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Men in Black II (2002) More at IMDbPro »

no roots, 31 October 2008
Author: ruiresende84 (ruiresende84@gmail.com) from Porto, Portugal

Well, some things were fixed here. The filmmakers understood the huge wholes of the first one. Despite that one was celebrated (right now it's more highly rated in IMDb than this one).

Among other things, what improved here was the attachment we feel to the alien world. There are more situations that makes us mildly care for what the mib are after. The aliens enter the action, and sometimes that's funny, the talking dog has moments, and so do the worms.

Also, the partnership Smith-Jones is much more effective here. That's because here they create the gags together, whereas in the first one the production relied totally on Will Smith to deliver it while Tommy Lee was in the back to state how Smith is funny even in the world of the film.

But above all, one thing takes this one to other dimension: Lara Flynn Boyle's character, efficiently supported by her. That's bringing sex to the equation. The first one depicted a totally undeveloped and uninteresting bad guy (the one performed by d'Onofrio). Here that totally supporting part is really supporting, and made by Knoxville two-headed character. The center is occupied by Boyle, and her presence affects everything, she spreads roots as the ones her character master. She was a good cast, and makes it mildly work; she has screen presence and knows how to pose to make it work.

Is this enough for a film to be good? Has the word 'entertainment' narrowed in the cinema industry that it's possible for the mentors of projects like this to get away with it? Think that despite being 'classics' today, films like 'City Lights' were actually entertainment upon their release. No film could match that one in its specific corner, but see how attitudes towards cinematic creation changed?

My opinion: 3/5

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