Men in Black 3

Are you looking for a fun film experience? I usually am, especially considering how rare they are. Men in Black 3 is one of those fun movies. The last decade of film has grown increasingly dark. Movie studios think that audiences want this, that we like "gritty" films (gritty being a code word for realistic but usually ends up being gloomy). Looking at the box office returns during the last decade, they may be on to something. But every once in a while, a fun, grit-less flick comes along to give us all a little break.

MiB3 is not perfect, however (it is nowhere near as good as the original but worlds beyond the sequel). The jokes are inconsistent. I only laughed or chuckled audibly 3 times. But MiB3 makes up for this in its cheerful tone. This is a huge credit to director Barry Sonnenfeld. He not only salvages this script, he elevates it. MiB3 was written by Etan Cohen who wrote Tropic Thunder and Idiocracy (go rent/buy them right now if you haven't seen them) so I came in with some high hopes. I was let down. Now anyone who has seen the films of Barry Sonnenfeld will recognize his hand all over MiB3. He makes brightly colored movies (another rarity these days) with fun characters (villians included) and a fast pace and light tone. While this is not one of his best, it has the same feel as his best (Get Shorty, Big Trouble, The Addams Family).

Will Smith brings his charm after a 4 year absence from theaters (I'd disappear after Seven Pounds too). I like that he plays Agent J as a little jaded. He's been in the agency long enough to not be overly surprised anymore. Much of the fun of the movie is his extreme casualness in dealing with the situations. Shooting aliens is now just a job.

Tommy Lee Jones (one of my favorite actors) is sadly not in MiB3 very much. This is necessary to the plot since Agent J is traveling back in time to save him, but I did miss his presence.

But lucky us, we get to watch the awesome Josh Brolin channel Tommy Lee Jones. The reason Brolin works as the young Agent K is not because he does a flawless impersonation of Jones (it does help though). It's because he's not the same man a the Agent K of the future. Brolin infuses Jones' gruffness with real feeling and it's a sort of relief from the deadpan Jones of the previous films to see Agent K joke and laugh and smile.

At the end of the day, this is a good movie. I would recommend MiB3 to anyone who enjoyed the first film in the series. And let's all just try to forget that Men in Black 2 ever happened.

7.5 out of 10