Men in Black II
Starring Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones

Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld
PG-13

**1/4 out of 4 Stars

Released July 3, 2002

Running time: 88 minutes

**1/4

by Kevin Lang

The two darkly suited saviors of the planet are back after a five-year hiatus, or maybe there was a Men in Black 1 and ½, but they used their memory erasing flash sticks before the credits so no one would be able to remember what a poor display of filmmaking that they had just seen. Okay, maybe I'm being a little too harsh. The sequel, "Men in Black II," was directed by Barry Sonnenfeld who also directed the first film, and other such films as the recent "Big Trouble" (2002) and 1995's "Get Shorty."

With "Men in Black II" Sonnenfeld seemed to be out of tune. The film played entirely too much off of the first film. It never became its own entity up on the screen. The storyline revolved around protecting a light from an alien named Serleena (Lara Flynn Boyle) who came to earth and disguised herself as a man-eating lingerie model. Boyle was effective as the film's villain. She was both seductive and wicked at the same time, overpowering her victims with snake like extremities that protruded from her mouth.

Unable to find a suitable new partner and in need of help to stop Serleena, Agent Jay (Will Smith) retrieved his old partner Agent Kay (Tommy Lee Jones) who he had neutralized (erased his memory) in the last film. The two seemed stale in this installment. Their humor was flat, delivering it with neither much enthusiasm nor effort. It was as if the filmmakers were convinced that the film that they were making would be a success, but they forgot to figure out how to make it one. Instead of finding a new wave, they just tried to ride out the wave of success from of the first film, or what was left of it anyway.

Even the opening seen, which involved Agent Jay trying to stop an enormous subway dwelling worm named Jeff was a little too extreme and outlandish for the audience to believe, and it was after seeing this scene that I immediately began to fear for the film. It reminded me of something from a comic book that should have remained solely in the comic book, where our imaginations aren't as restricted by real life familiarities. (The movie was based on a comic book by Lowell Cunningham.) I'm not saying that scenes like this don't work, but it is important not to let them become too ridiculous for the storyline and what the audience will buy.

Perhaps what bothered me most about the film was the character development of Will Smith's character, Agent Jay. In the beginning it was established that Agent Jay buried himself in his work as an agent, and was detached from the world around him. He met Rita (Rosario Dawson) who after witnessing an alien incident at a pizza shop, he chooses not to flash with his memory erasing stick so that she can remember their encounter. However, in the end this brief spark of romance fizzled out along with any hope for the movie to secure the audience's interest. Developing this plot element not only would have heightened the appeal of the film, but it would have also helped to emphasize the importance of everyone's need for human connections and relationships.

There were enjoyable moments in the movie, yet they didn't make up for what the film was lacking. There were several funny scenes with a talking dog named Frank who sat in for Agent Kay momentarily until he returned. Other scenes such as alien worms smoking cigars, drinking martinis, and bathing in hot tubs added to the film's humor. Again, these scenes should have been the icing on the cake, not the entire cake.

Based on the success of the first film, "Men in Black II" is sure to take its share of the summer box office draw, but unfortunately it was not quite worthy of the success that it will likely attain. You would think that with so many creative minds working on a film that someone would stop everyone and say, "Look, let's be realistic. This doesn't work." Unless it's the director who feels that way, the point probably never gets heard. Besides, the studio knows that no matter what kind of film it turns out to be, they're already guaranteed a high box office return since it has the success of the first film to get people into the theater; but wouldn't they feel better if they knew that they had actually made a good movie?

The first "Men in Black" movie was a fun film with enjoyable humor and interesting characters, but even it was in no way at the peak of its genre. The sequel paled in comparison, and in the end "Men in Black II" was a disappointing attempt to perpetuate a storyline that after the first installment wouldn't have been very hard to build on.