A treat for both eyes and brain

Rating: 8/10 (9 January 2001)

MIB is a rare thing: a Hollywood action comedy that actually has brains as well as laughs. Even rarer, the laughs are frequently unforced and underplayed (especially by Tommy Lee Jones) - which of course is much funnier. Script, direction and performances are all sharp, funny and intelligent. Special mention to Vincent D'Onofrio, whose physical performance (as a dead man's skin inhabited by a giant cockroach!) must have been extremely uncomfortable to sustain.
The greatest compliment I can pay to the FX teams is to point out that the alien characters frequently switch from being Rick Baker's animatronic creations to CGI and back again within a single scene - and the two are generally indistinguishable. Great stunt work too, particularly by Keith Campbell in a stunning shot filmed on the roof of the Guggenheim Museum.
Lesser directors/producers would probably have been tempted to add pointless additional action sequences that didn't serve the story, just to pad it out to the expected blockbuster length of two hours plus. Full marks to Sonnenfeld, Spielberg et al for knowing just when to end this movie and leaving the audience wanting more.