Men In Black 3
Released 5/25/12, now in theaters
Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones reprise their roles as Agent J and Agent K in the second sequel to the popular Men In Black franchise. Josh Brolin is added to the mix as the young Agent K. Barry Sonnenfeld returns as director. Can the franchise be redeemed from what some consider the disaster of MIB 2?
The dangerous intergalactic criminal, Boris the Animal (don't dare call him that to his face), escapes from the maximum security prison, Lunarmax (actually on the moon). Boris has a vendetta against Agent K for taking one of his arms and imprisoning him over 40 years ago. He develops the ingenious plan ( kind of Terminator style) to go back to 1969 when K captured him and kill K so he cannot activate the ArcNet shield that protects Earth from Boris' race, the Boglodites. His plan actually works as K disappears from the present and the Boglodites begin their invasion. It's now up to Agent J to return to 1969 and set the future right again with the help of the 29 year old Agent K and an MIB agency that is not quite as advanced as it is in the future.
I can say that, for me, MIB 3 is the best movie in the franchise for one reason, Josh Brolin. Yes, Will Smith is his usual wisecracking self and Tommy Lee Jones is stoic and humorless. Both performances are fine. However, Josh Brolin had to have followed Jones 24/7 for months to get Agent K down as well as he does. Every mannerism, voice inflection and tone, and movement mirrors Tommy Lee Jones perfectly. I don't know how he does this so well, but it's an amazing performance. I will go so far as to say it's an Oscar worthy performance. It would be a shame if Brolin is ignored, but he has two strikes against him as the Academy rarely recognizes summer blockbusters for anything other than special effects awards, and they don't often recognize comedy outside of Woody Allen. But, I wasn't expecting them to recognize Melissa McCarthy last year either and they did so, hopefully, Brolin has a chance.
As someone who has always believed the MIB series was good but not great, MIB 3 might make me start to change my opinion. One other thing I liked about MIB 3 is this movie delved deeper into the relationship between J and K. You'll find out there is a very specific reason why K recruited J in the first Men In Black. It's not what you may expect.
The Dark Lord of the Sith says:
***1/4 stars
Ratings Legend
Zero *= Don't waste your time. Pure dreck! Dreck is too good for this! Blind me please!
1 *= Fuggedaboutit!
2 *= Average, Mediocre, Nothing Special
3 *= Good viewing. Much better than a poke in the eye.
4 *= Great. Could possibly foot the price of a non-Matinee.
5 *= Pure eye candy. Hall of Fame material here.
I agree about Josh's preformance. It was very easy to forget that you were not watching Tommy Lee Jones. His performance was flawless and very believable! I enjoyed Men in Black 3 much more then I thought I would.
ReplyDelete