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Review: Men In Black II 458

Posted by JonKatz from the no-longer-fresh-but-still-fun dept.
The first Men In Black came out of nowhere five years ago. Barry Sonnenfeld stole the box office that summer with the original, strange, hilarious, spoofy sci-fi comedy. Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones were the perfect pair for this inventive "who-are-the-aliens-in-our-midst" romp, playing secret agents working for a super-secret government agency keeping an eye on beings from outer space. It was perfect for the era of the still-vibrant X-Files. The sequel, inevitably, has lost some of the surprise. But it's still plenty of fun. Spoilage warning: plot discussed, not ending, not that it matters here.

The story line is almost irrelevant. Will Smith (Agent Jay) has to neuralize one dumb partner after another, and ends up with a smart-mouthed, sometimes hilarious pug for a partner. He pines for his former sidekick Tommy Lee Jones (Agent Kay), now neuralized and working for the institution with the greatest number of aliens, the U.S. Post Office. (The movie, like the first, gets off some great double entendres and inside jokes).

The movie opens with a campy Peter Graves spoof on the Ed Woods' style sci-fi movies of the 50's and 60's. Simply, Lara Flynn Boyle plays Serleena, the powerful alien queen ravaging earth to get her hands on a distant planet's light source. If she isn't stopped, the world will be destroyed, of course. Her prescence forces the MIB agency (headed by Sid, played by Rip Torn) to go and de-neuralize Kay, who comes back to re-join his buddy and save the world.

This is all beside the point, of course. The whole film is a device for Sonnenfeld's loopy rags on Martha Stewart (not perhaps as funny as it would have been a month ago) and Michael Jackson. There are hilarious locker room and worm aliens, and blessedly, the movie never takes itself seriously for a single second. Like the better parts of the Scream series, the movie ends up spoofing itself and the people who loved it.

If you go see it, all you need to know is that the surprise originality of the first is missing, mostly because we know what to expect, but the loopy and inventive spirit of MIB is very much alive.

CmdrTaco my 2 bits is that this movie was bland. It probably is my least favorite of the last half dozen movies I've seen. I loved the original, but this just doesn't have the punch of the first. Its got its moments, but the whole ride is weak. Watch Lilo & Stich instead ;)
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Review: Men In Black II

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  • Best line (Score:4, Funny)

    by xercist ( 161422 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @01:35PM (#3828811) Homepage
    "He's a Ballchinian!"

    • Re:Best line (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Knobby ( 71829 )

      For those wondering "WTF?," Take a look here [southparkstudios.com]. On the seventh line, there's a link to an image of a ballchin boy..

  • More sequels? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Theologian ( 583625 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @01:35PM (#3828812)
    The sequel, inevitably, has lost some of the surprise.

    It has also lost some of the originality. What happened to new movies with original screenplays?

  • Lilo and Stitch all the way! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by JoshWurzel ( 320371 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @01:36PM (#3828823) Homepage
    Saw Lilo and Stitch opening weekend. Like attendence at Powerpuff Girls, we were the only ones in our demographic in the theater. We also laughed harder and louder than anyone else. People probably thought we were stoned.

    Speaking of which...why hasn't there been a slashdot review of Lilo and Stitch?

    • Lets review the kiddie toons (Score:4, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 05, 2002 @01:40PM (#3828860)
      "why hasn't there been a slashdot review of Lilo and Stitch?"

      It's in the queue behind "Pokemon II", "The Care Bears Movie", and "The Land Before Time IV"
      • Like the better Disney movies, there is plenty in "Lilo & Stitch" for the parents of the kiddies. I saw MIB II yesterday, and while there were some funny parts, the movie on a whole was disappointing (boring, predictable). I wish I saw Lilo & Stitch instead...
    • I agree... Lilo and Stitch was an excellent movie. I can provide the quick review: This movie follows the Disney tradition of a great movie after a stinker. For example, Toy Story 2 was great while Dinosaur was nauseating. Lilo and Stitch, thankfully, comes after a bomb and is the best movie I've seen all year. Without spoiling the plot, it's a great movie for all ages. The interaction between the girl, Lilo, and the alien, Stitch, is priceless and had the theatre in stitches *no pun intended* as well as in tears at some parts. Guys, go see it... disregard your slashbotting urges to say that it's Disney and evil. On another note: I think the reason MIB2 gets more cover on Slashdot is it has more face value to slashbotters than a "kids movie" like Lilo and Stitch. Anyways my point's been made *HUGS* Megumi. english lessons going a long way!
    • Funny story: I took my 7 year old daughter to the matinee showing of "Lilo and Stitch" on July 4th. After seeing sexy/violent trailers for "Matrix Reloaded" and "Die Another Day", I had a feeling that something was wrong. Then I see "Lucasfilm Ltd" and that familiar theme...yup, the theater was mistakenly showing "SW:AOTC".

      All of the other parents marched out of the theater with me to get the manager. Within 20 minutes we were watching the correct film (which was pretty good).

      I never thought I'd see the day where I would be very upset about seeing a Star Wars movie instead of a Disney one (and given 2 free movie tickets for being "inconvenienced" to boot)!

      Chris
    • Meesa thinking Stitch sound mooey mooey like Jar Jar. Meesa no liking that. Meesa telling George Lucas mooey mooey quick.

    • Speaking of which...why hasn't there been a slashdot review of Lilo and Stitch?

      Three reasons.

      For one thing, "Lilo" is taken [pineight.com]. Not only is it the name of the old Linux bootloader (before distributions started using GRUB instead), but wasn't "Leeloo" (probably the same underlying name as "Lilo") a character in The Fifth Element, played by Ms. Jovovich?

      For another thing, Lilo and Stitch is released under the Disney label. The Walt Disney Company (parent of Disney, Touchstone, and Miramax) was the biggest corporate sponsor of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act [pineight.com] and one of the biggest proponents of the DMCA's circumvention ban (among movie studios, only Time Warner [aoltimewarner.com] gave the U.S. Congress more money in 1998 [opensecrets.org]).

      Finally, because you haven't submitted [slashdot.org] your review for consideration by the Slashdot editors.

  • ChubChubs!! (Score:4, Funny)

    by taeric ( 204033 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @01:37PM (#3828829)
    Say what you will for this movie. The short that preceded it was absolutely hilarious.

    I believe I laughed more for those few minutes then I have at many full length movies.

    I don't want to start too many spoilers on a root thread, so instead of listing the appearances, I'll just ask. Who all did people notice that they think may have been missed. I'll look for them next time. :)

  • Um... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Masem ( 1171 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @01:38PM (#3828835)
    (headed by Sid, played by Rip Torn)

    "Sid"?? I'm pretty sure (and now positive after an IMDB check) that it's "Zed".

    However, I will agree that the movie wasn't like the first, and for some reason, most of the CGI SFX seems poorly meshed with the rest of the visuals (for example, the two-headed alien). And TLJones didn't have the same deadpan that his character really needed (compared with the first). I will say, however, that getting Patrick Warburton (star of "The Tick") to play Agent T was a good choice and provided some good opening laughs.

  • Got to agree with CmdrTaco on this one. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Juhaa ( 588855 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @01:38PM (#3828836)
    This movie is not worth spending the 8~5 bucks that you usually spend on a movie. The acting is stale, the plot is pure childish (I suggest waiting for new indi releases for good plots) and the endings is hopeless. The villian chick was ok, but her acting too was not up to notch. And through out the movie, the audience would have been wondering "just what the heck am I doing watching this movie", just as tommy kept wondering through out the movie. The low dow : You saw everthing cool or funny in the trailers. Could this have been a better movie? (I bet.. given the amount of money they got from the first, hopefully this would be a lession and they would make a better third sequal). Hope Reload doesnt do a MIB2 when it comes out next year, well if it does we still got revolutions ;)

    Go watch Minority report if you havent. And the lilo and stich cartoon =)

  • Useful information (Score:3, Interesting)

    by SpatchMonkey ( 300000 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @01:39PM (#3828845) Journal
    Wouldn't mind watching this film, just 'cos the first one was pretty good. Hopefully this sequel will be reasonable too, unlike those crappy Star Wars ones (prequels, whatever.)

    The Internet Movie Database entry can be found here [imdb.com], and a couple of other reviews here [salon.com] and here [urbancinefile.com.au].

    Unfortunately it's not out in the UK until August [guardian.co.uk].
  • I mean shouldn't they all be posting and spouting off on how hot Lara Flynn Boyle looked in the Victoria Secrets lingerie?

    I mean that was the only reason to see this sequel... :)

    Runestar

  • The boss's name (Score:4, Informative)

    by Phreakiture ( 547094 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @01:39PM (#3828852) Homepage

    The Boss's name is ZED , not Sid. That's zed as in the last letter of the alphabet in all English-speaking nations except the U.S., where, for some unkonwn reason, we call it zee

  • This is odd... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Wrexen ( 151642 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @01:45PM (#3828892) Homepage
    Who are you, and what did you do with the real JonKatz?

  • Theme song (Score:4, Funny)

    by Paraplegic Vigilante ( 590364 ) <paraplegicvigilante@yahoo.com> on Friday July 05, 2002 @01:46PM (#3828898)
    Does anyone else think that Will Smith MIB 2 theme song is really, really bad? Nod ya head? Anyone with me?

    • Re:Theme song (Score:2, Interesting)

      by ceejayoz ( 567949 )
      I found it rather catchy... stuck in my head all the way home, hehe...
    • I thoroughly continue to enjoy it. But I'd be glad to take suggestions on what to listen to instead.
    • Just like the original MIB movie, it has a GREAT theme song. No, I'm not talking about that stupidass "rap" will smith does. I'm talking about the underlying theme song played by an orchestra. The second movie had most of it and came in at different points in the film, but I believe it was used in its entirety as the opening theme for the first movie - where we follow the bug flying around as the credits are shown.

      I don't know if it's just me but I love classical music composed for movie themes (also see Gladiator soundtrack).
    • Actually, the first warning sign that this was going to be a crappy movie (unheeded by me and my wife) is the Will Smith song. If a plot can be neatly summarized in a hip hop song, that should be a clear indicator to just stay away from the theatre.

  • Hmm (Score:3, Interesting)

    by quantaman ( 517394 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @01:49PM (#3828918)
    working for a super-secret government agency

    I got the idea in the first one that they didn't work for the government and were autonomous because it asked too many questions. Either way, anyone else find it funny how CmdrTaco simple 3 line review completely contrasts and pretty much cuts down JonKatz's review? Of course the question is which one will /.ers puts more credence in? :)

  • Oh those sequels (Score:3, Interesting)

    by IWantMoreSpamPlease ( 571972 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @01:51PM (#3828938) Homepage Journal
    Hollyweird has gotten so bad these days, that you can *practically* guarantee that anything with a number behind it will suck big time.

    Nonetheless I was surprised when a sequel to MIB was announced (I didn't feel it needed one, but you know how Hollywood is..if the 1st made even a smidgen of money, sequel it!) and even more so that it didn't pick up where the last one left off (with Linda F. has Will's new partner).

    So, I go see the film with reservations, and I was pleasantly surprised.

    Sure, the film takes itself even less seriously than the last one, but it does expand more on the aliens and esp. the worm guys. It's funny, without degenerating into slapstick or schlock.

    I think what helped that was having the same director for both.

    In any case it's *certainly* better than other current sci-fi offerings currently playing at the theatres.
    • In any case it's *certainly* better than other current sci-fi offerings currently playing at the theatres.

      1. I don't think I would even call this sci-fi

      2. Minority Report

    • Nonetheless I was surprised when a sequel to MIB was announced (I didn't feel it needed one, but you know how Hollywood is..if the 1st made even a smidgen of money, sequel it!)

      Yeah....I was supprised to. I was expecting a prequel.

  • If you have an extra $20 for tickets and popcorn, it you have a couple of hours to kill on a Saturday and you want to get out of the daytime heat, this movie is worth a matinee viewing.

    It's dumb, it's action and silly comedy. I'm prepared to deal with that. Hell, I'm even looking forward to that. Nothing beats seeing summer popcorn movies at the theatre on a Saturday afternoon.

  • Missing the point of MIB (Score:4, Interesting)

    by rufusdufus ( 450462 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @01:53PM (#3828953)
    The reviewer should pay a little more attention when he decides to write a review. The fact that he missed the part about the leader being Zed, not "Sid" is a big indicator of how much he missed.

    MIB movies are not really about the plot. They are about mind expansion. About reading between the lines. And about perspective. That our perception is marred by the flaws of our memory, and our wishful thinking, and our emotional pain.
    That your world view is just one of many, and pointedly, that thats OK.

  • Sequels S*** (Score:3, Insightful)

    by rirugrat ( 255768 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @01:55PM (#3828966)
    Point A: MIIB is a sequel (note the "clever" way they incorporate the number "two" in the title).

    Point B: With the possible exceptions of The Godfather Part II, Aliens, Superman II and Raquel Darrian's boob job...*all* sequels s***.

    Point A + Point B = MIIB S***s!

    Chris

    • Re:Sequels S*** (Score:4, Interesting)

      by SquadBoy ( 167263 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @02:28PM (#3829195) Homepage Journal
      Wrath of Kahn. Toy Story 2. Empire which was better than SW:ANH. I liked Aliens better than Alien but that one is not as widely accepted. Also many of the Star Trek movies are better than the first one.

    • Re:Sequels S*** (Score:3, Interesting)

      by pinkpineapple ( 173261 )
      Terminator 2 didn't reallty suck neither... Original plot, killer effects, even better acting, plenty of lines to remember (Hasta la vista baby, I'll be back). That was a dream sequel compare to others.

      PPA, the girl next door.

      • terminator 2 was a far superior movie to terminator 1. hands-down.

      • Speaking of which, as a preview to MIB 2 (no, not MIIB goddammit) was Terminator 3! Anyone else see this? I'm not sure when it's due out, but the preview really grabbed my attention, because 1) I love T2 and 2) I love the theme to it. Boom-boom-boom, ba-boom! ;)

        Apparently the story is set after T2's time, but following the timeline as if the machines -had- come to power.

        Interesting how the entire story of Terminator is based on a time-travel paradox (terminiator is built on technology which was obtained by studying a chip that came back in time - the chip from such a machine that was made possible by studying the chip itself)
    • No offense buddy, but I hesitate to place too much credence in a movie assessment by somebody who knows what Raquel Darrian's boobs looked like *before*... (I do now, thanks Google Image Search :-D)

    • The Godfather part II is the only sequel to ever win a...whichever award it is they give out to movies. Can you tell I haven't been into mainstream movies for a while? :)

  • Spoiler.

    According to IMDB [imdb.com]:

    The original ending of the film included a scene in which the World Trade Center towers opened up, releasing a swarm of UFOs into the air. Following the towers' destruction the ending was re-shot and now takes place at the Chrysler Building.

    No it doesn't. Anyone know what the story is with this? Did the script or storyboard for this scene ever leak?
  • Did anyone else thing this movie was really short?I went to see it at 5 and I was out of the theater by 6:35, and thats after 20 minutes of trailers and watching the credits. It took 5 years to make that?
    • Its all fucking Sony's fault. MIB II was on track when Blair Fuckwad Project came out and make too much fucking money. Sony halted MIB II AND Ghostbusters III because they thought Blair Fuckwad Project II would cost nothing and make more profits than either big-name sequels. Then Blair Fuckwad Project II came and bombed. Sony realised they FUCKED UP and went ahead with MIB II. Now if they'll only get back to Ghostbusters III and not fuck it up like MIB II is. Not that I hate MIB II, but I only rated it 6/10 on IMDB.
    • I went to see the film this afternoon with my wife. We were joking about how long the previews, commercials, and intros were taking and decided to time it. The listed showing time was 1:00pm. The previews ran to 1:15. The animated short ran until 1:25. We exited the theater at 2:35. On a pure dollars per hour of entertainment scale, this was a really expensive outting, even considering it was a matinee.
  • I enjoyed Men in Black II, thinking that I hadn't wasted my money. I expected more from it though than I got. However, I really enjoyed the cartoon featurette before the movie with the universal joint, the Ale-E-Inn. Extremely creative with the incorporation of characters from sci-fi films.

    I also enjoyed the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers trailer as well. However, I thought it would have been cooler to leave Gandalf out so those that don't know the story would still think he was dead. Can you imagine the sound of suprize in the theater when he popped up again?

  • Uh, the names are not Kay and Jay and Sid. They are Zed, K and J. The agents are named after letters, with Zed being the European way to say Z.

    • If you looked on IMDB.com you'd know Kay and Jay are their names as much as K and J

  • delayed lucidity (Score:3, Troll)

    by jafac ( 1449 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @02:22PM (#3829164) Homepage
    I've noticed an odd effect, roughly for the past two or three years, prior to watching a movie, I've been a little exited by the hype, then while watching the movie, I'm usually really digging it. Then, anywhere from a couple of hours to maybe a day later, I'm thinking about it and going, "man, that movie actually kinda sucked".

    I mean, Episode I, despite Jar Jar, I was really exited and into it, because my 6 year old son was. But later, thinking about it, I couldn't find any really redeeming qualities to it except maybe a little satisfaction at knowing some of the earlier history of Star Wars.
    Same with Episode II. Damn, nearly every movie I've seen in the theaters for the past 2-3 years, except maybe Being John Malkovich.

    That said; having seen MIIB yesterday - it sucked. It sucked really bad. I want my money back. I want my two hours back. Seems the only way Will Smith can get people to listen to his RAP anymore is to get in a movie and virally infect the soundtrack with it. The ONLY worthwhile bit was when he says his car originally had a black driver, but he kept getting pulled over. And I saw that in the trailer.

    And I'm not going to see Minority Report, because I'm boycotting the Church of Scientology.

    Depressingly, the next movie I'm looking forward to is LOTR II. At least I got to see the trailer. But even more, I'm looking forward to LOTR I's DVD with the extra hour of footage.
    Fuck this. Movies suck, work sucks, I'm the only person in the office - screw it I'm going to the beach.
    • Maybe I'm a little behind, but what does Scientology have to do with Minority Report? Please enlighten me.
    • I've noticed an odd effect, roughly for the past two or three years, prior to watching a movie, I've been a little exited by the hype, then while watching the movie, I'm usually really digging it. Then, anywhere from a couple of hours to maybe a day later, I'm thinking about it and going, "man, that movie actually kinda sucked".

      Funny, I had the exact opposite reaction to The Matrix. I walked out of the theatre feeling somewhat 'blah', but after having some time to digest it, and seeing it a bunch of times on TV, I did a 180 and loved the movie. Maybe it was the fact that at first I was turned off by the silliness of the idea that we're used as batteries ('CPU' power would've been so much better), but once I got past that, the movie really rocked.

  • Big friggin plot holes (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Papa Legba ( 192550 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @02:26PM (#3829187)
    I was hurt by how cheezy the plot holes in the movie where.

    We have an orginization that is in control of the worlds aliens and does all check ins yet has no backup plan for a rogue alien in the terminal?
    After agent K get's deneralized, and I mean as he gets out of the chair, he is talking about how he can't remember what they are looking for becuase he neralized himself to make him forget where he put it or what it was. Um what about the deneralizer you just used to get your memory back?

    I am not one to bitch about a movie using suspension of disbelief to get a point across. As I have told people before I am paying $8 to see fantasy, if I wanted to see real life I would go stand on the street corner for two hours. Their is a limit of course and I feel that this movie did not do enough to try and cover for that. Something as simple as having his memory coming back over years durring the course of the movie would have worked. With him hitting the relevant information at the right moment. Could have had some great jokes embedded in it, like having him bitch that agent X neuralized him after cheating at poker for example. The lack of thinking in the writing gives the movie the feel that it is a quick cash in for a buck and that is it.

  • What no review for the Powerpuff Girls? I loved it. There were some great Planet Of The Apes refs. (* Plus going by the quality of the other 10 or so "movies" I have seen this summer -- it's kinda hard to be any worse.)
  • They do not work for ANY government agency.
    they fund themselfs through patenting alien technology, then licesing it.

    "I'll have to buy the White album again"

  • Seriously, why does this movie constitute a review on Slashdot? Lord of the Rings, OK. Attack of the Clones, OK. Matrix, OK. Monsters Inc, OK. Those are somewhat "geek oriented" movies in story or technology. MIB wasn't really, and I am guessing that this one isn't either. Is it considered Sci-Fi? Are all Sci-Fi movies going to be reviewed? But I don't really understand why Katz is allowed to post any story.
    • Lowell Cunningham is a geek's geek. He used to live across the street from me in Knoxville. He is a real geek. We only pretend to the throne.

      Also, you can filter out Katz's stories.

  • I am soo tired (Score:3, Insightful)

    by abolith ( 204863 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @03:31PM (#3829466) Homepage
    of people pining and moaning about how bad movies are. Get over it. If you go to a movie like this expect very little and hope for the most. Do that and You just might get more than you expected making the movie a better experiance all around. I figured MIB2 was going to suck, but I was happy to see a decent funny movie.

    • If you go to a movie like this expect very little and hope for the most. I figured MIB2 was going to suck, but I was happy to see a decent funny movie.

      That's fine for people with lots of money to burn and very little to burn it with. Those of us with families and better things to do don't really like to spend $50 (after multiple tickets, popcorn, babysitter, etc.) for a mediocre movie. I certainly wouldn't ever pay to go see something I thought was going to suck.

      You want people to stop whining about how bad movies are? Then the movie industry should do two things: (1) charge less for movies and (2) stop crowing about how every weekend there's a new 9-figure box office record for receipts.

  • Lilo and Stich? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I'd rather stay at home and watch Lilo and Grub. :)

  • It's fun watching you all miss the point... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonvmous Coward ( 589068 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @03:36PM (#3829497)
    I swear, you people are self destructing yourselves so that you can't enjoy the $7 spent on watching a movie.

    So far, I've read a lot of comments like 'unoriginal' or 'repackaged' or 'sucked' or whatever.

    Blah blah blah.

    You guys are kinda missing the point to watching a movie. The idea isn't to get exposed to some killer plot, the idea is to have fun. That means: Don't take it too seriously. MiiB is not part 2 of an epic trilogy. It's a comedy, it's meant to entertain for about 90 minutes or so. And it does do that. But, if you sit there being all critical about it the whole time, you're ruining it for yourself. Blame the movie if you want, but remember that's your $7.50 you're burning up.

    The first problem I see is that it's being horribly overanalyzed. One guy went on to say "they shouldn't have written out the chick at the end of MiB, bad bad bad.". Err okay. So you didn't like the movie because it didn't extend the first one by 90 minutes.

    Another guy went on to say '...another Wil Smith pop-corn action movie.' Can you say 'oversimplified'? Put it like that, and anything can sound stupid. 'Slashdot is like another Wil Smith pop-corn action movie'. See my point?

    You can't possibly enjoy a movie if you sit there and pretend you can make it better. (you can't. All you can do is 'fix' the problems you see with it.) Instead, just sit down, watch it, have fun. MiiB is meant to be silly. It's not meant to be epic, it's meant to be fun. Smile.

    If it's not your type of movie, don't go see it. Don't bug us about it either. We clear?

  • Anyone else get a CGI short at showing? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Masem ( 1171 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @03:55PM (#3829601)
    I thought it was odd that when I saw it, there was a brief (10 minute) CGI animated short from ImageWorks called "The Chub-Chubs" (I think, the name didn't stick), that basically just had a bunch of sci-fi refs in it... did anyone else get this? It wasn't bad (not of the Pixar quality in both animation and writing), but it was pretty decent. I found it odd that it wasn't mentioned in any ads that I saw, nor any reviews of MIB2 that I saw as well. (Compared to the Dexter's Lab short in front of PPG, which I did know about...)

    It's interesting to note that Warner Bros. has confirmed they are making a large (more than 6) number of shorts destined for leadins to big screen movies using the standard Looney Toons characters (eg Bugs, Daffy, etc). Along with Pixar's bits and this ImageWorks thing, there appears to be trend towards this in the movie industry. Of course, there's tons more ads and movie previews of late (for PPG today, for example, I had at least 15 min of both), so this might not last long if it takes away too many screenings from theaters.

    • This is hardly new.

      40 years ago, WB (and other) cartoons were standard lead-ins to feature shows. Previews of coming attractions used to come at the end of the movie (hence why they are called "trailers"). But, with the large increase in credits, the trailers were moved to the front and the shorts were ditched entirely.

      Thank Pixar for bringing back the animated short, and other studios for acknowledging the market and following suit.

      I, for one, loved the "ChubChubbs" short (did anyone else notice that the yellow things resembled the Langoliers?).

      Nathan
    • Yes, we got it too ... And interestingly enough, Warner Borthers is bringing back [toonzone.net] the Looney Tunes shorts and targeting it towards adults [toonzone.net]...there are also new movies in production...
  • ...maybe for most folks, but not everyone. Some of us remember that there was a MIB comic years before - the same comic the movie is (somewhat) based on. I met the guy behind it (Lowell Cunningham) eons ago, back in Atlanta in a now-extinct bookstore. It was an independent B comic... no Marvel/DC/etc.
  • 70 damn minutes. Why bother? It was almost as short as the short that played before it. 25 minutes of commercials, trailers, and chubb chubb, then 70 minutes of movie.
  • I liked the opening, I liked the middle, and I liked the end (mostly). When I went in to this movie I wasn't expecting to see anything deep... just fun. And it was fun as hell. Frank "singing" along with "Who let the dogs out" was a riot. I don't care about plot in these movies, just entertainment. And it delivered full measure on that judging from the reaction of the audience at my showing. For those of you reading these reviews go see it and judge for yourself. At least you'll keep cool in the a/c.
  • Why you should see Undercover Brother instead of Men In Black II:
    • Undercover Brother is a lot funnier than MIIB.
    • Undercover Brother has more great "movie moments" than MIIB (e.g. the car spinning out without UB spilling a drop of his orange soda)
    • Undercover Brother and MIIB both involve secret agencies, but the secret agency of UB is more interesting this time around.
    • There are just as many 'gross out' scenes in Undercover Brother as there are in MIIB, and they're more believable. (Mayonayse...ick!)
    • Like MIIB, Undercover Brother is a parody. Unlike MIIB, Undercover Brother isn't a parody of itself.
    • Since Undercover Brother has been out for a few weeks, a greater percentage of the proceeds go to local movie theatres than go to the studios and the MPAA.

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