OK, but A DISAPPOINTING COMMERCIAL

Rating: 4/10 (4 July 2002)

You know the plot - if you can call it a "plot". What MIB II really is is a big excuse for the latest digital FX, and shameless product placement commercials. Was it bad? No. But besides being surprisingly SHORT in length, there is really nothing original here nor anything that tries to surpass the first MIB. It is just bigger explosions and weirder aliens, with absolutely nothing of a real plot nor characters we care about.
Lara Flynn Boyle - the ultra-skinny Lara Flynn Boyle - is one of those digital creations: she actually has a computer-enhanced body here. She's fine as the cartoonish villain.
Will Smith is always good, but the attempts to give him a romantic relationship with a human female are strained and go nowhere. If the movie was a little longer they could have done something with this, but I assume the film is aimed at ten-year-olds with a short attention span.
Rip Torn and Tommy Lee Jones, also fine actors like Smith, but are limited by the script which doesn't give them much to work with. We've seen all these same expressions with MIB I.
The most memorable "actor" is the talking dog. Which tells you everything you need to know about how lame the script is and how shallow the characters are.
MIB II also goes right into shameless product placement with ads for actual products and brand names all over the place. They even got in a plug (or cameo) for Michael Jackson - who looks like more of a freak than the two-headed alien. And I wasn't impressed that much by the digital FX either on him. The alien, not Jackson. Michael always looks very weird and scary.
Anyway, it was a passable ninety with lots of effects. I saw it at a half price matinee and even then it was hardly worth it.