Review of Men in Black (1997) by Filipeneto — 12 Feb 2018

Comedy with disgusting scenes: not recommended for those who ate popcorn.

In this comedy sci-fi movie we went into the parallel world of the MIB, special agents that regulate and supervise the entry, stay and exit of aliens on our planet, ensuring that we, humans, never know about it. For this, we follow the early career of Jay (Will Smith again fraternizing with extraterrestrials after "Independence Day"), alongside his senior partner, Kay (Tommy Lee Jones, whom we never see a smile) in an effort to rid the world of a kind of giant cockroach, very upset with humans.

The film is an adaptation of the comics by Lowell Cunningham and can largely satisfy those who read it. Its directed by Barry Sonnenfeld (who has made other comedies starring Will Smith, as "Wild, Wild West") and has Ed Solomon's script. The two protagonists were well up to the challenge and their interpretations were great, with perfectly memorable comic situations. Of course, being a humorous movie, no one expected to see psychologically complex characters but, nevertheless, Jones achieved this effect by showing the most dreamer and something unfortunate side of his character, which was a positive bonus in this film. The correlation between the two actors also looks very good, which helped in the interpretation of their characters. Two equally unforgettable characters are Frank, the talking pug (voiced by Tim Blaney) and the Worm Guys, which arise at some point and are recurring in the comics. The visual and special effects were very well and were effective but didn't wondered or surprised. However, the special effects aren't enough to make a movie. They aren't the movie, right?

Less good points? There are few, less relevant, so we can go over them. The most important or worthy of contraindication may be the existence of some repulsive scenes, with crawling insects, viscous liquids, saliva and things like that bathing the protagonists and, surely, causing vomits in some more suggestible viewers. So, this is a good film to see ... but without consumables.