers!
An action-comedy, Men In Black accosts the highly-funded yet unofficial government agency, Division 6, headed by Zed (Rip Torn). There Agents K (Jones) and J (Smith) keep tabs on the sizable alien population of the US and investigate and regulate all alien entities that enter the planet's NYC port, many of which are completely harmless. Apparently, aliens have lived among us for some time (a wall chart shows a picture of every alien on Earth  among them: Sylvester Stallone, Newt Gingrich and Dionne Warwick). Anyway, while on the job, the MIB agents uncover the deadly plot of an intergalactic terrorist named Edgar (Vincent D' Onofrio) who's on a mission to assassinate two ambassadors from opposing galaxies currently residing in New York City. Thus, in order to prevent imminent doom, K and J must track down the terrorist.
Director Barry Sonnenfeld (The Addams Family and its sequel) isn't over-excessive with special-effects, chase-scenes or unnecessary explosions  in fact, everything is skillfully placed for a purpose (what a concept!). As aforementioned, the film plays with some pretty ridiculous notions, producing some wicked little witticism (tabloid newspapers are the best source of reporting as far as Jones' character is concerned, while the exhibit at the 1964 World's Fair was nothing more than a flying saucer cover-up).
Just remember, reality is often times more weirder that science fiction  Men In Black inclines viewers to side with the conspiracy version of history in a most entertaining way. Frighteningly enough, some of the scenarios and theories presented in the film can actually be backed up by facts, which could prove a bit much for those already a bit unhinged. I say see it!