Men in Black Meets Back to the Future

Rating: 6/10 (26 May 2012)

¨I promised the secrets of the universe, nothing more.¨
It's been 15 years since Barry Sonnenfeld directed the first Men in Black film paring up the unlikely duo of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. This concept wasn't entirely original as we've seen these sort o pairings in films like Lethal Weapon with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover playing similar characters. What I do remember about the first MIB is that it was very entertaining and had some incredible effects for the time. Now we have grown used to seeing these special effects, but I still enjoyed this movie thanks to the performance from the cast and it also brought back a nostalgic feeling. I remember that I started falling in love with movies during the 90's and MIB was one that I enjoyed very much along with Independence Day so Will Smith was one of the first actors I actually knew by name. Of course today after seeing thousand of films I see those movies and I don't find them to be as great as I first experienced them. I've grown into a more grumpy critic who expects more from movies, but MIB III brought back some of those nostalgic feelings so I ended up enjoying this movie despite it not being perfect, and rather silly at times. It's been four years since Will Smith had last starred in a movie so I really was glad to see him back in action. He is a great actor and brought a lot of comedy to his role with his big loud mouth. Both Sonnenfeld and Smith were able to make a better film than the first MIB sequel, and it lives up to the original one thanks to a clever script from Etan Cohen.
Agent J (Will Smith) and Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) are still working together guarding Earth from all the dangers of the Universe. They face a new threat when a villain from K's past named Boris the Animal (Jemaine Clement) has escaped prison and is looking for revenge after K shot his arm off and imprisoned him over 40 years ago. J had never heard about Boris until now and when he tries to do research about the event that happened that day he isn't authorized to dig any further. Boris gets his hands on some sort of time device and goes back in time to kill Agent K. J wakes up the next day with a feeling that something has happened to K and when he arrives at work and asks about his partner nobody knows who K is. At first Agent J thinks it's all a prank, but when Agent O (Emma Thompson) tells J that K has been dead for 40 years he realizes that Boris managed to go back in time and killed K. Now times have changed and Boris's race is invading Earth to destroy it. Agent J is sent back in time to try to save K. He ends up back in 1969 where he runs into a younger version of K (Josh Brolin) and together they try to stop Boris once and for all in order to save the planet once again.
The highlight of the film is probably Josh Brolin's performance since he plays a very believable young Tommy Lee Jones. His facial expressions and voice is really on the note and it is just so fun to see him imitate Jones's character. This was really my favorite part of the film along with some of the cameos and the clever jokes and cultural references of the 60's. Another highlight was Michael Stuhlbarg's (from A Serious Man) performance as Griffin. He got most of the laughs in the movie. Tommy Lee Jones didn't have a very big role in this sequel and he is getting very old, but he's still fun to watch on screen. Men in Black III is not a perfect movie, but it's entertaining and brings back some memories. I liked the whole back in time concept and it reminded me of other great films like Back to the Future. If you are a fan of Will Smith or the MIB franchise than you will really enjoy this movie, if not you might find it too silly. I really enjoyed Brolin's comedic turn in this movie and he is the highlight of the film. MIB III is an enjoyable and well made sequel.
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