Subject: Review: Men in Black 2 (2002)

From: Susan Granger <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 03 Jul 2002 18:35:21 -0000

Susan Granger's review of "Men in Black II" (Columbia Pictures)
         It's been four years since agents Jay (Will Smith) and Kay (Tommy Lee
Jones) teamed up as intrepid detectives monitoring alien activity for a secret
society for the protection of Earth. With his memories erased, or 'neuralized,'
Agent Kay, is now postmaster of Truro, Massachusetts, where "Just about
everybody who works in the post office is an alien." Lonely Agent Jay, who has
'neuralized' his last eight partners, has turned to a civilian, pizza parlor
waitress Laura Vasquez (Rosario Dawson), for companionship when he is told by
MIB chief Zed (Rip Torn) to retrieve Agent Kay. Hidden deep in his former
partner's brain is an important clue that can save the planet from its new
enemy: Serleena (Lara Flynn Boyle), a slimy, shape-shifting Kylothian monster
who takes the form of a slinky Victoria's Secret model. Working with a
two-headed, half-witted accomplice (Johnny Knoxville), she firewalls and flushes
Agents Jay and Kay while taking over MIB's New York headquarters in her search
for the ominous Light of Zartha. It's all ho-hum routine except for Frank, the
brazen, sarcastic Pug, once just an informer but now promoted to Agent F. This
cigar-smoking pooch gets the most laughs, along with alien pawnshop owner (Tony
Shaloub) and the obnoxious Worm Guys. Martha Stewart pops up on TV and Michael
Jackson does a cameo as wannabe Agent M, a hopeful in the alien affirmative
action program. Screenwriters Robert Gordon and Barry Fanaro, director Barry
Sonnenfeld, production designer Bo Welsh and creature creator Rick Baker simply
recycle what succeeded before. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Men in
Black II" is a short, sardonic 6, a slapstick diversion dedicated to eliminating
more extra-terrestrial scum. Frankly, I expected more.

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X-RAMR-ID: 32231
X-Language: en
X-RT-ReviewID: 734009
X-RT-TitleID: 1114604
X-RT-SourceID: 742
X-RT-AuthorID: 1274
X-RT-RatingText: 6/10