i hate to burst your bubble , but after all the star power , mega bucks , screenwriters , directors , and cool trailers , men in black is not the best movie of the summer .
it 's pretty good in it 's own right , yes , but i would probably split the " best movie " honors among face / off , spawn , con air , and maybe event horizon .
it 's main problem
is that it 's quickly forgettable , and i ca n't remember one truly good scene from it .
from con air , it was the scene out in the desert when they were digging the plane out from the dirt .
in spawn , it was the " living room hell " conclusion at the end .
in event horizon , it was the video of the event horizon crew being taken over by hell 's forces .
and all of face / off was pretty dang good .
but as for men in black , the only scene i still recall is when will smith is squishing all those giant roaches .
i remember it not for it 's humor but because i am hate roaches with a passion and was pretty disgusted .
and yes , i did see mimic , which is something i 'll touch on in a later review .
back to men in black ( is it just me , or does that sound funny ? )
i remember first hearing about men in black back when i was a comic geek in the 7th grade and read magazines like wizard , etc .
( for those of you who are n't comic - geeks , wizard is basically to comics what car and driver is to cars , what the new yorker is to high society , what boy 's life is to boy scots .
okay , that one was pretty pathetic . )
few people know this , but men in black is based on a very obscure comic book that was , while not honest - politician - rare , very hard to find .
this was after the release of the high - grossing batman forever , and it said that tommy lee jones and chris o'donnell were being considered for the roles ( in the comic book , there were no black men in black .
kind of weird , huh ? )
all i can say is
, thank god they did n't cast chris o'donnell .
i know i ca n't be the only person on the planet who thinks he 's an annoying , preppie little snot . . .
sorry .
my apologies to o'donnell fans .
i actually had a 7th grade teacher who was a big comic collector and was set to buy some of the comics from him , anticipating rather craftily that , if the movie was a big hit , it would drive up the price of the comics rather nicely .
he decided not to sell them to me , because they were " innappropriate " .
hmm . . . .
so now you 're probably wondering why i 've wasted about 5 paragraphs with lame anecdotes from my junior high years .
good question .
i 'll move on to the movie now .
as you probably already know , will smith and tommy lee jones ( agents k and j , respectively ) belong to a top secret agency known as divison 5 , or it 's nickname mib ( men in black . )
men in black is a reference to the black suits and sunglasses the agents wear , and they 're mission is to investigate reports of alien landings and keep the aliens under control while they 're here on earth .
not to get too technical or spoil the plot for the 6 people in the world who have n't seen this movie , but a basically - big - roach - type - bug lands in a redneck farmer 's yard , inhabits his body , and attempts to destroy the entire universe .
not bad , eh ?
( i have no idea why i just typed that .
i 'm not even really paying attention anymore . )
the special effects are good
yet dissapointing in men in black .
i found their main headquarters to be boring , as were the " cool weapons " they had .
the noisy cricket just plain sucked , no matter what anyone said .
and the movie definitely surprised me in tone , although it probably shoudln't have .
it 's
director , barry sonnenfield , is known for " black humor " , directing both addams family movies .
this movie was basically a " black comedy " , not an action / sci - fi like i expected from the trailers .
do n't get me wrong on what i think of this movie .
it 's not bad
, i gave it *
* * .
it was mostly entertaining throughout it 's run , and had a very good ending , although i think i was the only person in the theater not amazed by it .
my diagnosis for this picture : a good weekend rental , but not worth a movie ticket .
of course , the movie is now long gone from theaters , but that 's beside the point .
i think .
Output: P