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Men In Black II (2002)

DVD Cover (Sony Home Entertainment Widescreen)
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Overall Rating 62%
Overall Rating
Ranked #462
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Connections: Men In Black

Kay and Jay reunite to provide our best, last and only line of defense against a sinister seductress who levels the toughest challenge yet to the MIB's untarnished mission statement – protecting Earth from the scum of the universe. It's been four years since the alien-seeking agents averted an intergalactic disaster of epic proportions. Now it's a race against the clock as Jay must convince Kay – who not only has absolutely no memory of his time spent with the MIB, but is also the only living person left with the expertise to save the galaxy – to reunite with the MIB before the earth submits to ultimate destruction. --TMDb
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Review by Crispy
Added: March 22, 2012
You know, I've always loved the first Men in Black, but never actually got around to seeing the second one. With a third on the way, I figured it was high time I hunted it down.

Agent J has been a member of the MiB for five years now, and by all means he's the organization's top agent. With that said, he's a complete workaholic and can't hold a partner for more than a few months before he decides he's better off without and neuralyzes them. When your first partner is the best agent MiB had to offer it's kind of hard to measure up. And not only that, the loneliness and lack of recognition of working off the grid with no human contact is absolutely killing hlm. Anyway, back in the seventies, an evil plant-based alien named Serleena followed the Zarthons to Earth. They were trying to hide the Light of Zartha, but the MiB felt that went against their neutrality stance, and fought off Serleena long enough for the Zarthans to take the Light elsewhere. However, forty years later, Serleena has returned, convinced that it never actually went anywhere. In her renewed hunt for the Light, she has taken over MiB headquarters and J has to find the one agent who knows its true location: the neuralyzed K, who's now a regular citizen working at the post office.

The first movie was pretty funny, but the sequel has taken the step into full comedy territory. While it keeps enough consistency to make it work, there's an undeniable lighter tone this go-around that holds the movie back from reaching the bar it's predecessor set. Not that the first movie was a dark movie per se, but it's obvious that this one's target audience was just a touch younger. The new villain is the greatest nod towards this shift. She's not nearly as menacing or lethal as the bug was, and the bumbling cohort is a staple in Saturday morning cartoons. Then throw in a few wire fu martial arts maneuvers and an alien called a ballchinian (with a scrotum under his mouth) to really drive this new direction home. Plus, there's a world they could have done with J playing on an unwitting K that was sadly largely ignored. Sure, I get that audiences didn't want Smith as the straight man so they rushed the status quo in as quickly as they could, but they could have let K get blown away by the Noisy Cricket at least once.

While our two main stars, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, maintained that strong chemistry from five years prior, the relationship seemed pretty shallow: another result of that lighter tone. In that rush to get K back in the saddle, the transition between neuralysed and deneuralysed was so sudden that it leaves the viewer a little jarred. And there should have been a lot more butting heads over who the senior agent is, with the brash J now five years experienced. Not tense-wise, but there should have been a lot more discrepancies then there were. The secondary level has quite a lot going on this time too. Rosario Dawson leaves little to complain about as J's minor love interest, but most of the others are lacking. Johnny Knoxville's two-headed character is about as annoying as you'd expect him to be, and Tim Blaney returns to voice Frank the Pug again, this time a full-fledged character thrown in there trying to earn a few extra laughs. He falls short for the most part. Of course, Patrick Warburton's large-dumb man is always fun, if not overplayed. And hey, The King of Pop himself has a cameo. Hell, I think it'd be a bigger surprise if it came out that he wasn't an alien.

It's a step down on just about all fronts, but there's still a fun time to be had here. Fans of the first movie should at least check it out. 7/10.

Now let's get ready for Men in Black 3.
Griffinheart #1: Griffinheart - added March 23, 2012 at 2:06am
I found this movie excessively bland and unmemorable. There is so much poorly written dialogue...

5-6/10
Danington138 #2: Danington138 - added September 8, 2014 at 7:44pm
No where near as good as the first one, but if it was on TV I'd put it on for background entertainment.
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