MEN IN BLACK III

MEN IN BLACK III (2012)
US
Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld

CAST:
Will Smith - Agent J
Josh Brolin - young Agent K
Tommy Lee Jone - Agent K

PLOT:
     Agent J travels in time to MIB's early years in the 1960s to stop an alien from assassinating his friend Agent K and changing history.

REVIEW:
     So here's a film that I wasn't sure about seeing. I loved the first film because it was a smart take on the hidden world around us. Also, it was fun and didn't take itself too seriously. The second one was just, how do I put this. Hmm....lousy and not really fun at all. So here we are ten years after the second film and fifteen after the first. I do have to thank the heat that is in the Gulf Coast for helping JeNee and I seeing this as it was too damn hot to really do anything else.

     I still find it hard to believe that this is the same Josh Brolin that played Brand in The Goonies all those years ago and how his acting has improved ten fold since then. It's a good thing that it has improved due to the whole film hangs on Brolin's performance to imitate and to project Tommy Lee Jones' character and it's nearly flawless. Brolin has the small little ticks and swagger down to play a much younger Agent K and makes the film seem whole with nothing out of place. Will Smith returns to the role of Agent J and it seems like a beat wasn't missed with Smith reprising his role of a smart mouthed agent who still doesn't quite understand everything around him though he knows enough. One of the test for this movie is how Brolin and Smith would play off of each other as it would have to seem as if they don't know each other but at the same time a familiarity would have to be there and they both do wonderful jobs as friends that don't know they are yet.

     The third Men In Black movie brings back what was missed completely in the second one and that was the fun. A lot of this is from the back and forth of J and K in the past with J learning that what he was used to in the future is not available in the past or is so new that it doesn't work properly yet. But it is also the story and layers of mythology it brings back from the first film that was missing from the second that create a added layers of the world that makes it more believable as well. From the supposed aliens in the present such as David Beckham to Lady GaGa there is something always to see. Even in the past the fun continues with celebrities the story calls aliens with special attention paid to Mick Jagger as an alien who is only out to impregnate as many human females as possible. Yet what brings the wonderment that was present in the first film to this film is Michael Stuhlbarg's Griffin who can see multiple realities at the same time and shows to be weary of his ability, as he calls it a pain in the ass, yet is always amazed by some of the paths he is shown and is in awe of others. He is the heart of the film and the series in general. But the soul of the film and the thread that ties the whole series together happens toward the end of the movie and is bittersweet and also makes so much sense why what happens in the first film does happen does with Agent K picking J as a partner.

     I would be remiss to not mention the actual on screen aliens created by Rick Baker. While some of the designs are only so so on some of them, I understand his decision to make them the way he did. The film mostly takes place in the past and with that past there was cleaner lines and less convoluted designs and a more primary color palettewhich is present in the film. I actually found the simpler designs to be a nice change of pace. I also liked how the big bad in this film was basically a alien biker with a real bad attitude. Yet at the same time the only place in the film he feels threatening is when Boris the Animal is first introduced. Another downfall of the film is some of the scenes with Emma Thompson. How they talked her into doing one scene I'm still trying to wrap my head around. It's just embarrassing to watch as an audience member as well as seeing someone of Thompson's acting ability do something like this. Men In Black III is a nice throwback to the first film while moving the story forward in a very loving way while respecting the film series and the movie goers that wanted to see a fun summer movie

BEST DEATH:
     Well they all pretty much go splat.

BEST LINE:
     Is there anybody here who is NOT an alien?

FUN FACTS:
     The scene with Knuckles the Alien that appears in the trailer is not in the actual on screen film.

     Special effects supervisor Rick Baker appears in a cameo as an alien with a exposed cranium .

     Josh Brolin who plays a young Agent K (real name Kevin Brown), is only 21 years younger than Tommy Lee Jones.