Men in Black II

Men in Black II – 5 years after Agent K chose to go back to his old life, Agent J struggles to find a new partner. When a dangerous alien being named Serleena lands on Earth hell-bent on getting her hands on something incredibly powerful called ‘the Light of Zartha’, K is the only person who can help so J sets out to retrieve both him and his memories. With the partners back together but with MiB HQ taken over by Serleena, they’re on their own to discover what the Light of Zartha is and stop Serleena before the Earth is destroyed.

Men in Black II (2002) – Director: Barry Sonnenfeld

Rating: PG

Running Length: 88 mins

Starring: Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Rosario Dawson

Genre: Comedy, Science Fiction

REVIEW: ‘MEN IN BLACK II’

With the original ‘Men in Black’ being such a runaway success, a sequel was sure to follow and when ‘Men in Black II’ came out, audiences had high-hopes for another funny, wise-cracking, exciting sci-fi movie and with Will Smith at the helm, what could possibly go wrong? Well, sadly a resting-on-laurels complacency that simply rehashed the same old story. What worked in the original is redone to a lesser degree and while all the elements to make it a success are there, and indeed there are plenty of good moments, the result of ‘Men in Black II’ is simply disappointing.

The dynamic between stoic, dead-pan Agent K (Jones) and excitable, smart-mouthed Agent J (Smith) was balanced perfectly in the original, and is what made the movie work so well. Unfortunately this time around, much of the first act relies solely on Smith, whose character can be rather arrogant and sometimes even a little off-putting and the second act focuses on K reclaiming his memory so their dynamic is mostly lost and only comes together for a small proportion of the movie. Villain, Serleena (Lara Flynn Boyle) is suitably evil and her increasing infuriation at her incompetent sidekick (a two-headed Johnny Knoxville) is enjoyable but she lacks substance and her character is reduced to ‘mean, pretty lady who flashes her underwear a lot’.

Overall, ‘Men in Black II’ isn’t a bad film, per se but after the originality of the first movie, it is disappointing that the sequel didn’t bother to do more and simply copied its success in a lacklustre way.

CONTENT: IS ‘MEN IN BLACK II’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

The movie opens with an amateur film about aliens on Earth, it is done in typical 1960’s B-movie style, a female alien wears a very revealing outfit of a bikini top and hot pants.

An alien vessel lands on Earth and the inhabitant appears as a small, cute plant. It crawls along in a park and comes across a dog which approaches it with curiosity. After a few seconds, the plant suddenly opens up to reveal rows of sharp teeth and roars, scaring the dog away.

The alien then sees a magazine with an ad for Victoria’s Secret wear a female model wears lingerie and it transforms into the woman, wearing the exact same clothing. A man suddenly appears, holding a knife to the alien’s throat, and drags ‘her’ behind a bush saying ‘hey pretty lady, you taste good’. The alien easily subdues the man and it is clear she was never in any actual danger, however the threat of rape could be distressing for some kids.

A huge worm-like alien lives in the subway and becomes very aggressive. It chases Agent J in a prolonged scene through the subway, sometimes ripping away parts of train carriages and while this scene is mostly exciting rather than scary, we mention it for children who may have a fear of subways, tunnels and dark, enclosed spaces.

The movie’s villain, Serleena, is thoroughly nasty but what makes her the most frightening is that she can turn her extremities into long tentacles. She regularly holds up a finger which elongates and becomes a tentacle which can pick people off the floor or enter their bodies. In one scene, she holds a man aloft with one hand and whips one of her tentacles which splits the man in half lengthways. Instead of any blood or gore, a light shines from within the ‘skin’ however this man is killed by the action. In a more sexual moment, she holds her face close to a male character, her tongue becomes a tentacle which pushes into the man’s ear a little too far before retracting back.

A character sees an orb in a room at Men in Black Headquarters and, not knowing what it is, sticks his finger inside it. The camera cuts to being within the orb and it turns out to be a planet, inhabited by sentient creatures. The finger creates a huge tidal wave which moves towards the creatures. They are heard to scream in terror and one bemoans ‘All is lost!’

The small worm aliens from the first movie are seen again and are very sleazy. J leaves a woman with them in order to keep her safe but as she has only just found out about the existence of aliens, she is somewhat overwhelmed. The worms says ‘Once you go worm, that’s what you’ll yearn’ and, as he leaves the woman there, he tells her ‘Don’t fall asleep’, implying that she is likely to be sexually assaulted if she does.

In a bizarre and possibly morbid scene, a man is neutralized (has his memories wiped) and is told to get his life together and stop living with his mother. Once he comes out of his trance, he picks up a shovel, gets up and shouts ‘hey mom?’. While this character is never seen or mentioned again, this may be an indication that he interprets the advice he has been given as a direction to kill his mother.

A character speaks of his sex life, saying ‘when our bodies were entwined in the positions of the kama sutra…’

CAN I SEE A CLIP?

VERDICT: IS ‘MEN IN BLACK II’ FOR KIDS?

The ‘Men in Black’ films have always trod a thin line of what is acceptable for the rating it receives. While the action is mostly exciting and scary scenes are short-lived and quickly followed by jokes, the sexual references are constant throughout. Because of this, we feel this movie is appropriate for kids aged 8 and over but recommend parental supervision for children in the younger age bracket.

• Violence: 2/5 (a man suddenly punches another when talking about his relationship with his wife. A dog-like alien threatens and then violently attacks a man off-screen who laughs at him for the way he looks.)
• Emotional Distress: 0/5
• Fear Factor: 2/5 (Serleena is quite a frightening villain who kills, threatens and intimidates throughout the movie)
• Sexual Content: 3/5 (numerous sexual references and women wearing revealing clothing. A character looks at various people on a street and for a few seconds the camera focuses on two prostitutes. There is no dialogue to suggest who they are, but to adults it is clear from the way they are dressed. Some tiny cute aliens run into a strip club which has neon lights saying ‘XXX Girls’)
• Bad Language: 2/5 (infrequent mild to moderate cursing. Some mild blasphemy)
• Dialogue: 2/5 (After the alien is killed from being split in half, a character says that Serleena ‘rip(ped) the skin off his body’, she is then quickly corrected as it wasn’t the alien’s skin although he was killed)
• Other Notes: Deals with themes of alien life on Earth, both good and bad aliens living among us without being seen, friendship, teamwork, secret agents, memory loss and retrieving memories.

Words by Laura Record

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