"Your attracted, she's not even my species & I'm attracted." Fun if somewhat familiar sequel.

Rating: 7/10 (12 September 2005)

Men in Black II starts one dark New York City night, an intergalactic spacecraft crashes in Central Park, an alien life-form named Serleena emerges & takes the form of a underwear model (Lara Flynn Boyle), Serleena is looking for the powerful Light of Zarthar & heads straight for two-headed alien Charlie (Johnny Knoxville) who tipped her off about the Light being on Earth. Eventually the trail leads to an alien named Ben (Jack Kehler) who runs a pizza place who Serleena kills as witnessed by shop assistant Laura Vasquez (Rosario Dawson) who then comes into contact with the Men in Black as Agent Kay (Will Smith) & Agent Tee (Patrick Warburton) are sent to investigate. When it becomes clear that Serleena is after the Light of Zarthar the MIB boss Zed (Rip Torn) says only one person knows about the Light, Agent Kay (Tommy Lee Jones) who has been neutralised. Agent Jay must convince Agent Kay to come out of retirement, help regain his memory, stop Serleena & save the planet Earth!
Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld who also has a small cameo role, I thought Men in Black II was pretty good if undemanding fun & personally that's all I really think it sets out to achieve. The script by Robert Gordon & Barry Fanaro based on the comic book by Lowell Cunningham moves along like a rocket & is never dull or boring with some huge special effects sequence not too far away. From flying cars & spacecraft chasing each other over Times Square & a spacecraft travelling through space destroying every planet as it goes to huge alien worms half eating a New York subway train & a variety of bizarre aliens. The humour is still here but somehow doesn't seem as funny this time around as Men in Black II as a whole is very similar to the original Men in Black (1997), I often smiled but I never flat out laughed. The character's are still very likable but basically the same as the original with Laura becoming Agent Jay's love interest & the sexy Serleena the obligatory villain dressed in black leather, hey it works for me! One thing that Men in Black II lacks is a decent interesting story for it's character's, everything that happens in the film seems to be there purely to show off an effect, in fact Men in Black II could be described as one overblown & silly special effect after another with very little regard to what takes place between. While on the subject of the special effects I must admit that I wasn't that impressed with some of them, Will Smith riding Jeff the huge alien worm at the start look fake as does Creepy (Michael Baily Smith) the O-Zone stealing large headed flying saucer riding trio of duplicate aliens, the two headed alien played by Johnny Knoxville is both highly irritating, has probably the poorest effects & strangely just disappears two thirds through the film never to be seen again! Considering Men in Black II wasn't made that long ago I'd say the special effects are actually quite poor. With a massive estimated budget of $140,000,000 & at less than 90 minutes long it's difficult to see where all that money went, unless it was on Smith's salary. It definitely has that big budget Hollywood look & polish about it although nothing really impressed or stood out that much. The acting is OK & both Smith & Jones work well together as mismatched MIB partners. Dawson as Laura is hardly in it while the same can be said for both Knoxville & Flynn Boyle as the villains which is a shame as Boyle makes for a good baddie, in leather. I have given Men in Black II seven stars out of ten as I was entertained, had fun watching it & as a mindless way to pass 90 odd minutes it's great but as a proper emotive, thought provoking film with a moral or a message then it falls well short of the mark. I think it's well worth a watch as long as your expectations aren't too high & are just able to have fun with it.