Men in Black II [MIIB] *** (2002, Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, Rip Torn ) – Classic Movie Review 632

Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are back in 2002 to kick more alien butt in director Barry Sonnenfeld’s wild, wacky and welcome sequel to the 1997 blockbuster Men in Black. Columbia Pictures and Amblin Entertainment’s Men in Black II [MIIB] is lovingly made on a huge budget of $144 million, and great fun again. But it is a bit slacker and more self-indulgent than the original, with not such a good screenplay.

MIB Agent Jay (Smith) is still in action, but his old partner Agent Kay (Jones) is now a postman with scary short trousers. Then new alien scum appears on the old planet of Earth, when many-tentacled malevolent extra-terrestrial Serleena (Lara Flynn Boyle) assumes a shapely human form as a lingerie model, and Mr Smith and Mr Jones have to team up again to save the world. But first, Jay has to restore Kay’s memory so that they can stop sinister seductress Serleena (Boyle)’s diabolical plot to destroy humanity.

Cue lots of expert silliness, fab special effects and engagingly ripe performances, especially from a hilariously over-the-top Rip Torn as boss man Zed. But what happened to the story, guys, and why is a major movie like this only 88 minutes long? It is like the entire middle act of the movie has been cut out, as the story jumps from act one to act three inexplicably. But, otherwise, MIIB is a highly agreeable summer popcorn blockbuster.

Michael Jackson has a cameo as Agent M; Peter Graves appears as himself; Barry Sonnenfeld appears as a neutralized dad. Johnny Knoxville (as Scrad / Charlie), Rosario Dawson (as Laura Vasquez) and Tony Shalhoub (as Jeebs) also star, along with Patrick Warburton (as Agent Tee), Jack Kehler, David Cross, Colombe Jacobsen-Derstine, Peter Spellos, Michael Rivkin, Michael Bailey Smith and Lenny Venito.

The story is by Robert Gordon, and the screenplay is by Robert Gordon and Barry Fanaro, based on the comic book Malibu Comics by Lowell Cunningham.

It was a hit, grossing $190,418,803 in the US, with a cumulative worldwide gross of $441,818,803. Men in Black 3 followed after a long gap in 2012 and it was rebooted as Men in Black: International (2019) with Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson.