MEN IN BLACK
US, 1997, 98 minutes, Colour.
Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, Linda Fiorentino, Vincent D' Onofrio, Rip Torn, Tony Shalhoub, Siobhan Fallon, Mike Nussbaum.
Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld.
The film is worth commenting on simply because it has been the most popular film in the US for 1997, making well over $200,000,000 at the home box office. While it has plenty of special effects for the aliens, their transformations and their space vehicles, like Mars Attacks, this is a spoof of the Hollywood alien movies. It won an Oscar for best make up.
Solemn Tommy Lee Jones and flip Will Smith are the men in black, an organisation whose mission is `to protect the world from the scum of the universe'! , Lee Jones gives a perfectly timed comic deadpan performance and will Smith is his cheeky self, at the time of making the And some of the aliens are really hostile, though others (monitored daily by TV cameras) have taken the form of Sylvester Stallone and Newt Gingrich.
Running time is rather brief, so it's an amusing and wry comment on our space obsessions. There were two sequels and an updating in 2019 with Men In Black International, which was not a great success at the box office.
1. A popular film of its time? Space and aliens? Aliens in human society? The Men in Black and their mission to keep the world safe and control the aliens?
2. New York City, the streets, ordinary life, the shops, the aliens running the businesses? The bureau and its interiors, its equipment? Surveillance of the aliens? The musical score?
3. The design of the aliens, the touch of the monsters, the ordinary creatures, the smaller creatures within the humans? For fright? Menace? For comic purposes?
4. The opening, K and his work, Tommy Lee Jones, deadpan personality? The pursuit, the alien, the police, taking over, erasing the memories? The fellow agent, getting tired, taking his memories and his retirement?
5. Will Smith as the police officer, pursuit, abilities, erratic behaviour of the alien, the encounter with K, the jeweller’s shop, the Rolexes, the cash and weapons? The aliens? The amazement of the officer?
6. The aliens and the crash landing, Edgar going to look, his boorish his wife, his being taken over, monstrous look and behaviour? The dismay of his wife, the being interviewed by the agents, their transforming of memories into positive memories? Edgar, his truck, going into the city, his mission? His relentless pursuit? The confrontation is, impersonations, in the restaurant, killing the two men, their being taken to the morgue, examined, his presence in the morgue, threatening Laurel, climbing the building, his being confronted by the agents?
7. Jay, unwilling, mystified, going to the bureau, the range of tests and his ingenuity, the other straight up-and-down agents, Said and his interest? Kay and his observing? The choice? The suit, the gun? The work of the bureau, the range of officials and their equipment, Jay and his accident and the ball going round destructively?
8. Laurel, her work, autopsies, the visit of the agents? Removing her memories? Edgar, holding her hostage, Jane not picking up the messages? Her being taken by Edgar? Tough heroine in distress?
9. The ruler, his small human form, his being warned? His death? The small creature within him? The message about Orion’s belt in the galaxy? Observing space? The realisation of the cat called Orion? The pursuit of the object?
10. Kay, looking at the image of his wife, wanting to finish, getting Jay to eliminate his memories?
11. The underlying serious stories that tradition about aliens? The spoof and comedy, both deadpan and wisecracks and in action?
