Fun but lacking in new ideas.

Rating: Null/10 (17 July 2002)

I'm going to start this review with a weird analogy. Bear with me.
Films and their sequels are like meals. You can can cook them a different way, maybe add some new spices, and it might even be an improvement on the first dish (say, 'Batman Returns' versus 'Batman'). But if you just reheat the original - well, you've all microwaved leftovers. That's what happens to 'Men In Black 2' - it's the same story, tasty enough but not as good as when it was fresh out of the oven.
Perhaps because we've been here before the film feels flat until Jones appears. His weary, weathered face adds a bit of depth to the fun and he and Smith do the old funny-black-guy paired with straight-white-guy routine well. There are some nice touches in the film, such as the alien civilization kept in a locker or the Playstation control pad in the rocket-car, and the various tentacled, feathered, scaled and wormlike aliens are cool. But some things are done poorly too - for instance Smith's love interest is weak, the much more interesting woman from the first film is dismissed in one line and the climax lacks something new.
If you really liked the first MIB, or you are in the mood for some light sci-fi/comedy and aren't feeling too critical, you should enjoy this. But don't expect to be thinking about it a few days later.
6/10