News Taffy

Hey there movie-goers! I’m Rachel Carner, a casual enthusiast of all things pop culture and whatnot. I’ll be dishing out what I think is a hit or a miss in the box office during this summer blockbuster season. So if you’re wary of spending your hard-earned cash on that high-budgeted blockbuster movie, read on to see what a fellow Jonesboro movie-goer thinks each Monday!

Being a '90s child, the first Men in Black movie was a fun watch in theaters with my parents. Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are a great duo, with witty and laugh-out-loud banter between the two partners as they saved Earth from the extraterrestrial bad guys in the first and somewhat mediocre sequel in 2002.

So when I saw the trending topic on Twitter a while back that there was going to be a Men in Black III, I was skeptical. While I wasn’t a big fan of MIB II, I didn’t think a third one 10 years too late was going to solve the problem. When time travelling was mentioned, I thought the series had jumped the shark. But whenever I walked out of the theater, I agree that it was a good and fun MIB film to jumpstart this summer blockbuster season.

Smith and Jones are back as Agent Jay and Kay in the top secret alien monitoring organization, Men in Black. This time around, this “odd couple” have their hands full when the antagonist, Boris the Animal (Jemaine Clement of folk-band Flight of the Concords fame), breaks out of the lunar maximum prison and aims to go back in time to 1969 to kill Kay in their previous encounter. When Jay is the only one who remembers Kay after history has been rewritten, he has to travel back in time to stop both young and old Boris from killing the young Kay (Josh Brolin).

Brolin does justice to Jones’ deadpan expressions, mannerisms, etc. as a younger Kay. Clement plays quite an evil villain to be truly alarmed by, with his gross “abilities” with his creepy crawly friend in his hand. Smith and Jones bring back the funny one-liners and quirky moments throughout the movie. I realized that Smith’s last movie was Seven Pounds back in 2008, so I was glad to see him back on screen doing his thing as a funny guy.

My favorite part of this movie was the frequent cameos of past MIB characters, such as Frank the Pug and The Worm Guys. It was a fun throwback to the past two movies, as these characters were quite memorable. The plethora of aliens and monsters are also quite a visual and unique treat. One good thing this movie did was take the time to explore Jay and Kays backgrounds. By exposing the emotional side of the two Men in Black, this helped make the movie a good one instead of being a mediocre effort relying solely on the actors’ charisma and washing everything down in CGI.

While this wasn’t a spectacular movie, its lighthearted tone and funny moments were refreshing and made for a fun summer movie. I didn’t see this in 3D, but I could see some elements being utilized for the 3D audience in the right way, so check it out in this medium if you wish. As always, parents should be aware that this movie is rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence (aliens do explode a lot during fight scenes) and brief suggestive content (Boris and his girlfriend make out briefly when they reunite in the prison). For anyone who has seen the MIB movies before, it’s a nostalgic trip back down the elevator. But movie-goers in general will enjoy this movie, so get out of the heat and go see it with your friends and family.

Until next time,
Rachel