Men in Black II | As we all know by now, five years ago "Men in Black" revealed that an assortment of what we have to call deliciously winsome aliens (remember the roadside delivery along the New Jersey Turnpike) was involved in a scheme to do something or other to the earth, and was stopped at the last minute in Flushing Meadow Park by Agents Jay and Kay (Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones). Since I was one of the many earth people neuralized at the end of the film, my memory of exactly what happened is somewhat vague. Well, there is now another threat to earth, and it comes from Lara Flynn Boyle, who is here to take a light source back to her galaxy, I think. At any rate, it seems that if she succeeds, all life on earth will end, certainly a no-no for us. In order to stop her and her hench-people (hench-aliens?) Agent Jay (Smith) must de-neuralize Agent Kay (Jones), who is now the postmaster of Truro, Massachusetts and of course has no memory of his former occupation. Like the first film, MIB-II has many in-jokes and references, among them the now-somewhat-less-than-witty Michael Jackson as an agent specializing in children. But it moves like lightning, so no one will be bored. And by the way, this film is only 80 minutes long, which I take to be a wise decision by director Barry Sonnenfeld, who obviously knew he didn't have enough of a movie for the more conventional hour and 45 minutes. Early on, Agent Jay meets Laura Vasquez (Rosario Dawson), who works in a Soho pizza parlor. Dawson has the largest and most beautiful brown eyes this side of Bambi. Jay cannot bring himself to neuralize her, and she becomes a part of the team, until she - well, let's just say she rights the balance of the universe. There is also Frank the talking Pug dog, and best of all a wonderful succession of aliens created for the film by Rick Baker and animated seamlessly by computer elves. The film is as light and fluffy as a great crême brulée, and evaporates just as quickly, but while you're eating it you'll have a very good time. |