All effects, no brain

Rating: 4/10 (28 August 2016)

MEN IN BLACK, a sci-fi comic caper, proved a huge hit with audiences, and the cash-ins were soon flooding through the shops back here in the summer of '98. I was one of the 'lucky' ones to go and see the film, and I enjoyed it on a superficial level. Then, when I got home, I sat down and began to think about what I'd seen. As time wore on, I grew more and more disenchanted with the film before I realised that I didn't like it at all, really.
The reason being that MEN IN BLACK is a film strictly for children, with kiddie humour (with everyone being covered in goo all the time, I was almost expecting Noel Edmunds to pop up). The plot is thin, and the film is simply a series of special effects as the different alien creatures are unveiled. The best special effect in the film is the part where the big alien hides inside the skin of a farmer, the loosened flesh looks very effective. Otherwise, they're all very CGI and too neat and fluid to look very realistic. There is also a spectacular UFO crash worth waiting for at the end, but the final confrontation scene is disappointingly clichéd.
Will Smith is his usual self - like him or hate him - and he is given solid support by Tommy Lee Jones, but the actors have little to do apart from watch the constant cartoon-like special effects roll across the screen in front of them. It's okay, but a strictly 'disengage the brain and watch' film. Not my cup of tea I'm afraid.