50th anniversary of the Roswell incident created a lot of interest for all things related to UFOs, alien abductions and government conspiracies. That interest later helped the makers of Independence Day and allowed The X-Files to become mainstream TV show. This cultural phenomenon also paved the way for Men in Black, 1997 science fiction comedy directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, a film that represented the parody of all those films and TV shows.
The plot, based on the comic book by Lowell Cunningham, borrows its premise for the urban legends that inspired The X-Files - aliens exist and they are regularly visiting Earth, but all knowledge of their existence is suppressed by mysterious government agency known as Men in Black. In the film, Men in Black are known as Division 6, and their mission is not only to suppress human knowledge of aliens, but also to deal with those aliens who abuse planet Earth's hospitality. Agent K (played by Tommy Lee Jones), one of the most experienced Men in Black, recruits NYPD detective James Edwards (played by Will Smith) into organisation and two of them start the investigation of particularly nasty alien who had taken over the body of a farmer (played by Vincent d'Onofrio). In order to stop him and his evil plans, they would get assistance from coroner Dr. Laurel Weaver (played by Linda Fiorentino).
Just like any other summer blockbuster, Men in Black shows how modern Hollywood invests all of its creative energy into style at the expense of substance. The plot is paper-thin, characters are one-dimensional and even the protagonists' one-liners are forgettable. But the target audience would hardly care, because Sonnenfeld filled the film with marvellous special effects, combined with good deal of visual humour. And the acting is more than passable - Will Smith seems quite comfortable under the shadow of Tommy Lee Jones; Linda Fiorentino also handles the thankless role of token female protagonist quite well and Vincent d'Onofrio is again quite impressive in role that demands another physical transformation. All that isn't enough for Men in Black to earn the place in anthologies, but for not audiences demanding some light entertainment 98 minutes of this film could represent time well- spent.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.films.reviews on September 4th 2003)
==
Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/ Cent profile https://beta.cent.co/@drax Minds profile https://www.minds.com/drax_rp_nc Uptrennd profile https://www.uptrennd.com/user/MTYzNA
Brave browser: https://brave.com/dra011
BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7
