Men in Black
Dir: Barry Sonnenfeld
1997
****
Barry Sonnenfeld's Sci-fi comedy didn't really excite me when it came out in 1997 but I have since become to love it a little. I think maybe at the tender age of 18 I wanted something a little more serious, I loved the idea, I just didn't appreciate the mainstream comedy. It was easy to miss the charm of the film, what with all the hype, merchandise and Will Smith's fairly tedious reworking of Patrice Rushen's Forget Me Nots so that it would sound like 'Here come the Men in Black'. When the lead actor insists on singing the theme tune, I usually count myself out (unless it's a Muppet film, obviously). The humour is actually consistently good throughout, the big laughs hitting their mark and the little subtleties, the interview scene for instance, give the film its unique charm. It came after some big Alien films however and after Mars Attacks and Independence Day, sci-fi fatigue, for me anyway, had definitely set in. In retrospect it is a bit of a sci-fi/comedy classic and a pretty unique one at that. Looking back at the comics it was based on, it is also nice to see an adaption from that medium that gets it pretty much right. The ending bothered me as a teen but now as an adult I appreciate it more than most.