Brolin is amazing. The film is not.

Rating: 5/10 (1 June 2012)

Let's just get this out of the way: Josh Brolin's portrayal of a young Tommy Lee Jones is freakishly good. It's one of the most amusing performances of 2012 so far. It's disappointing then that the film around him – which appears to have felt the effects of its well known production issues – is hit and miss at best, cringe-worthy at worst. The CGI is often horrible, Jemaine Clement's villain is underwhelming and Hollywood stalwarts Jones and Emma Thomson are criminally underused. However, there's still enough here to recommend for Dad's and sons looking for some female-free time. Will Smith is clearly relishing the opportunity to play Agent J for the third time and he slots back into ultra-cool, jive-talking mode like a second skin. A handful of the gags work too, most of them stemming from the fish-out-of-water premise having Agent J return to the sixties. Oh, and did I mention that Brolin is amazing? He's almost worth the price of admission alone. Almost.