Movie Review: Men In Black II (2002)

by Idris Hsi - July 7, 2002

Ah...sequels. Where would the summer movie season be without them? Men In Black 2 teams up Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as that mysterious covert organization operating 24/7 to monitor the population of aliens on earth for illegal behavior, to keep the human population ignorant of the truth, and to save the world from destruction every now and then. This time, instead of a space cockroach, their nemesis is a wormy but very sexy Lara Flynn Boyle playing Serleena who's hell-bent on recovering some doohicky for her diabolical purposes.

At least, the audience has to assume that her plan is diabolical since the movie never really spends 2 brain cells on explaining what the big deal is. It's not like they were hurting to make cuts either. At a paltry 70 minutes, Men In Black 2 falls squarely in the "animated movie" genre for time, wasting its very talented cast of actors who deliver some deadpan lines and generally take second place to the special effects. I think the credits were longer than the first act. Anyhow, it's at this point in the review that I usually take a couple sentences to give an overview of the movie or to say nice things about the directing or whatever.

....

In short, the sequel falls squarely into the pattern of most Hollywood sequels that are monetarily driven - keep the format and characters of the original making sure to make only slight variations to the situations so as not to confuse the spending audience who obviously like to watch the same stuff over and over again. There are 1-2 very funny scenes in the movie, one of which had me in stitches for probably all the wrong reasons, but no real surprises otherwise.

I give Men In Black 2 about a 6 on the Good Movie Scale and a 5 on the Bad Movie Scale. It's entertaining enough for a matinee or as a large social outing but probably not worth the time or money to require any amount of planning or full price for a ticket.

Our Drive-In Totals:

0 breasts
1 Heavenly Body
2 dead bodies
9 dead heavenly bodies
New Yorkers
Postal Workers
Finger of the Apocalypse
3 Recursive Universi
Michael Jackson Cameo
An Unfortunate Anatomy
.50 caliber trashcan
Size Isn't Everything
The Watchmaker
Pie (both kinds)

Kung Fu
Gun Fu
Cricket Fu
Hand Blaster Fu
Mega Blaster Fu
Uber Mega Blaster Fu
Ultra Uber Mega Blaster Fu
Teeth Fu
Neurolyzer Fu
De-neurolyzer Fu
Tentacle Fu
Snake Fu
Subway Fu
Fu for Worms

6 on the Good Movie Scale
5 on the Bad Movie Scale