Spoilers
Im loving my trips back to the 90s at the moment i really am & today (& after taking almost 50mins to pick a film) ive gone for comfort of Men In Black. Something which in the 90s when we had a really weird tv box, you could watch the first 15 mins of a film then it cut off & you had to pay for the rest of it. It was how my parents used to work out what me & my sister would want to see & then they would decide what we could. Men in Black was one of these films so lets see how it goes shall we.
This is so 90s its crazy. Like as much as its guys tracking & chasing & fighting aliens (very much a will smith 90s thing) the rest of it is still 90s as well. Its such a nostalgia trip & takes me back to the time & even now like 20 plus years later i watch it & go ahhhhhhhhh of course, yea that was such a 90s move or thing to say. Im sure the current crop of 12 to 15 year old who are the original target audience for this would now look at this & go the fuck is that (okay maybe not the fuck but you know what i mean).
Will Smith & Tommy Lee Jones have amazing chemistry. So good. It so works that Tommys K is so grumpy & cranky & that Wills J is like dude come on. I love it. It so works especially when you realise that the majority of the film takes place over 4 days. Its incredible when you realise that. To build up such a bond that as a kid & still as an adult does work. They really did get on & it really shows with the films craft.
I love Mikey. I do. Hes my favourite Alien in the whole thing & hes dead 8 mins into the movie. Put up your hands & all your naughty flippers. What a line. I love it. All he wanted to do was get into America. Which as a kid the joke with the guys trying to get across the boarder went straight over my head. But as an adult, & the fact they are just like ahh yea let them in thats fine. Brilliant.
The bug cockroach thing for its time is bloody good & had so much detail on it. I mean all that gunge & the way it climbed the space ship & shed the guys skin was clever. But it does ultimately die. YEs it takes a long time but still. When he first steps on that cockroach & he goes oh im sorry was that your aunty. I like that. It got his attention though didnt it.
The two tech intern aliens monitoring everything are amazing. The fact one has a really complicated alien name that is hard to pronounce & then the other is called bob… Brilliant. comedy at its peak. & then saying he was sure his teacher was from Mars only for him to be corrected with it as Venus, I like that a lot.
The worm guys & frank are only in two scenes each in this film. Yea they appear a lots more in 2, but it was nice introductions to them all as well. I liked that. The worms are better than Frank though. I also do like how Frank you assume its the human whos the alien but nah its the little pug.
The training school is so good & how he uses common sense. Its easy to see now that from the start, he was always after someone to replace him but it was so good especially the shoot off & how they do the paperwork. Use the bloody table.
Does the cat survive? because you know he goes with the body to the morgue, then gets looked at by lots of people & then gets the charm taken off it. Is that goose from captain marvel? was it a flerken? Does the cat survive? I need to know.
I love both the morgue scenes if im honest. When hes examining the body & then the little guy is int he head & then the face off where he uses that gun & its so powerful. Its so good. Its full of drama & exposition both these scenes which then set so much more up for act 3.
Push the Red button & always wear your seatbelts peoples. Bloody love that car when it flys & then just the throw away mention that Elvis didnt die & just went home. Tommy Lee Jones owns that scene & they even pay the toll.
When the aliens threaten to blow earth up they end their message with sorry. I love that.
All the bits as kids i found fun, i still find charming but not as funny, so the birth scene, the accidents in MIBHQ & guy at the pawn shop who gets his head constantly blown up. I know for the target audience that is good & i still liked them but they are not as fun when you age up, especially the head blowing up guy whos used a lot in the 2nd film & its almost constant.
When they just stand there & J is like we are going to move as that space ship crashes & K is like nah we got this, i like that. That to this day is still very very cool.
They are beautiful arent they the stars… what a line. I love it.
I could do with a neuralyzer for some parts of my day. Thats one of the most useful gadgets in cinema to this day.
Dont drink or eat a farmers wife in 90s Americas cooking or drinks. Seems they dont go down to well.
Its a banging song & dance still to this day too.
It just proves that some 90s film even though you know now that they are all just a bit problematic at points but for the most part this nostalgia trip holds true & is a very good way to spend your evening. Its funny its sweet &the aliens all have a job & a purpose & arent just CGI monsters kicking off until the finale.
Yea you could do a lot worse with your saturday night then to rewatch this.