You! Yes, you! Go out and rent this movie right now!
Men In Black has to be one of the all-around best movies I have seen. On DVD, it comes loaded with special features that are worth viewing.
Barry Sonnenfeld directs this marvelous foray into our imagination that makes the impossible seem possible. Aliens are here, living among us, right now. They are third-grade teachers, congressmen, actors, and basketball players.
Tommy Lee Jones portrays K, one of the MiB agents in charge of policing the aliens that reside and visit Earth. His partner, D decides it's time to quit the force, and K is in search of a new partner.
Will Smith as James Edwards of the New York City Police Department catchesK's attention after he chases down a rather fast alien. Their first encounter sets up the tone for the rest of the movie. Edwards is in an interrogation room after trying to explain exactly what happened to his boss, when K comes in to question him. Edwards tells him that the "man" in question told him the Earth was going to end.K asks totally deadpan, "Did he say when?"
Edwards eventually becomes known as J and teams up as K's partner. J is the slick, wise-cracking novice who thinks he can put up a front of knowing everything while on the ride of a lifetime. K is the always-serious been-there-done that veteran.
If this sounds like a cliche, it is in many ways. It is a great credit to the acting abilities of Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith that this movie works so wonderfully.
Vincent D'Onofrio steals every scene he is in, however, as the elusive "bug" alien, Edgar. His mannerisms and trying to appear normal (He is actually an alien bug in a human's skin. Sounds gross? Trust me, it works.) are hysterically funny and reminiscent of Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove (this is mentioned in the commentary between Tommy Lee Jones & Barry Sonnenfeld that is on the DVD).
Rounding out the lead cast is Rip Torn as Zed, the leader of the MiB agency and Linda Fiorentino as Dr. Laurel Weaver, a New York City Medical Examiner who always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and ends up on the wrong end of the neuralizer.
This movie was filmed in and around New York City and on sets in Los Angeles. I was surprised that so much of the final battle scenes that depict Flushing Meadow Park (where the 1964 World's Fair was held) were actually shot on a set. We go to this precise location every year for my daughters' dance recital and the replication is authentic.
The aliens are created using puppets as well as computers. Watching the movie with the commentary from Sonnenfeld and Jones (like Mystery Science Theater 3000) gives you a lot of insight into just how they pulled off so much of the tricks of this movie. If you'd prefer not to know and keep the mystery, skip the commentary.
It was also interesting to learn that the movie's ending had been completely changed after filming had ended. This was done by changing only two scenes leading up to that point.
The only drawback to this movie is that kids will most certainly want to watch it. And they would probably enjoy it a great deal. The reservations come with some of the coarse language, that, coupled with a few violent scenes, give this movie a PG-13 rating. Edgar kills an exterminator in a rather grotesque way and slaughters two other aliens in a restaurant (where he has also killed a waiter by breaking every bone in his body and folding him in half - we only see the body afterwards, not the actual murder). Both of my kids have seen the movie, but it is up to each parent to know what their child can handle.
The DVD has a tremendous amount of bonuses that make it worth having in your collection. The best I have found were the running commentary I mentioned, the documentary Metamorphosis of Men In Black, and the character animation studies and tunnel scene deconstruction using angles. Anyone who is curious to know "just how they did that" will get a lot of information from these three bonuses.
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