Hey, it's Steve here. My computer is still residing in the Nowheresville of Viral Hell, but I'm over at a friend of my mother's place right now and she was nice enough to let me use her laptop. Thanks to Ms. Sekwa for posting those reviews. (I fixed the links for ya.)
Men in Black II (2002)
It has occurred to me that director Barry Sonnenfeld, for some odd reason, can only make a good film every other time at bat. Here, as a followup to his ebulliently funny (and criminally underrated) Big Trouble, he's decided to helm a film that is just as lazy and transparent as his last collaboration with Will Smith -- except, unlike the godawful Wild Wild West, MiBII occasionally remembers that it's supposed to be funny. There's one genuinely hysterical moment (David Cross's exit scene) plus a couple of small chuckles interspersed throughout. But really, it's such a rip-off -- an attempt to reproduce the success of the first film without that film's maniacal sense of invention, lightning-round pacing or knowing use of the under-reaction. In its place, we get wholesale dumbness, obvious "satirical" jabs (Michael Jackson proves he's a good sport with his self-deprecating cameo, but it's such an easy joke) and lousy performances by more or less everyone. Will Smith, in particular, mugs like crazy but can't summon up anything even remotely as inspired as his explanation of why he shot little Tiffany; on the other end of the spectrum, Lara Flynn Boyle barely shows up, letting her Wonderbra and some SFX fingers do all her work. The biggest problem, however, is that this thing feels like a rush job. Pacing is nonexistent, characters drop out without explanation (Johnny Knoxville, what happened to you?), a crowd-pleasing love story is given about ten seconds of development before being advanced as the film's emotional swivelpoint (the first film barely bothered with any sort of emotional fakery) and padding and repetition have to be employed just to get the film to 80-odd minutes plus credits. Put it all together, and what does it spell? P-I-E-C-E-O-F-S-H-I-T. Better luck next time, Barry.
Grade: C-
Men in Black II (2002)
It has occurred to me that director Barry Sonnenfeld, for some odd reason, can only make a good film every other time at bat. Here, as a followup to his ebulliently funny (and criminally underrated) Big Trouble, he's decided to helm a film that is just as lazy and transparent as his last collaboration with Will Smith -- except, unlike the godawful Wild Wild West, MiBII occasionally remembers that it's supposed to be funny. There's one genuinely hysterical moment (David Cross's exit scene) plus a couple of small chuckles interspersed throughout. But really, it's such a rip-off -- an attempt to reproduce the success of the first film without that film's maniacal sense of invention, lightning-round pacing or knowing use of the under-reaction. In its place, we get wholesale dumbness, obvious "satirical" jabs (Michael Jackson proves he's a good sport with his self-deprecating cameo, but it's such an easy joke) and lousy performances by more or less everyone. Will Smith, in particular, mugs like crazy but can't summon up anything even remotely as inspired as his explanation of why he shot little Tiffany; on the other end of the spectrum, Lara Flynn Boyle barely shows up, letting her Wonderbra and some SFX fingers do all her work. The biggest problem, however, is that this thing feels like a rush job. Pacing is nonexistent, characters drop out without explanation (Johnny Knoxville, what happened to you?), a crowd-pleasing love story is given about ten seconds of development before being advanced as the film's emotional swivelpoint (the first film barely bothered with any sort of emotional fakery) and padding and repetition have to be employed just to get the film to 80-odd minutes plus credits. Put it all together, and what does it spell? P-I-E-C-E-O-F-S-H-I-T. Better luck next time, Barry.
Grade: C-
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