Film Reviews
Josh Brolin, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in 'Men in Black 3' (SOURCE: Sony Pictures)

‘Men in Black 3’: Everything Old is New Again

Earth's only line of defense against otherworldly baddies returns in the funniest chapter of the series

The charm of the Men in Black series has less to do with its extraterrestrials and more with the relationship between agents J (Will Smith) and K (Tommy Lee Jones). Men in Black 3 not only takes it into account, but manages to duplicate their chemistry with a new actor in the most fun episode of the series yet.

Men in Black 3 in a Nutshell (Clap, Clap!)

The plot: Boris the Animal (Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords), an alien assassin imprisoned for decades by the MIB, escapes and travels back in time to kill Agent K before he amputates his left arm. Agent J is the only person to detect the temporary discrepancy and must travel to 1969, the year of the Moon landing, to protect the younger version of his companion with the help of his new boss O (Emma Thompson) and Griffin (Michael Stuhlbarg), a being that can see all possibilities at once.

Director Barry Sonnenfeld (from the Men in Black and Addams Family franchises) brings back all the ingredients of the previous films to this one. Sonnenfeld especially seems to have a blast playing with the cultural and technological differences between the Sixties and today. After several interesting dramatic roles, it is heartening to see Smith back in classic comedy mode. The same can be said of Thompson (Nanny McPhee; the Harry Potter films), who replaces Rip Torn as head of the secret intergalactic police agency.

Wishful Thinking

However, the breakthrough performance this time around belongs to Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men; The Goonies) as the young K. He captures Jones’ mannerisms to perfection and injects his own charm to the K role. It would not a surprise if the studio replaced Jones with Brolin for good and relaunched the franchise from scratch. Smith could even produce it and give the role of J to his son, Jaden. (Or not!)

Available on Amazon and the iTunes Store.

This review first appeared on the Revista U website. Click here for the original article (in Spanish).

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