It doesn't deserve all the negative comments and reviews.

Rating: 6/10 (22 July 2002)

Contains mild spoilers.
Well, a week ago I finally saw Men in Black II (MIB2). Having read lots of negative user comments and critical reviews, I feared when I finally went to see it on the big screen that I would be appalled by what I saw, that it would be the worst sequel since Speed 2 or Batman & Robin (Not that I went to see either of THOSE movies. I pity the trusting souls that DID go to see them.) Well, I saw it, and I almost liked it: No, of course it wasn't as good as the first MIB. But how many of us really expected the sequel to be as good? On its own terms, this movie is a fine summer entertainment, with enough laughs, thrills and special effects to rate as acceptable escapism; if it were not a sequel to a superior movie, I doubt that anybody would be attacking it so harshly. I was satisfied that the filmmakers kept this movie short and sweet, innocuous enough for kids but not so childish that adults can't enjoy it as well.
Whatever plot this movie cares to have is established (sort of) in its priceless opening sequence, which spoofs UFO-speculation series of the '70s and '80s, and is hosted by Peter Graves (of course!) During the opening credits we see a spaceship obliterating planets, and we know that EARTH IS IN DANGER. We all know how the movie will proceed storywise, more or less, from this point forward; in a movie like this the plot is incidental. What mattered in the first MIB were the interesting characters, their lively dialogue, the surprises both funny and scary, and most of all the movie's style: the quirky, subdued manner in which the story was told. MIB2 possesses these qualities as well, but unfortunately it has slightly less to offer in every category than the first movie did (it is, after all, a shorter, smaller movie), and many people have not been able to forgive this shortcoming.
If everything in MIB2 was as funny and inspired as the opening sequence with Peter Graves, it would have been a great sequel indeed. But several of its notable gags misfire or fall flat: I can remember four or five separate instances in the movie in which director Barry Sonnenfeld failed to make the jokes at least as funny as they must have looked on paper. At one point, for example, agents Jay and Kay make a quick escape from MIB headquarters by being "flushed," as the room they occupy turns into a giant toilet; this absurd but undeniably funny idea should have been foolproof, but somehow it falls flat, perhaps because it's over almost as soon as it begins: the movie doesn't give us a chance to laugh at what's happening, and (even worse) gives us a punchline that's not very funny (or perhaps only poorly delivered). In another scene, MIB chief Zed (Rip Torn) attempts to fight off Seerleena (Lara Flynn Boyle) by hovering in mid-air, Matrix-style, and kicking her in the face several times. This moment was obviously intended to parody The Matrix, but it's not especially funny because it's not very inventive: Sonnenfeld and the writers apparently thought the mere sight of the elderly Rip Torn performing Matrix-style acrobatics would be enough to make the audience laugh, with no elaboration or explanation necessary. Many potentially funny moments in this movie are ruined by conceit and sheer laziness in the writing: Johnny Knoxville's alien character is given two heads, but no memorably funny lines; the writers apparently thought the mere sight of a two-headed Johnny Knoxville would be enough to make the audience laugh. How hard is it to write jokes about a two-headed alien?
Although MIB2 can't match the laughs of the first movie, I still enjoyed it, and I recommend it, for two simple reasons: Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. They are great fun to watch together, and Sonnenfeld, to his credit, gets some hysterically funny moments out of them both. You'll laugh to see Smith wrestling with computer-generated monsters of all sizes: I dare say he earned his money for this movie, which required of him enough pratfalls to fill a Jerry Lewis movie. You'll laugh to see Jones maintain his deadpan expression no matter how silly the action around him: even while hanging upside-down in an elevator, trading shots with a robot that's spewing machine-gun bullets (that's right, machine-gun bullets) at him, he responds with calm courage and cool sarcasm. He's a great guy to plunge so eagerly into such silliness, especially since he's old enough to know better: he has more lines on his face than Jack Palance, yet here he is shooting two little shiny laser guns while hanging upside-down. Smith and Jones: together they recapture the first movie's larger-than-life sense of fun, and give this sequel its most entertaining moments.
Please go see this movie, if you feel the need for big-screen entertainment in the next week or two; yes, it has some bad gags in it, but that flaw doesn't make it terrible, or unworthy of the first movie. Except for the bad gags, I would have given this movie a solid 7 out of 10; except for one or two inappropriate moments that hint at black comedy, this is a warm, lighthearted movie that amused me even during its bad moments, and left me feeling good by the time the credits rolled and Smith started singing "black suits coming." I prefer a flawed film that leaves me feeling good to a critically acclaimed film that would probably leave me feeling bad if I saw it. All the evidence suggests that The Road to Perdition is a good movie which does not life the spirits of its audience; the self-serious people who hate MIB2 should go see it. I'd rather see MIB2 again, which sadly seems destined to be one of the last enjoyable movies of the summer.
Rating: 6