An enjoyable Sci-Fi romp that is over all too soon

Rating: Null/10 (9 August 2000)

It's amazing how simple it is to make a really good comedy without having to try too hard with a busy script.
Men In Black is just such a comedy, played very firmly with tongue-in-cheek and not to be taken at all seriously. The story is simple yet very rich & entertaining (although it also received a lot of bad press from some quarters because it was seen as racist - an allegory for repatriating illegal immigrants from the US!)
The two lead stars, Smith & Jones, don't have to stretch themselves too much, acting wise, since they're both on familiar ground, especially from wise-cracking Will Smith who was really only continuing his character mannerisms from where Independence Day left off.
I was quite surprised with TLJ, I've never really thought of him as being the comedy-film-type, but he plays his role with a great deal of mellowed drollery, not letting Smith's antics wind him up too much, which is typical of most buddy partnerships in comedy movies (Lethal Weapon, Beverly Hills Cop, 48 Hours etc)
The support from Rip Torn & Vincent D'onofrio was good but patchy, they weren't given enough material from the script to make us really care for them. Similarly with Linda Fioretino, she is a very attractive lady but wasn't really allowed to have enough dialogue to make us appreciate her more. She would have made a good foil/romantic link for Smith, but this was never allowed to even develop, just like the character she portrayed.
The CGI sfx, although not particularly overwhelming were generally quite good, and the music really helped pace the film and I loved the upbeat & funky Will Smith music video clip straight after the movie.
I enjoyed MIB far more than the over-rated, over-hyped IE4. The only problem was that it only lasts about 90 minutes, which is quite short for a Hollywood movie these days where most stretch to at least two hours.
I hope the original cast & main characters are brought together again for the impending sequel. There's plenty of material to go round and perhaps on this occasion more attention can be paid to a more indepth characterisation of both K & J (and hopefully Linda too), because we hardly get to know anything about these dudes from this movie.
***/*****