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Black to the future Men in Black is one of the summer's best by EMRU TOWNSEND
Despite the current conspiracy theory trendiness (and the "based on a Marvel comic" credit at the beginning of the movie), Men in Black was originally a black-and-white comic book from alternative publisher Malibu almost 10 years ago. Movie negotiations have been rumoured to have been kicking around for about as long. If this is true, we can thank our lucky stars it took so long--we might have been stuck with the likes of Don Johnson and Bruce Willis as the title characters instead of Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith. As it is, the chemistry between Jones (the experienced and stonefaced Kay) and Smith (the recently recruited smartass Jay) is perfect. After chasing down a disguised alien during his beat as a New York cop, Jay is tapped to join MiB, an organization that keeps tabs on any of the 1,500 aliens on our planet at any given time (including Steven Spielberg, Newt Gingrich and possibly the guy who gives you funny looks on the metro). The snappy dialogue between Jay, a mouthy know-it-all, and Kay, who really does know it all, is worth the price of admission on its own. In fact, that simple declaration--"worth the price of admission"--points up what separates the firmly tongue-in-cheek Men in Black from the rest of the summer blockbusters which have failed to impress so far. The 96-minute running time might seem skimpy compared to the two hours and up for the rest of the season's fare, but by avoiding the now-standard dramatic pauses, drawn-out slow-motion explosions and lengthy closeups of overpaid stars squinting mightily, there is actually more content than usual. The creators of Men in Black have returned to a recipe for making movies that has worked since the days of silent film: take equal parts substance and style, mix well, sprinkle with well-timed and witty dialogue and simmer for 90 to 120 minutes. While the other summer movies have used the same ingredients, they also used a little too much artificial flavouring and sweeteners which tasted great while in the cinema, but ultimately left us with a bad aftertaste. Men in Black is now playing. See film listings for showtimes |
With the 50th anniversary of the incident at Roswell (whatever it was) and the success of the wonderfully spooky X-Files, UFOs and conspiracy theories have emerged from the province of the lunatic fringe to mainstream hipness. One might be tempted to say the trend is losing steam when it starts to show up in Suddenly Susan and on the cover of Time, but Men in Black proves that the undercover weirdness concept can still be carried off successfully--productions like Dark Skies notwithstanding.