Back in Black? I Don't Think So...

Rating: 4/10 (25 November 2002)

Men In Black II, the follow up to the hit film Men In Black, features Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith as the agents K and J respectively. This time around, J finds trouble in the universe as a hostile alien hunts for a mysterious object on Earth, and the only man who can help him doesn't remember a thing  that man (of course) is K. So after J restores K's memory with a `de-neuralizer', together they hunt down the alien scum.
Men In Black II (advertised as MIIB) isn't half as fun or entertaining as the original 1997 film, and falls short on the jokes almost all the time. One must wonder why the writer(s) couldn't have come up with a better excuse for bringing back K other than the cheap gimmick of, `Hey, let's just have a DE-neuralizer to bring his memory back!' I hate when sequels use subjects like that just to bring back a character. `Hey, he's not dead, he was just run over by a tank!' Come on, writers, a little bit more credibility, please?
The jokes in MIIB, as I mentioned, almost all fall flat. There were a few giggles from children during the film, but when I was sitting there, I could tell that almost no one liked what they were seeing, including the children. Have you ever been to a film that is so bad, that people try to laugh at the `jokes' because they are so embarrassed they paid to see `this stupid film'? That's MIIB for you.
The actors in the film seemed to be holding back a little as well, and J's love interest was a really untalented actress. I think she was trying to act like Halle Berry (even the haircut) but I personally wouldn't even want Halle Berry, seeing that I think she isn't a good actress.
I don't agree with other reviewers when they say MIIB is repetitive, recycling the jokes from the original film. I think that even if they had repeated all the same jokes, the audience still would have liked it better than the way it turned out.
Barry Sonnenfeld may be losing his charm as a director. I have not seen Big Trouble yet, but I heard that it is not funny, so maybe that is a clue.
And the aliens in this film look like they came from a Jim Henson's R Us store. There is a crazy fight sequence in the middle of the film, and J fights all the creaturesI think that was the closest I came to laughing  the time when the director DIDN'T want us to laugh. But, during that sequence, there was a segment where we see an up close and personal view of an alien's genitals, hanging from his chin, and where of course, J punches him, causing much pain (for the alien, and the audience). There are the cheap jokes like these that ruin this film, another being where Rip Torn (reprising his role) jumps up in the air, and we see a shot of him (obviously hanging from cables) kicking at the enemy, but the thing is, he stays in the air for about ten seconds, swinging his legs, like a crossbreed between Shaggy from Scooby-Doo, and a Looney Tune character. Not a single person laughed at this scene.
All this closes with a witless and unimaginative climax, including a repeat from the ending of MIB, involving a locker, but I won't spoil it anymore for you (though it doesn't matter-it was stupid).

A tip to writers: next time, come up with something that has some important key elements, called humor, originality and wit: something the first MIB had.
2/5 stars-
John Ulmer