Men in Black 2
rated
HOT! HOT! HOT!
More worm trouble
What's wrong with doing more of the same thing, especially if it makes
people laugh? So what if the plot is weak? How could anyone
resist a film in which Rick Baker is billed as 'Alien Effects
Supervisor'? There are plenty of hilarious aliens. So many in
fact that too many are just thrown away. But throw in Tommy Lee
Jones, Will Smith, a truly scary Lara Flynn Boyle (sending
herself up beautifully, with cleavage which she says 'they pulled up
from my knees', and add Danny Elfman music. Begin with a cheesy
TV show introduced by Peter Graves (doing Ed Wood's Criswell) and you
have a film that is pure fun.
Tommy Lee Jones has reached George Burns proportions in the straight
man stakes. He is as arid as the Gibson Desert. And the
script is just one joke after another. A few of the gems:
'That's why you feel so comfortable here', says Will to Tommy
Lee. 'Just about everyone who works in the post office is an
alien.'
'I must have neutralised myself to keep the information from
myself', says Tommy Lee.
When Tommy Lee sticks his finger into water ball and we see that
inside the ball is a whole world of creatures crying 'All is
lost!'
Frank the Pug sings along to 'Who let the Dogs Out?' by the
Bahamen.
OK, so there are several Dune (David Lynch, 1984) worm rip-offs in the
first few scenes. And one or two of the creatures are borrowed,
perhaps, from Little Shop of Horrors (Roger Corman, 1961). But
any film which ends with a whole world in a train station
locker can't be all bad even if that looks like an idea from the
Twilight Zone episode featuring the 'Zantimisfits'. That's
the basic joke of the film - that we humans are just a minor bleep on
the aliens' radar.
With that in mind, I'm hanging out for Men in Black 3 to begin back in
the train station locker.