Men in Black (1997), the big 4th of July movie that year! I had been to the movies a lot in 97', for flicks like
The Lost World: Jurassic Park,
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery,
Liar Liar, and a 20th anniversary re-issue of
Star Wars (1977). Pretty great time to have a dad who loved movie-hopping a whole day away at the local cinema.
Almost exactly one year prior, Will Smith had stolen the show in the smash hit
Independence Day (1996), but this is where the U.S.S. Big Willy really set sail. Yes, he's still cracking wise, but it's around here when folks stopped calling him "The Fresh Prince", and started saying "Movie Star." Smith is funny, empathetic, and has insane chemistry with his co-star (I'll get to him in a sec). He even performs one of the catchiest ending credits songs ever made!
(I miss that trend so much, what's LL Cool J up to?)
Tommy Lee Jones gives his most popular performance here, the unflappable straight man. In a movie with wacky aliens and world-ending invasions, this guy isn't lifting an eyebrow till he's had his coffee. The seasoned agent to Smiths brash rookie, Jones somehow manages to make a believable character out of a conspiracy theory on legs. Together, the pair make one of the most iconic duos in movies, the Odd Couple of the 90's, or the Riggs and Murtaugh of science fiction.
The director, Barry Sonnenfeld, had started out as the cinematographer for the Coen brothers in the early days of their careers, helping to craft the look of classics like
Raising Arizona (1987) and
Blood Simple (1984). As cinematographers often do, he made the leap to directing himself, and revealed that while the Coens and their brand of darkly comedic crime stories was *fine*, Barry had a hankering for Weird Shit. The guy directs
The Addams Family (1991) and it's (superior) sequel, movies with special effects and tricky camera edits that play with speed and zoom shots.
Sonnenfeld really outdoes himself with
Men in Black though, remember the opening sequence following the insect zooming around the road? Our intro to (the soon-to-be) Agent J, a fun chase sequence to the top of the Guggenheim Museum? There's multiple "hero" shots too, like J's "I make this look good" or the crashing World Expo UFO and it's spectacular wreck over K and J's shoulders. I like that one, the crash in the background is in sharp focus while our subject characters are blurred, like a reverse depth of field. (I'll go to school one day and actually learn the words.)
Aside from how the movie looks, Danny Elfman gives one of the best scores of his career. (That's just my opinion, he's done so many movies that I'm sure everyone has a favorite.) The main theme has this sound like encroaching danger, like a quirkier version of the Jaws theme. They use big brass sections to play up the MIB and our heroes, out to stop...
..our villain! While it's often a comedy, Men in Black has a pretty disturbing antagonist in Vincent D'onfrio's Bug. He's genuinely horrific, an insect horror from beyond the stars who's torn out the innards from a random hicks body to wear his flesh. D'onfrio really goes wild selling it too, with jarring awkward movements like he's never used his arms and legs before. The makeup helps, but the acting is unreal.
There's so much more to praise, like Rip Torn and Linda Fiorentino, and the stellar special effects for the aliens; the script by Ed Solomon is fast-paced and very clever. One of the best sequences has J showing a lot of out of the box thinking in a series of tests, showing a willingness to accept strange circumstances and keep an open mind.
*Bonus: Ed Solomon banged out the final screenplay for Super Mario Bros (1993)! Supposedly he only had about a week to take the existing scripts, use what worked, and turn something film-able over to the directors. Probably not a great experience for him, but it's pretty impressive that he managed it!
Solomon was also the lead writer for every Bill and Ted movie; no one before or since has ever gotten so much mileage out of the word "Woah!". A legend, truly.
(I watched the Mario movie 4 goddamn times, listening to all the commentary tracks, thinking I would write an article for it. Never did figure out what my "point" would be though, maybe one day.)
So yeah, I give
Men in Black about a B, maybe B-....
O-Obviously I love the movie! I can't say the same for the sequels, though. I'll be brief, but the second movie suffers from bending over backwards to "re-capture" the first, yanking Tommy Lee Jones back into the mix. They try to mine humor out of reversing the main duo's relationship dynamic, but that doesn't really play to either actors strengths and only nets the occasional chuckle.
I will say the third is...interesting. Josh Brolin really does a perfect Tommy Lee Jones impression, and the ending wraps up with a lot of heart. That said, it's just weird to look at? I saw it on HBO just last week, and I had forgotten how much time the camera spends in close-up. The first half of the movie especially feels obsessed with keeping everything in the center of the frame, zoomed in. It's kind of uncomfortable at times; can a bitch get a wide shot!?
MIB3 is also kind of obsessed with the Space Age of America. Actually, let me rephrase that:
MIB3 is a movie made to make GenX men remember their baby boomer fathers and weep. It's basically the successor to
Field of Dreams (1989) in that way! The 60's nostalgia, J meeting his father figure and getting to see another side of him as a young man, *everything* about the ending....and hey, there's nothing wrong with that! It absolutely works on my old man, gets his ass every time.
...I was literally sitting here wishing I felt like writing an article tonight, and then I crank this out. I gotta work on my concentration or something.
Anyways, anyone else like the first movie best?
