Psycho's Movie Reviews #185: Men In Black (1997)

Men in Black (stylized as MIB: Men in Black) is a 1997 American science fiction action comedy film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, produced by Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald and written by Ed Solomon. Loosely based on the Men in Black comic book series created by Lowell Cunningham and Sandy Carruthers, the film stars Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith as two agents of a secret organization called the Men in Black, who supervise extra-terrestrial lifeforms who live on Earth and hide their existence from ordinary humans. The film featured the creature effects and makeup of Rick Baker and visual effects by Industrial Light & Magic.

The film was released in the United States on July 2, 1997, by Columbia Pictures, and grossed over $589.3 million worldwide against a $90 million budget, becoming the year's third highest-grossing film. It received positive reviews, with critics praising its script, set pieces, and the performances of Jones and Smith. The film received three Academy Award nominations—Best Art Direction, Best Original Score, and Best Makeup—winning the latter award.

The film spawned two sequels, Men in Black II (2002) and Men in Black 3 (2012); a spin-off film, Men in Black: International (2019); and a 1997–2001 animated series.

Plot

At the Mexico–United States border, two men in black suits, Agent K and Agent D, interrupt a border patrol sting and arrest one of the men attempting to cross the border, who is actually an extra-terrestrial. K is forced to shoot it when it attempts to attack the border patrol, and D decides he has gotten too old for his job and retires.

NYPD officer James Darrell Edwards III catches an unnaturally agile fleeing criminal and sees his eyes blink in an unusual manner before he leaps from a parking garage. During his interrogation, K arrives and scouts James as a potential new partner, impressed by his ability to chase down an alien. K explains to James that their organization, the Men in Black, was founded after first contact was made with aliens in 1961; at this time Earth was established as a politically neutral zone for alien refugees. The MIB is a secret organization that monitors and polices these aliens, and use neuralyzers to erase the memories of anyone who witnesses alien activities. James agrees to join the organization and he is appointed Agent J, and his civilian identity is erased from government records.

Meanwhile an alien crash-lands in upstate New York, and kills a farmer named Edgar and begins wearing his skin as a disguise. J and K investigate the crash site and discover this alien is a "bug", a species of cockroach-like aliens that are extremely dangerous. The bug kills two disguised aliens that are sent to a police morgue overseen by coroner Laurel Weaver. J and K inspect the bodies and J and Laurel accidentally open the head of one, revealing a small, dying alien in a control cockpit. The alien tells them "To prevent war, the galaxy is on Orion's belt" before dying. K neuralyzes Laurel and tells J that this man was Rosenberg, an Arquillian and one of their royal family. They question an informant, Frank the Pug, who explains that Rosenberg was the guardian of a galaxy that is a precious source of sub-atomic energy; the bug killed Rosenberg to acquire it so the bugs may destroy the Arquillians. Frank also tells the two that the galaxy is on Earth and is actually very small. An Arquillian warship enters Earth orbit and issues an ultimatum to MIB to give them the galaxy.

J deduces the galaxy is in a jewel on the collar of Rosenberg's cat Orion, hence Rosenberg was trying to say "bell", which is in Laurel's care now. The bug has made the same deduction and arrived at the morgue first, and takes the galaxy and flees with Laurel, swallowing the galaxy. The Arquillians, who are willing to destroy the galaxy rather than let the bugs have it, warn MIB that they have one hour to recover the galaxy or they will destroy Earth. With all other transports locked down, J realizes the bug's only escape is the observation towers of the New York State Pavilion at Flushing Meadows, which was built for the 1964 New York World's Fair to disguise two real flying saucers. The bug attempts to take off but J and K shoot down the ship, and the bug sheds Edgar's skin and reveals its true form. It swallows J and K's guns, and K goads it to swallow him as well. The bug begins to board the second ship and J steps on cockroaches from a dumpster to antagonize it, stalling it until K finds his gun in its stomach and shoots it from inside. The remains of the bug attack the two, but Laurel destroys it with J's gun.

With the galaxy secure, K admits to J that he has not been training a partner, but a replacement; he is ready for retirement. J neuralyzes K, creating a cover story that he was in a coma for thirty-five years. Laurel joins MIB as J's new partner, Agent L. Meanwhile out in the universe an Arquillian is playing with some Galaxy jewels like marbles.

Production

Development

The film is loosely based on Lowell Cunningham and Sandy Carruthers's comic book The Men in Black. Producers Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald optioned the rights to The Men in Black in 1992, and hired Ed Solomon to write a very faithful script. Parkes and MacDonald wanted Barry Sonnenfeld as director because he had helmed the darkly humorous The Addams Family and its sequel Addams Family Values. However, Sonnenfeld was attached to Get Shorty (1995), so they instead approached Les Mayfield to direct, as they had heard about the positive reception to his remake of Miracle on 34th Street; they actually saw the film later and decided he was inappropriate. As a result, Men in Black was delayed so as to allow Sonnenfeld to make it his next project after Get Shorty.

Much of the initial script drafts were set underground, with locations ranging from Kansas to Washington, D.C. and Nevada. Sonnenfeld decided to change the location to New York City, because the director felt New Yorkers would be tolerant of aliens who behaved oddly while disguised. He also felt much of the city's structures resembled flying saucers and rocket ships. One of the locations Sonnenfeld thought perfect for the movie was a giant ventilation structure for the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel, which became the outside of the MIB headquarters.

Filming

Principal photography began in March 1996. Many last-minute changes ensued during production. First, the scene where James Edwards chasing a disguised alien was to be filmed at Lincoln Center, but the New York Philharmonic decided to charge the filmmakers for using their buildings, prompting Sonnenfeld to film the scene at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum instead. Then, five months into the shoot, Sonnenfeld decided that the original ending, with a humorous existential debate between Agent J and the Bug, was unexciting and lacking the action that the rest of the film had. Five potential replacements were discussed. One of these had Laurel Weaver being neuralyzed and K remaining an agent. Eventually it boiled down to the Bug eating K and fighting J, replacing the animatronic Bug Rick Baker's crew had developed with a computer-generated Bug with an appearance closer to a cockroach. The whole action sequence cost an extra $4.5 million to the filmmakers.

Further changes were made during post-production to simplify the plotline involving the possession of the tiny galaxy. The Arquillians would hand over the galaxy to the Baltians, ending a long war. The Bugs need to feed on the casualties and steal the galaxy in order to continue the war. Through changing of subtitles, the images on M.I.B.'s main computer and Frank the Pug's dialogue, the Baltians were eliminated from the plot. Earth goes from being potentially destroyed in the crossfire between the two races into being possibly destroyed by the Arquillians themselves to prevent the Bugs from getting the galaxy. These changes to the plot were carried out when only two weeks remained in the film's post-production, but the film's novelization still contains the Baltians.

Design and Visual Effects

Production designer Bo Welch designed the MIB headquarters with a 1960s tone in mind, because that was when their organization is formed. He cited influences from Finnish architect Eero Saarinen, who designed a terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport. As the arrival point of aliens on Earth, Welch felt the headquarters had to resemble an airport.

Rick Baker was approached to provide the prosthetic and animatronic aliens, many of whom would have more otherworldly designs instead of looking humanoid. For example, the reveal of Gentle Rosenberg's Arquillian nature went from a man with a light under his neck's skin to a small alien hidden inside a human head. Baker would describe Men in Black as the most complex production in his career, "requiring more sketches than all my previous movies together". Baker had to have approval from both Sonnenfeld and Spielberg: "It was like, 'Steven likes the head on this one and Barry really likes the body on this one, so why don't you do a mix and match?' And I'd say, because it wouldn't make any sense." Sonnenfeld also changed a lot of the film's aesthetic during pre-production: "I started out saying aliens shouldn't be what humans perceive them to be. Why do they need eyes? So Rick did these great designs, and I'd say, 'That's great — but how do we know where he's looking?' I ended up where everyone else did, only I took three months." The mauvettes built by Baker's team would later be digitized by Industrial Light & Magic, who was responsible for the visual effects and computer-generated imagery, for more mobile digital versions of the aliens.

Music

Two different soundtracks for the film were released: a score soundtrack featuring music composed by Danny Elfman and an album of songs used in and inspired by the film, featuring Will Smith's original song "Men in Black" based on the film's plot.

Elfman's music was called "rousing" by the Los Angeles Times. Variety called the film a technical marvel, giving special credit to "Elfman's always lively score." Elfman was nominated for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score at the 70th Academy Awards for his score.

Elvis Presley's cover of "Promised Land" is featured in the scene where the MIB's car runs on the ceiling of Queens–Midtown Tunnel.

Release/Reception/Box Office

In advance of the film's theatrical release, its marketing campaign included more than 30 licensees. Galoob was the first to license, in which they released various action figures of the film's characters and aliens. Ray-Ban also partnered the film with a $5–10 million television campaign. Other promotional items included Hamilton Watches and Procter & Gamble's Head & Shoulders with the tagline "Keeping the Men in Black in black".

An official comic adaptation was released by Marvel Comics. The film also received a third-person shooter Men in Black game developed by Gigawatt Studios and published by Gremlin Interactive, which was released to lacklustre reviews in October 1997 for the PC and the following year for the PlayStation. Also, a very rare promotional PlayStation video game system was released in 1997 with the Men in Black logo on the CD lid. Three months after the film's release, an animated series based on Men in Black, produced by Columbia TriStar Television alongside Adelaide Productions and Amblin Television, began airing on The WB's Kids' WB programming block, and also inspired several games. A Men in Black role-playing game was also released in 1997 by West End Games.

Men in Black was first released on videocassette in standard and widescreen formats on November 25, 1997. Its home video release was attached to a rebate offer on a pair of Ray-Ban Predator-model sunglasses. The film was re-released in a collector's series on videocassette and DVD on September 5, 2000, with the DVD containing several bonus features including an interactive editing workshop for three different scenes from the film, extended storyboards, conceptual art, and a visual commentary track with Tommy Lee Jones and director Barry Sonnenfeld; an alternate two-disc version was also released that had a full screen version on the first disc. The Deluxe Edition was also released on DVD in 2002. A Blu-ray edition was released on June 17, 2008. The entire Men in Black trilogy was released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on December 5, 2017, in conjunction with the film's 20th anniversary.

On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, Men in Black holds an approval rating of 92% based on 89 reviews, and an average score of 7.50/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Thanks to a smart script, spectacular set pieces, and charismatic performances from its leads, Men in Black is an entirely satisfying summer blockbuster hit." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 71 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, praising the film as "a smart, funny and hip adventure film in a summer of car wrecks and explosions." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four, giving particular praise to the film's self-reflective humour and Rick Baker's alien creature designs. Janet Maslin, reviewing for The New York Times, wrote the film "is actually a shade more deadpan and peculiar than such across-the-board marketing makes it sound. It's also extraordinarily ambitious, with all-star design and special-effects talent and a genuinely artful visual style. As with his Addams Family films and Get Shorty, which were more overtly funny than the sneakily subtle Men in Black, Mr. Sonnenfeld takes offbeat genre material and makes it boldly mainstream."

Writing for Variety, Todd McCarthy acknowledged the film was "witty and sometimes surreal sci-fi comedy" in which he praised the visual effects, Baker's creature designs and Elfman's musical score. However, he felt the film "doesn't manage to sustain this level of inventiveness, delight and surprise throughout the remaining two-thirds of the picture." Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly graded the film a C+, writing "Men in Black celebrates the triumph of attitude over everything else – plausibility, passion, any sense that what we're watching actually matters. The aliens, for all their slimy visual zest, aren't particularly scary or funny (they aren't allowed to become characters), and so the joke of watching Smith and Jones crack wise in their faces quickly wears thin." John Hartl of The Seattle Times, claimed the film "is moderately amusing, well-constructed and mercifully short, but it fails to deliver on the zaniness of its first half." While he was complimentary of the film's first half, he concluded "somewhere around the midpoint they run out of energy and invention. Even the aliens, once they stop their shape-shifting ways and settle down to appear as themselves, begin to look familiar."

Men in Black grossed $250.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $338.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $589.3 million. The film grossed a record $10.7 million in its opening weekend in Germany, beating the record held by Independence Day.

Despite its grosses, writer Ed Solomon has said that Sony claims the film has never turned a profit, which is attributed to Hollywood accounting.

Budget $90 million

Box office $589.4 million

My Review

Will Smith saves the world again... this time in a GOOD movie!

After the horribly cheesy "Independence Day" of the previous year, it was great to see the actor that saved that movie from being completely unwatchable - Will Smith - get a chance to save the planet in a quality film. From the opening of the film where "Mikey", an illegal alien from another planet is disguised as an illegal alien from another country, to the end when we see the earth just as a marble in a pouch of many belonging to an extraterrestrial being, I found this film to be thought provoking, original, and very funny.

Tommy Lee Jones (Agent K) and Will Smith (Agent J) are perfect in their roles. Not since Lenny Briscoe and Mike Logan were partners on "Law and Order" has the young cop/old cop routine been done so well with such great chemistry and deadpan humour. All of the supporting roles work too. Rip Torn is great as Zed, the head of the secret government organization - the "Men In Black" - who are in charge of overseeing the visits of extra-terrestrials who have chosen to establish contact with earth and in some cases become semi-permanent residents of this planet. His great one-liners include telling a group of rejected job applicants - who really don't know what kind of job they've applied for - "Congratulations gentlemen. You are all we've come to expect from years of government training".

Some of the rank and file employees of the agency are aliens themselves. Unmotivated and not particularly loyal, they enjoy hanging out in the break room drinking coffee, smoking heavily, and collecting cheap miniatures of the Statue of Liberty. Vincent D'Onofrio is also outstanding in the dual role of Edgar, a human who gets eaten by a malicious alien cockroach, and also as the cockroach himself as he tools around New York City in his "brand new Edgar suit" - Edgar's skin - in an attempt to appear human while trying to start an intergalactic war.

Any human who happens to encounter an alien won't remember it thanks to the neuralizer - a device the size of a fountain pen - that the "Men In Black" administer to erase any resulting memories. This includes employees of the agency themselves, should they choose to quit or retire. The underlying purpose of all of this covering up makes sense when Smith's character, during his orientation session, tells Tommy Lee Jones that he thinks that people could handle the truth about aliens living among them. Jones' (Agent K's) response is: "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky animals and you know it." This is hard to argue with when you think about the acts that people throughout history have performed as a mob that they would never have done as individuals. I really enjoyed this film, and its smart humour has held up over the years. I think in the future many will wonder, as I still do, why this film didn't get a nod at the Academy Awards other than its award for best makeup, at the very least for the screenplay.

Men in Black is great fun from start to finish. If you care to look past the rather ridiculous plot (only occasionally), this is hugely enjoyable. The cinematography is skilful likewise with the direction, and the special effects are wonderful. The script is irreverent, and there are some truly great performances. Will Smith proves here he CAN act, and Tommy Lee Jones as usual is marvellous. Both make a unique and hilarious double act. Then there is fine support from underrated actor Rip Torn and from Linda Fiorentino, who is a talented actress that hasn't earned herself a high acting profile yet. The finale is a little overblown, but you cannot deny this is a fun film. 8.5/10

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