Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Men in Black 3 - 3 smiles


Certainly Will Smith is fun to watch, but the reason to see “Men in Black 3” is Josh Brolin, as the young Tommy Lee Jones. Brolin, as Agent K at 29, channels Jones’ mannerisms, nails his Texan drawl and even, at times, resembles the actor. It’s not hard to believe that Brolin’s amiable but enigmatic characterization could grow into the surly secret agent played by Jones. Other memorable supporting roles include Jemaine Clement as the arch-villain Boris the Animal and Michael Stuhlbarg as a nebbishy, knowing alien named Griffin. Since an entertaining movie must have a solid story, it’s a good thing that director Barry Sonnenfeld has a script written by Lowell Cunningham that harkens to the creativity of the original MIB, which proved that you can be quirky, weird and fun without resorting to stupidity. Much of the movie takes place in the 60s, which provides plenty of fodder for alien jokes. It also adds an unexpectedly poignant element at the conclusion. 

Boris finds a way to time-travel in order to exterminate K (Jones), the agent that imprisoned him. With all traces of Agent K suddenly gone, Agent J (Smith) is the only person who can remember the correct timeline and his partner being alive. As an invasion force begins the systematic destruction of earth, Agent J time jumps to the past so he can save his partner and rescue Earth. In typical fish-out-of-water style, J is plunged into the summer of 1969, providing fodder for a lot of jokes. While some of the happenings defy logic, “MIB3” has lots of fun creating its own rules and it takes you on an enjoyable ride. 5/ 25/12

No comments: