Even the topical humor is still relevant today. You can’t help but
giggle when new hire Smith is show the “big board” that tracks known
aliens, and right there among them is Newt Gingrich, who’s just now
figuring out that he doesn’t stand a chance of winning the GOP
presidential nomination. And how do agents working 37-hour days, alien
style, keep abreast of alien news? The supermarket tabloids, of course.
Sunday, 30 December 2012
Friday, 28 December 2012
Thursday, 27 December 2012
Men in black movie cast and crew
Directed by
Barry Sonnenfeld
Tommy Lee Jones
Will Smith
Linda Fiorentino
Vincent D'Onofrio
Rip Torn
Tony Shalhoub
Siobhan Fallon
Mike Nussbaum
Jon Gries
Sergio Calderón
Carel Struycken
Fredric Lehne
Richard Hamilton
Barry Sonnenfeld
Tommy Lee Jones Will Smith
Linda Fiorentino
Vincent D'Onofrio
Rip Torn
Tony Shalhoub
Siobhan Fallon
Mike Nussbaum
Jon Gries
Sergio Calderón
Carel Struycken
Fredric Lehne
Richard Hamilton
Men in black movie overview
In his review, Movie Met’s John J. Puccio noted that “Men in Black” was among the funniest movies of the ‘90s—so popular that it became the highest grossing picture in Columbia’s history. What’s not to like, when you blend sci-fi, action and comedy, with Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones playing one of the all-time great buddy-cop teams?
Even the topical humor is still relevant today. You can’t help but giggle when new hire Smith is show the “big board” that tracks known aliens, and right there among them is Newt Gingrich, who’s just now figuring out that he doesn’t stand a chance of winning the GOP presidential nomination. And how do agents working 37-hour days, alien style, keep abreast of alien news? The supermarket tabloids, of course.
Details like that and some impressive alien forms and visual effects make “Men in Black” fun to watch, and the PG-13 film has never looked better. Sony’s Blu-ray + UV Digital Copy release (would that it were a DVD instead) is fantastic, as befits a blockbuster title that spotlights special effects and alien creatures. Watching it again in high definition is a wonderful experience.
Based on the Aircel/Malibu/Marvel comics by Lowell Cunningham, “Men in Black” tells the story of a top-secret government agency whose charge it is to monitor alien activity on Earth—and that includes operating an arrival and departure station for aliens entering the planet legally. The agency is so top-secret that no one knows about it, and they’re not even part of the U.S. budget. They fund themselves using patents on devices confiscated “from out-of-state visitors”—things like Velcro and microwave ovens. If a problem with an alien arises, it’s the Men in Black who show up to flash their badges, clean things up, and zap humans with a memory cleanser so the population won’t freak out knowing that there are aliens living among us. But come on. You’ve always suspected something about the strange neighbor or the odd bus driver, haven’t you?
At any given time, there are 1500 aliens in America—most of them in Manhattan.
The door opens for MIB agent Jones to find a new partner when his current one realizes he’s gotten too old to keep up with speedy cephalopods. And the plot thickens when an alien bug-form enters illegally, with the goal of assassinating two ambassadors from other galaxies.
Enter Smith, who IS fast enough to catch a cephalopod—with the help of a tour bus (“Why, it be rainin’ black people in New York”). He’s invited to apply for an MIB position, and after a hilarious try-out involving the best of the best of the U.S. military, he’s indoctrinated into the ways of the agency and gets as crash course on aliens. Somehow, the Men in Black have to stop the assassination attempt in order to keep their world from being destroyed, and that means stopping the bug-like creature who’s taken the skin of a farmer, hijacked a pest-control truck, and is tooling around Manhattan looking for a galaxy in miniature.
This definitely rates a 9.0 on my weird shit-o-meter.
Yeah, but it’s really not that far out when you watch it. “Men in Black” finds just the right blend of comedy and action, with terrific creatures and equally strong special and visual effects that don’t look dated. Smith and Jones work so well together you’d swear they’d been doing this for a decade or so. Add some smart writing from Ed Solomon (“It’s Garry Shandling’s Show”) and crisp direction from Barry Sonnenfeld (“Get Shorty”) and it all comes together nicely.
Aside from a tiny amount of noise on a few scenes, the video looks superb. Grain is kept to a minimum, black levels are deep, colors are bright but not oversaturated, and the level of detail in every scene is terrific. I expected HD to threaten the look of the aliens, but they survive just fine . . . and look even better in 1080p. “Men in Black” comes to a 50GB disc via an AVC/MPEG-4 transfer and I saw no artifacting. It’s been so long since this has been in theaters (1997) that I can’t remember how it originally looked, but I can’t imagine it looking any better than this. “Men in Black” is presented in 1.85:1 aspect ratio.
Sony went with an English, French, or Portuguese Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround, and there’s plenty of vitality. Don’t expect the sound to rival current action pics, though. The floor never gets to rumbling, and though the rear speakers are often engaged, the sound channeled through them isn’t as assertive as on a contemporary mix. Dialogue was clean and crisp, and those who hate having to shift the volume up for speech and down for action will be happy there’s no need to mess with the remote during playback. The audio is nicely mixed for the home theater.
There are some goodies here, but very few developed just for this release. New to Blu is “Intergalactic Pursuit: The MIB Multi-Player Trivia Game” in which 2-4 people can play if your Blu-ray player is Profile 2.0. Also exclusive to HD is a kind of worthless feature: an Alien Subtitle Track. It’s like somebody went to an awful lot of trouble for a nonsensical thing that, unless it surprises me and catches on like Klingon, won’t be watched other than for a few moments of amusement.
Better are bonus features ported over from the DVDs. Included are two commentaries, one featuring Jones and Sonnenfeld, who uses a “telestrater” to do the Xs and Os thing as he talks about the film. Like the alien gibberish, it gets tiresome after a while, though what the pair has to say is worth a listen. The second commentary should appeal to techies, with Sonnenfeld joined by creature creator Rick Baker and special/visual effects experts John Andrew Berton, Eric Brevig, and Rob Coleman. Techies may also like a brief feature that shows how three scenes break down, with blue-screen and final multi-layered print comparisons.
A basic “making of” feature (23 min.) offers the requisite mix of talking heads and film clips, with a few behind-the-scenes shots thrown in for good measure. It’s average at best. Other than that, there are six minutes of deleted/alternate scenes, an interactive “scene editing workshop” that Sonnenfeld walks you through, still galleries, a “MIB” music video, trailers and promos. "Men in Black" is also BD-Live enabled, if you're into that sort of thing.
Even the topical humor is still relevant today. You can’t help but giggle when new hire Smith is show the “big board” that tracks known aliens, and right there among them is Newt Gingrich, who’s just now figuring out that he doesn’t stand a chance of winning the GOP presidential nomination. And how do agents working 37-hour days, alien style, keep abreast of alien news? The supermarket tabloids, of course.
Details like that and some impressive alien forms and visual effects make “Men in Black” fun to watch, and the PG-13 film has never looked better. Sony’s Blu-ray + UV Digital Copy release (would that it were a DVD instead) is fantastic, as befits a blockbuster title that spotlights special effects and alien creatures. Watching it again in high definition is a wonderful experience.
Based on the Aircel/Malibu/Marvel comics by Lowell Cunningham, “Men in Black” tells the story of a top-secret government agency whose charge it is to monitor alien activity on Earth—and that includes operating an arrival and departure station for aliens entering the planet legally. The agency is so top-secret that no one knows about it, and they’re not even part of the U.S. budget. They fund themselves using patents on devices confiscated “from out-of-state visitors”—things like Velcro and microwave ovens. If a problem with an alien arises, it’s the Men in Black who show up to flash their badges, clean things up, and zap humans with a memory cleanser so the population won’t freak out knowing that there are aliens living among us. But come on. You’ve always suspected something about the strange neighbor or the odd bus driver, haven’t you?
At any given time, there are 1500 aliens in America—most of them in Manhattan.
The door opens for MIB agent Jones to find a new partner when his current one realizes he’s gotten too old to keep up with speedy cephalopods. And the plot thickens when an alien bug-form enters illegally, with the goal of assassinating two ambassadors from other galaxies.
Enter Smith, who IS fast enough to catch a cephalopod—with the help of a tour bus (“Why, it be rainin’ black people in New York”). He’s invited to apply for an MIB position, and after a hilarious try-out involving the best of the best of the U.S. military, he’s indoctrinated into the ways of the agency and gets as crash course on aliens. Somehow, the Men in Black have to stop the assassination attempt in order to keep their world from being destroyed, and that means stopping the bug-like creature who’s taken the skin of a farmer, hijacked a pest-control truck, and is tooling around Manhattan looking for a galaxy in miniature.
This definitely rates a 9.0 on my weird shit-o-meter.
Yeah, but it’s really not that far out when you watch it. “Men in Black” finds just the right blend of comedy and action, with terrific creatures and equally strong special and visual effects that don’t look dated. Smith and Jones work so well together you’d swear they’d been doing this for a decade or so. Add some smart writing from Ed Solomon (“It’s Garry Shandling’s Show”) and crisp direction from Barry Sonnenfeld (“Get Shorty”) and it all comes together nicely.
Aside from a tiny amount of noise on a few scenes, the video looks superb. Grain is kept to a minimum, black levels are deep, colors are bright but not oversaturated, and the level of detail in every scene is terrific. I expected HD to threaten the look of the aliens, but they survive just fine . . . and look even better in 1080p. “Men in Black” comes to a 50GB disc via an AVC/MPEG-4 transfer and I saw no artifacting. It’s been so long since this has been in theaters (1997) that I can’t remember how it originally looked, but I can’t imagine it looking any better than this. “Men in Black” is presented in 1.85:1 aspect ratio.
Sony went with an English, French, or Portuguese Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround, and there’s plenty of vitality. Don’t expect the sound to rival current action pics, though. The floor never gets to rumbling, and though the rear speakers are often engaged, the sound channeled through them isn’t as assertive as on a contemporary mix. Dialogue was clean and crisp, and those who hate having to shift the volume up for speech and down for action will be happy there’s no need to mess with the remote during playback. The audio is nicely mixed for the home theater.
There are some goodies here, but very few developed just for this release. New to Blu is “Intergalactic Pursuit: The MIB Multi-Player Trivia Game” in which 2-4 people can play if your Blu-ray player is Profile 2.0. Also exclusive to HD is a kind of worthless feature: an Alien Subtitle Track. It’s like somebody went to an awful lot of trouble for a nonsensical thing that, unless it surprises me and catches on like Klingon, won’t be watched other than for a few moments of amusement.
Better are bonus features ported over from the DVDs. Included are two commentaries, one featuring Jones and Sonnenfeld, who uses a “telestrater” to do the Xs and Os thing as he talks about the film. Like the alien gibberish, it gets tiresome after a while, though what the pair has to say is worth a listen. The second commentary should appeal to techies, with Sonnenfeld joined by creature creator Rick Baker and special/visual effects experts John Andrew Berton, Eric Brevig, and Rob Coleman. Techies may also like a brief feature that shows how three scenes break down, with blue-screen and final multi-layered print comparisons.
A basic “making of” feature (23 min.) offers the requisite mix of talking heads and film clips, with a few behind-the-scenes shots thrown in for good measure. It’s average at best. Other than that, there are six minutes of deleted/alternate scenes, an interactive “scene editing workshop” that Sonnenfeld walks you through, still galleries, a “MIB” music video, trailers and promos. "Men in Black" is also BD-Live enabled, if you're into that sort of thing.
Men in black movie review
Let me start off by saying I have been waiting with major anticipation to see this movie, and it did not disappoint. "Men in Black" kept me laughing and interested in its tale from start to finish, and that hasn't happened in a long time.
Here's the skinny. . . "J" (Will Smith) is a New York City Cop that has been recruited by "K" (Tommy Lee Jones) into an ultra secret organization that regulates aliens. Now I'm not talking about across the boarder aliens, I'm talking about little green men that go around in the heads of robots, slug looking things, and huge roaches from millions of light years away. Anyway, it's the job of the MiB to regulate, monitor, protect, and enforce the laws of the aliens community. All if fine and dandy until that huge cockroach I mentioned before decides to skip across our boarder and stir up some shit by killing off an alien ambassador and stealing his shit. It's now up to J & K to bring this bug to justice. And how do they do that? Hmmm? Let's see? K starts it by interrogating an alien and blowing his head off. Don't worry, it grew right back. An alien here, an alien there, and they end up racing a spaced up Ford LTD through the Queens Tunnel in hot pursuit. For a finishing touch K allows himself to be eaten by the roach only to blow him apart from the inside out. Space guns, space cars, and flying alien roach jib! What more could you ask for in a movie?
Mikey holds the head of his human disguise, Mexican Jose Garcia.
Like I said before this movie kept me entertained from start to finish. Unlike some recent big budget movies, MiB is not all about special effects. It has some great ones, but I dare say that if you were to strip the effects away you'd still have a good movie (unlike Twister). I thinks that's due to good writing and direction. Seriously, between J's humor, K's lack of it, the action and the special effects this movie has it all going on. I highly recommend that you dish out your hard earned eight buck and go see "Men in Black" and on a scale of 1 to 5 I give this movie a 4 star rating and I'm Stu Gotz!
The Dude on the Right: "It's my turn. . ."
Well, for a change, Stu seems short of words. I said to Stu, "Stu, how about a little more meat in the review?" "Dammit Dude," he said, "I just liked the movie and don't know what else to say besides to tell the people it was damn good and go see it." I told him to cool his little jets, I'll throw in my two cents, or eight bucks as it would be.
The worm guys take a coffee break.
Now, Stu gave you the basic rundown, and said that even with the special effects the story would have been alright. Well I say bull! There are many things that make this movie a must see, and the effects are just one of them.
Whereas "Mars Attacks!" was a spoof-style movie of the old alien thrillers, "Men in Black" does its best to kinda make you wonder, maybe just a little, that aliens might be out there, well, at least for me anyway. But, looking at it, the story line is so far out there that as much as the government can cover things up, I doubt they could pull this off, but then again, MiB isn't really a government agency, so, hmmm? From the magic little red light gadget to the invention of velcro, from the World's Fair to the real reason for the New York City blackout, the movie entertains, and you might know it isn't true, but from now on, whenever you have a deja vu episode, you just might wonder a little about our place on earth.
Now Stu sort of hinted at the acting, but the teaming of the coolness of Tommy Lee Jones as "K" with Smith as "J" was great. K is level headed, loves his job, but feels a little shorted in his life. Always serious, well, except for the upside-down "car" ride through the tunnel, he has to teach J the ways of the aliens that are harbored on earth. J, on the other hand, is the not so serious, youngster-type dude, in the group. Now, before I wrote this review, a buddy of mine said he was worried about seeing the movie because of Will Smith's performance in "Independence Day." He didn't think Will did a good job of portraying a military pilot, and worried that he would be the same in "MiB." I told him that Will was very similar playing "J," but the premise of his coming from New York's finest to the organization as a "freshman" type was perfect for his role.
"Men in Black" has one of the coolest story lines to come around in a while. It really could have flopped in the hands of the wrong actors, but the, well, haphazardness of Will Smith with the coolness of Tommy Lee Jones was great. Combine that with the likes of "Zed," played by Rip Torn, the boss type person for the boys, and "Laurel" (Linda Florentino), who would be on her way to brain damage if it wasn't for J, and the movie wraps it all together. I just can't believe that I missed the foreshadowing (can you believe I actually used that word in a review?) that came in the opening scene. Well, Stu spoiled the ending, sort of, telling you the big bad bug dies, but there is a little more. It's kinda funny, kinda sad, and eventually leads to Dennis Rodman. Weird.
Like Stu, I recommend "Men in Black" to the masses. I don't know if the dudettes will like it, and the kids, rather than be scared out of there wits like I saw them when the dino's tore apart some dude, might just like seeing the scary aliens turn into goo. But, there are some deeper moments (I almost shed a tear when the alien ambassador dude kicked the bucket), so, hmm, if the kids don't base their life beliefs around the movies it will probably be cool. For "Men in Black," I too give it 4 out of 5 stars.
Here's the skinny. . . "J" (Will Smith) is a New York City Cop that has been recruited by "K" (Tommy Lee Jones) into an ultra secret organization that regulates aliens. Now I'm not talking about across the boarder aliens, I'm talking about little green men that go around in the heads of robots, slug looking things, and huge roaches from millions of light years away. Anyway, it's the job of the MiB to regulate, monitor, protect, and enforce the laws of the aliens community. All if fine and dandy until that huge cockroach I mentioned before decides to skip across our boarder and stir up some shit by killing off an alien ambassador and stealing his shit. It's now up to J & K to bring this bug to justice. And how do they do that? Hmmm? Let's see? K starts it by interrogating an alien and blowing his head off. Don't worry, it grew right back. An alien here, an alien there, and they end up racing a spaced up Ford LTD through the Queens Tunnel in hot pursuit. For a finishing touch K allows himself to be eaten by the roach only to blow him apart from the inside out. Space guns, space cars, and flying alien roach jib! What more could you ask for in a movie?
Mikey holds the head of his human disguise, Mexican Jose Garcia.
Like I said before this movie kept me entertained from start to finish. Unlike some recent big budget movies, MiB is not all about special effects. It has some great ones, but I dare say that if you were to strip the effects away you'd still have a good movie (unlike Twister). I thinks that's due to good writing and direction. Seriously, between J's humor, K's lack of it, the action and the special effects this movie has it all going on. I highly recommend that you dish out your hard earned eight buck and go see "Men in Black" and on a scale of 1 to 5 I give this movie a 4 star rating and I'm Stu Gotz!
The Dude on the Right: "It's my turn. . ."
Well, for a change, Stu seems short of words. I said to Stu, "Stu, how about a little more meat in the review?" "Dammit Dude," he said, "I just liked the movie and don't know what else to say besides to tell the people it was damn good and go see it." I told him to cool his little jets, I'll throw in my two cents, or eight bucks as it would be.
The worm guys take a coffee break.
Now, Stu gave you the basic rundown, and said that even with the special effects the story would have been alright. Well I say bull! There are many things that make this movie a must see, and the effects are just one of them.
Whereas "Mars Attacks!" was a spoof-style movie of the old alien thrillers, "Men in Black" does its best to kinda make you wonder, maybe just a little, that aliens might be out there, well, at least for me anyway. But, looking at it, the story line is so far out there that as much as the government can cover things up, I doubt they could pull this off, but then again, MiB isn't really a government agency, so, hmmm? From the magic little red light gadget to the invention of velcro, from the World's Fair to the real reason for the New York City blackout, the movie entertains, and you might know it isn't true, but from now on, whenever you have a deja vu episode, you just might wonder a little about our place on earth.
Now Stu sort of hinted at the acting, but the teaming of the coolness of Tommy Lee Jones as "K" with Smith as "J" was great. K is level headed, loves his job, but feels a little shorted in his life. Always serious, well, except for the upside-down "car" ride through the tunnel, he has to teach J the ways of the aliens that are harbored on earth. J, on the other hand, is the not so serious, youngster-type dude, in the group. Now, before I wrote this review, a buddy of mine said he was worried about seeing the movie because of Will Smith's performance in "Independence Day." He didn't think Will did a good job of portraying a military pilot, and worried that he would be the same in "MiB." I told him that Will was very similar playing "J," but the premise of his coming from New York's finest to the organization as a "freshman" type was perfect for his role.
"Men in Black" has one of the coolest story lines to come around in a while. It really could have flopped in the hands of the wrong actors, but the, well, haphazardness of Will Smith with the coolness of Tommy Lee Jones was great. Combine that with the likes of "Zed," played by Rip Torn, the boss type person for the boys, and "Laurel" (Linda Florentino), who would be on her way to brain damage if it wasn't for J, and the movie wraps it all together. I just can't believe that I missed the foreshadowing (can you believe I actually used that word in a review?) that came in the opening scene. Well, Stu spoiled the ending, sort of, telling you the big bad bug dies, but there is a little more. It's kinda funny, kinda sad, and eventually leads to Dennis Rodman. Weird.
Like Stu, I recommend "Men in Black" to the masses. I don't know if the dudettes will like it, and the kids, rather than be scared out of there wits like I saw them when the dino's tore apart some dude, might just like seeing the scary aliens turn into goo. But, there are some deeper moments (I almost shed a tear when the alien ambassador dude kicked the bucket), so, hmm, if the kids don't base their life beliefs around the movies it will probably be cool. For "Men in Black," I too give it 4 out of 5 stars.
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