REVIEW: MEN IN BLACK 3

Here's a sad thought: We haven't seen Will Smith on the big screen for three and a half years!  That's insane!  For me, though, Smith is omnipresent in the media world, what with his son starring in a decent karate remake, his daughter winning over the world by whipping her hair around, and those "Fresh Prince" reruns you see on TBS all the time.  The last time I saw Smith was on New Year's Day of 2009, (don't ask me how I remember) when I went to go see him in "Seven Pounds," which was critically bashed but I thought was pleasantly mediocre. But that still isn't fair, Will!  Don't be so selfish, share yourself with the rest of the world!

Welcome back, Will!

I kid, but the movie season has seemed a little more lonelier with the absence of critic/audience pleasers like "I Am Legend" and "The Pursuit of Happyness," both of which are classics by teenage standards.  You can't blame Smith; however, he's a family man first.  While his wife hasn't quite paralleled his success, his kids certainly have.  His daughter Willow will be starring in an Annie remake, scored by Jay-Z.  Ironically, it hasn't been a hard knock life, when you've got money coming out the wazoo like Smith, it's perfectly fine to take a break.  We'll be seeing a lot more of him anyway, sequels to "Bad Boys," "Hancock" and "I, Robot" are coming up.  So on to the featured film; the "Men in Black" series to me, didn't feel like a series.  Just a movie and its sequel, and I'm not positive that constitutes a series.  I hope they end the trilogy with this, a highly entertaining, if a little cartoonish, enjoyable action sci-fi flick.

Luckily the film, like some have done in the past, doesn't pick up exactly where the last one left off; I haven't seen "Men in Black II."  According to Rotten Tomatoes, it "recycled old elements with mixed results."  That's not exactly a summer blockbuster tagline, but I'm sure it can't be that bad.  Whoever concocted the thought of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones is a genius, the contrast between them is large, but the chemistry in "Men in Black 3" is something special.  We all know Tommy Lee Jones smiles about as much as Kristen Stewart, so Agent J's attempts to crack a laugh or even something resembling a grin is something more entertaining than most comedies nowadays.

The film opens with Boris the Animal, (he wants to be called Boris so badly, but the agents of Men in Black won't give him that satisfaction) a dangerous foe of Agent K, escaping from his prison on the moon.  By now we've seen every security guard in film history let a shady-looking person go to their partner's cell and innocently give them something, this time it's a cake.  If the guards don't realize the cake has something in it that'll be used to spring the imprisoned person, they really deserve to get killed off.  Jermaine Clements of "Flight of the Conchords" fame plays a familiar, brutal villain.  While some of the things he says, like repeating his catchphrase "Let's agree to disagree" 1000 times are cliched, Clements, under heavy special effects, makes his Boris memorable.

The same can be said for Michael Stuhlbarg's ("A Serious Man") Griffin.  While some critics have called out Stuhlbarg's talky alien as annoying, I found him amusing.  Now annoying will be if "Men in Black 4" pulls a "Cars 2" and puts Griffin in the spotlight with J and K.  The director, Barry Sonnenfeld, who's directed the entire trilogy, obviously knew how long to keep Griffin onscreen.  Another aspect was the racism in the movie: it wasn't glossed over.  Going back in 1969, things were different, and Agent J definitely isn't treated with the same respect.  A racial profiling pullover addresses the issue quickly, and the movie carries on with a fine pace.

I mentioned "Men in Black 4" because that's a big possibility; as of this review, it's made half a billion dollars worldwide.  But I mentioned this earlier, I hope this is the last entry in the series (and yes, this constitutes as one) because things come full circle in "MIB 3," and I love when that happens in franchises.  The ending is very sweet without the overly sentimental Hollywood touch to it.  I didn't mention the leading 3 performances because it's almost expected Smith and Jones kill everything they're respectively in, and you must be aware that Josh Brolin will earn at least a Golden Globe nod for his uncannily good young Agent K impression.

"Men in Black 3" isn't the perfect movie, but it's a perfectly fine model for a good summer blockbuster.

Rating: 2.5/4 stars