Black is back? So is my indifference.

Rating: Null/10 (30 August 2002)

: I was relatively indifferent to the original `Men in Black'. It was entertaining but I didn't feel it deserved a sequel (although the fact it got one was unsurprising). The preview ads for this sequel had me worse - the highlights they had picked were all unfunny, causing my lips to form a wry of derision rather than a smile. Fortunately the movie was not too bad.. But it was not good either.
We're a few years on from the original. Will Smith, Agent J, is the top agent in the Men in Black (MIB) organisation. He has yet to find a partner to match the legendary Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) who has retired as a postmaster, unaware of his previous history (having been mind-wiped by a Plot Device). Suddenly earth faces a threat and look - we need Agent K! Cue hijinks as J tries to bring K back into the force, find out K's knowledge relating to the threat and defeat the Big Evil (played by Lara Flynn Boyle). Which is an excuse to run around from action/gag to gag/action. Whatever.
It's clear that the actors are having fun here. Jones must be relishing an escape from his normal serious roles and he gets to do the whole `blunt faced' comedic delivery, which he does well. Smith is also a more than capable actor, playing, as he does, Will Smith via The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Boyle is. well she's pretty I guess. All the other actors? They're playing one-dimensional characters who occasionally try to manifest depth via a few heartfelt conversations. Ultimately Smith and Jones (hmmm) are a good pairing, bouncing off well another. They might not have great chemistry but they work surprisingly well and I have little problems with them.
It's the actual rest of the movie that somehow doesn't quite make it. The plot's not deep enough to make the movie worthy of being science fiction, but the comedy isn't funny enough to allow this to be a decent comedy. There're some funny set pieces - such as the locker scene and some of Smith's one-liners but other gags feel forced (the singing dog? Please - far too contrived to be funny. And it was shown in all the trailers. A thousand times.). Yes Smith and Jones work well but they're not given much in the way of material to bounce against. It's by no means awful but I feel there's a lot of untapped potential and that a half written script was considered sufficient to get by on. Oh and the SFX are very poor at times and I, for one, am distracted from the movie when the characters are clearly being chased by a bunch of digital animations.
`Men in Black II' does not convince me that black is back, or that we should bother thinking so. It contributes nothing but does never really annoy, solely due to the easy way in which Smith and Jones cruise through the picture. Wait for the video release if you fancy something brainless. 4/10.