Review of Men in Black (1997) by Kai82 — 16 May 2021

A science fiction comedy that was a surprise hit and created a successful franchise. It strengths are the awesome humor, hilarious ideas and concepts, special effects and of cause the actors. The Men in Black are based on a real life UFO conspiracy theory (I hesitate to use the word real life in connection with conspiracy theories).

These are men in black suits looking like or claiming to be government agents who are speaking with people who have seen UFOs or other related strange things. They want that the people remain quite about the incidents and often they are threatening or bullying those people.

The movie uses this idea to full potential as the Men in Black are a super secret agency that are policing aliens on earth and protecting mankind while keeping everything secret from public and government knowledge (No human except themselves on earth knows that they exist including even former members).

It helps a lot that the movie takes itself not that serious and uses a lot of opportunities to make fun of (alien) conspiracy theories. It has of cause slapstick, situational humor, quirky characters and gadgets that would be excellent in superhero comic books.

Some might even be to crazy or unbelievable for comic book science ;-). After the awesome set up introduction scene we follow officer James Darrell Edwards pursuing a suspect who has some strange characteristics.

This is taken some interest in him and ends with a job offer wilder than what he can imagine. I like the story, set up and world building. It is a perfect mixture of seriousness and humor. If done in a bad way it would be just hilarious or even unbelievable.

Here I never doubted anything and the movie was enjoyable from beginning to end. I just remembered an advice for movie makers “If you make the movie enjoyable, interesting and immersive you can get away with a lot of stuff”.

I want to praise the script and ideas. This movie is so full of ideas that set up a remarkable world and lore. I will also praise the actors. Lets start with Will Smith as James Darrell Edwards. He is the new guy who enters wonderland.

He is funny, entertaining and it is one of his best performances (in comedy!). Tommy Lee Jones as Kevin Brown is the stereotype of the awesome no nonsense agent. He is the yin to the yang and together they are quite enjoyable.

Vincent D’Onofrio is a great antagonist. I cant spoil why but he made an impact and positive impression. For the side characters we have the excellent Frank the pug, Linda Fiorentino as (Dr.) Laurel Weaver, Rip Torn as Zed and of cause the worm guys;-).

I truly enjoyed the cast. Visually the special effects were amazing for its time and aged impressively well. ILM (Industrial Light & Magic) are legends in the business for many good reasons. The soundtrack is good too.

I almost had forgotten that Will Smith was also a rapper. Overall this was a pleasant surprise for my friends and me. It was one of the best movies of that year. It is carefully made as missteps would make a laughingstock out of it.

I recommend it as it is refreshing, entertaining and has great humor atop of funny ideas.