Join us for a rewatch of the first true summer of Hollywood’s strange new millennium.
Next week:Road to Perditionbrings moody star-poweredchiaroscuroto the summer blockbuster season.
At least to me).
Melinda Sue Gordon/Columbia Pictures
The otherworldly-spectacle jokes are still there, but not the goosey comic zest.
(Alas, her lockdown mostly involves playing Twister with the worm guys.)
But it’s also a drag on a plot that’s already not going anywhere quickly.
Melinda Sue Gordon/Columbia Pictures
Darren what’s your take on round two did it speak to you?
And when it did, did you want to smack on the nose with a newspaper?
Or do I just hate talking pugs as much as Dalton does.
Melinda Sue Gordon/Columbia Pictures
Jones played a brick wall for Smith to bounce off.
But success can ruin eccentricity.
Memorable moments replay here with aThis worked last timeshrug.Tony Shalhoub’s Jeebs gets his head shot offtwice.
The throwaway notion that some celebrities are aliens recurs here with a (whoopsie!)
J warns Laura when he drops her off at their apartment, ho ho ho.)
What the hell happened?
I talked a bitlast week about Adam Sandler’s retrenchment to safe territory inMr.
(His next film after this was another sequel,Bad Boys II).
J comes off self-consciously wacky, betraying the legitimate irreverence of his originalMen in Blackstar turn.
Am I being too harsh?
How do you think this very ’90s sequel fits into the summer of 2002?
(It’s kind of comforting to think Biz never died, right?
He just went back to his home planet.)
But it’s always interesting to me when that grade of talent ends up in goofy popcorn like this.
That’s acting, baby.
Darren, what’s your take should they have stopped it all atVincent D’Onofrio?
(Still sheer perfection in a skin suit to me.)
She cut the movie down to size.
That sensibility gets lost in all the sequels.
The central fun of the original movie is hownotin awe everyone is.
InMen in Black II, even the fun bits feel torn between digital excess and broseph nastiness.
There’s one great sight gag with a whole alien civilization living in a locker at Grand Central Station.
Of course, the fuzzy little guys go to a fuzzy little strip club.
One note: K’s journey turns into a self-investigation.
As a younger MIB agent, he self-neuralyzed and left himself a trail of clues.
Was something in the air or did everyone just really loveMemento?
Ironically,MIIBwould bebetterif its teased-out revelations were first-act plot foundation.
The sparks could fly!
Instead, we get a randy dog, and so many tendrils.
If I were Johnny Knoxville, I’d be shaking both my heads.
Read past 2002 rewatches:
