Marvel Movie Madness! Part 26: Men in Black

That's because it's not

Jul 6 - 06:39 PM

Alex Wibowo

The comic was published by Aircel Comics, which was bought by Marvell, so technically it is a Marvel Movie

Jul 6 - 07:31 PM

Disney now owns Marvel so by that logic technically its a Disney film.

Jul 6 - 11:19 PM

No, it's a Columbia film. There's a difference between owning the right for the movie and owning the rights for the IP.

Jul 6 - 11:39 PM

I love me some Will Smith, not gonna lie. And for all the hate I give to Michael Bay for his shitty movies - I watched the hell out of the Bad Boy Duology when they were released. True, I was all of 14 when part 2 came out, but it was exactly up my alley and I kept watching it till I turned 16 and realized how crappy it actually is, but still, Smith and Lawrence's chemistry almost makes it worth it.

MiB is a great sci-fi comedy, it's a shame 2 was horrible.

Jul 6 - 02:26 PM

Lenny Monroe

Agreed on everything you said. Will Smith is great even when he dosen't appear in serious films. And about Bad Boys 2, I thought the same thing- watched it 20 times and loved it, then years later saw that it was AWFUL and haven't been able to enjoy it since. I straight LOVED that freeway scene one year then was bored by it the next.

Jul 14 - 01:37 PM

King Crunk

This is very good movie that holds up well to time. Jones and Smith were an unlikely great pairing.

Jul 6 - 02:26 PM

Odd Even

Still have this on vhs and watch it when ever it is on tv. Love this movie.
One of the best marvel films of all time.

Jul 6 - 02:33 PM

Manuel Granados

This is a movie that if it's on tv I change the channel and stop whatever I was watching to see it.
I was 15 or 16 when it came out, the special effects wowed me away, loved Tommy Lee Jones in it, Will Smith was still the fresh prince of bel air for me when I watched this so I liked the character quite a bit.
As the years go by the movie, in my opinion, becomes more of a classic, it was before bromance a la Apatow movies came out, so this kind of Bromance, along with Bad Boys like Watcher says, is right up my alley.

Jul 6 - 02:41 PM

This movie SUCKS . . . BALLS!

I hated it . . .

The pacing was all jacked-up and Wrong (in my opinion)--

I was looking for a really off-beat Repo Man, Sid and Nancy, Robocop, I Love You to Death, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure-Bogus Journey movie but what i got was a disgustingly mainstream generically off-beat film.

I was expecting something very quirky and I received something very mainstream.

--

maybe that's why everybody here likes Men in Black so much; because it IS mainstream.

If a movie is mainstream that it appeals to a mainstream audience, a popular audience . . . and I have an "unpopular" reaction to Men and Black.

IT SUCKS!!!!! (in my opinion).

---hey two of my friends gave TRANSFORMERS 3 a 90% and a 70% FRESH rating, Transfomers 3 must be a good film (hahahahahahahahaha).

Its subjective as to what renders a film bad or good:

Men in Black STRIKES OUT in the first inning!!!!

Jul 6 - 03:41 PM

Noah Kinsey

Jesus, Gordon. Every time I think I can get out of interacting with you, you pull me back in! You've been arguing the WHOLE last week about how people are liars for saying movies are bad - using box office numbers as "proof" of them being "good" movies. Now you are accusing people of only liking mainstream movies?! Are you f*cking kidding?!?! *sigh* I hope someday you realize what everyone else in the RT community already knows: Your words have no credibility whatsoever.

Jul 6 - 04:00 PM

Jaymon agrees with me. Noah you are annoying me. Noah you're comprehension level is low: i never accused anyone here of "only" liking mainstream movies, I said that mainstream films appeal to a mainstream, or popular audience, . . . there is no indication that i made a generazition.

Jul 6 - 04:52 PM

Noah Kinsey

Jaymon agreed that he too didn't like MiB - not the rant in its entirety. If you didn't like it - cool - not every movie is for everyone. And I'm annoying you? Good. Maybe that will deter your spamming of this site (probably not). Let me get this straight - you were simply STATING that mainstream movies appeal to a mainstream audience? Uh huh. And snozzberries taste like snozzberries. Your email to me told me not to interact with you. Dude, I've been trying SO HARD, and lasted about a week. But after so many posts of verbal diarrhea and making crazy statements that you back up by copy/pasting articles that usually negate your claims - my tongue is bloody for biting so hard. Before you rant back at me, I want you to SERIOUSLY consider this statement: There is a WORLD of difference between CONTRIBUTING to a discuss and overloading a conversation with nonsensical content.

Jul 6 - 08:29 PM

what the heck is a snozberry . . . //ohhh from WILLY WONKA . . . A delicious flavour berry only grown in the willy wonka factory, dead dead yummy.///the personalities are insane on this site . . . mine included. TOTALLY!!!!!! lol

Jul 7 - 08:49 AM

If Men in Black is UNIVERSALLY a good movie, then why is there a bad review?

`Men in Black' Alienating Comedy

Mick LaSalle

``Men in Black,'' the second Will-Smith-versus-the- aliens picture, is a high- tech comedy, more along the lines of a tight little action movie than a bona fide blockbuster. It was the smallest of the big summer films, the most slickly made -- and the most old-fashioned.

Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, ``Men in Black'' has the gloss and the wit of Sonnenfeld's other comedies (``Get Shorty,'' ``The Addams Family''). Sonnenfeld uses odd angles and wide lenses to view the action with a sardonic eye, as if the onscreen events were a joke between director and audience. But if ``Men in Black'' is a joke, who's the joke on? [an error occurred while processing this directive] The picture moves. Smith, as a New York policeman, is introduced in a long sequence showing him chasing a criminal on foot. This criminal can do everything, even climb up the sides of buildings. When Smith catches up, he notices something strange. This fellow doesn't blink up and down but side to side; he has an extra pair of lids.

Turns out it's just one of many space aliens living in the United States, under the supervision of the government. Tommy Lee Jones plays K, a special agent in charge of regulating alien activity, and he soon recruits Smith as Agent J. They dress in black, wear sunglasses and check up on aliens all day.

Some of these aliens are marvelous special-effects creations. There are slinky, wormy little aliens who smoke cigarettes and drink coffee. There's one beautifully done computer sequence in which a human- looking alien gets its head shot off and immediately grows another.

From the visual angle, the most satisfying effect is the makeup job on Vincent D'Onofrio, who plays a big insect-like alien inhabiting the body of a farmer. D'Onofrio's skin is made up to look as if he's just put it on -- like a bedspread that hasn't been smoothed out.

Other effects are merely grotesque -- an alien explodes, covering bystanders in blue goo. Unlike ``Independence Day,'' which had real exuberance about it, ``Men in Black'' is never better than its gimmick. At times, it even leaves a bad aftertaste. After all, the Men in Black aren't merry entrepreneurs, like the Ghostbusters. They're cold-blooded bureaucrats whose job is to control and suppress information. The film dishes out the requisite handful of big splashy moments, but in mainly succeeds at manipulation.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1997/11/28/DD72807.DTL#ixzz1RRBlVzOJ

Jul 7 - 09:27 AM

Your tastes are all fucked up.

Jul 6 - 08:15 PM

screw off . . . I am ENTITLED to LIKE whatever the heck I want to like . . .

Jul 7 - 06:28 PM

Exactly. And I'm entitled to tell you that your tastes are all fucked up. Also- quit spamming, no one likes it.

Jul 8 - 12:43 PM

So, here is PROOF that Transformers 3 is a Good Film (LOL):

(review by Magicians Nephew here on Rotten Tomatoes)

"Let me start by saying this, the IMAX3D version of Transformers 3 is totally awesome! It is true that it's perhaps the best 3D movie ever made since director James Cameron's Avatar. With the dazzling 3D effects from Avatar and similar special effects in Battle LA, this is the last cool Transformer movie you don't want to miss.

Now in terms of its story plot, I am surprised at how it is actually better than what I have expected. Yes, none of the robots and humans has any characters, but there is a huge twist during the second half of the film. The beginning is very similar to Revenge of the Fallen, with Optimus Prime doing missions on Earth with Human Special Forces. However, the scenes at Cybertron are pretty mind blowing. In the middle, there is a little drag that might be considered unnecessary for some viewers, since it talks about how Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBaeouf) is trying to find a job and having issues with the new chick Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) etc.

The real interesting part doesn't start until the destruction of Downtown Chicago, there are flying machines and huge carriers that are quite similar to the aliens we have seen in Battle LA. Except that in Transformers 3, the visual effects team has way more budgets to make the movie more realistic with all the actions and explosions.

If there is anything that I don't like, I would say my only complaint for the movie is probably how little they have done with the main villain Megatron, instead of being the one tough robot in the first movie, this time he is just sitting down at the corner and being a pussy all the time throughout the whole film.

Overall, I would say this is a fun movie to watch and it is a huge improvement over the second one, but not as attractive as the first movie. I used to be mad at director Michael Bay for adding all the dorky comedies, but now there're not that many of those lame jokes in the third installment. Go see this in IMAX3D if you can, because it is definitely worth the money for all the amazing big screen 3D effects!"

---- . . . and (sigh) $400 MILLION DOLLARS (worldwide) Later . . .

I've made my case: TRANSFORMERS 3 totally ROCKS!!!!

(let me duck: flying rotten tomatoes will be thrown);

Rotten Tomatoes is sincerely the best site . . .

Jul 6 - 03:56 PM

Daniel Raimondi

tf3 was pretty decent but i disliked the other two

Jul 6 - 08:09 PM

James Stackhouse

That's your proof? One person is not proof, a majority of sane people is.

Jul 7 - 07:29 PM

Joshua Dinsmore

I like this film, it's funny and it has plenty of good SFX and alien characters.

Jul 6 - 04:36 PM

Arthur Grego

I love this movie. Funny, action-packed, good cast . . . THIS is what summer movies should strive to be like.

On a side not, I still hear the theme song playing overhead where I work.

Jul 6 - 04:48 PM

EVERYBODY loves this movie . . . except me. It must be a vibration you guys have that I don't.

Jul 6 - 05:30 PM

UNPOPULAR OPINIONS:

hey: Pauline Kael wrote in the New Yorker Magazine that John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN is a low-octane thriller.

and The Guy in Newsweek Magazine wrote that THE EXORCIST was nothing more than a freak-show.

Back Then (in 1973 and 1978) there was no internet to speak-of and Pauline Kael and "News Week" carried all "The Wight" concerning what was "Good" and what was "bad" in Cinema.

For me Men in Black's failure was in the phenomenon of "expectation" . . . The Men In Black trailer implied that the film was going to be an off-beat, groovy, science-fiction comedy . . .

and I immediately think Dark Humor; Black Humor; Gallows Humor like Robocop and Beetle Juice even Repo Man (with the Dead Aliens and/or the neutron-bomb in the trunk of the Chevy Malibu).

okay, to me Men in Black has a homogenized feel to it.

HOMOGENIZE. transitive verb. 1. a : to blend (diverse elements) into a uniform mixture b : to make homogeneous.

Men in Black feels "the same" to me throughout its 90-minutes . . . it doesn't rise or fall.

Like in Robocop, you have the extreme violence of the ED-209 blowing the OC-executive's guts all over the desk, then you have a action-packed bank heist, and then (much later) you have the bad guy being covered in toxic waste and melting all-over Robocop's car and getting splattered.

Repo Man, you have the highway patrol office getting Neutron-ized (VAPORIZED) by the material in the trunk of the Chevy Malibu, then you have OTTO being shot-at by the crazy family, then you have the Chevy Malibu flying in the sky because there really are dead aliens in the trunk.

in Beetle Juice, you have the couple dying in real life, then they meet wild and crazy Beetle Juice then you have Beetle Juice trying to frighten the family out of the house.

here: in SOMETHING WILD, directed by John Demme you have Jeff Daniels living his normal life, then Melanie Griffith comes "out of nowhere" and totally shakes-up the entire movie, then when Melanie Griffith and Jeff Daniels head back to the suburbs, Ray Liotta totally kicks-open the French Window and handcuffs Jeff Daniels to the toilet pipe and beats him to a pulp almost.

What I MUST be saying is that I was expecting Men in Black to be ABSURDEST and TOTALLY OVER THE TOP.

and it felt . . . PROCESSED and NEATLY PACKAGED for a MAINSTREAM AUDIENCE because it had Will Smith in it and Will Smith wants films to appeal to the widest audience . . . like I AM LEGEND and I, ROBOT . . . where SHOCK is kept to a minimum in favor of likability over running the risk of Violent disruptions in the overall dramatic-pacing of the film.

Men in Black felt like (to me) as if it were one "weird" alien after the next "weird" alien . . . nothing to grab me into the screen and zip me off into another universe like the aforementioned films.

----

There's a certain verve and variety to "off-beat" movies like

Jul 6 - 06:11 PM

m z

How to put this delicately ... you're a weirdo.

Jul 7 - 12:08 AM

Richard Han

Aw, I was just about to say that. DX

Jul 7 - 03:39 AM

"The Men in Black was a comic book created and written by Lowell Cunningham, illustrated by Sandy Carruthers, and published by Aircel Comics. Aircel would later be bought out by Malibu Comics, which itself was bought out by Marvel Comics."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Men_in_Black_(comics)

This is NOT a Marvel comic and by far the largest stretch the rotten tomatoes writers are trying to pull off. Very good film though.

Jul 6 - 06:38 PM

Ryan Fujitani

It is definitely a distant offshoot, but in our defense, the opening credits of the movie actually say "Based on the Marvel Comic," strangely enough.

Jul 6 - 06:42 PM

Fair enough, it's just darn inconsistent. After all Transformers and G.I. Joe were once owned/published by Marvel yet they're not on this list. Also Marvel is now owned by Disney, so why no Pirates of the Caribbean films. Marvel has a very lucrative cannon with many characters that exist in the "Marvel Universe", this is simply not one of them in my eyes.

Jul 6 - 06:56 PM

The rights to MiB belong to Marvel, genius. MiB was published by Aircel, which was bought out by Malibu, which was then bought out by Marvel, ergo: it's a Marvel comic book.

Jul 6 - 08:18 PM

OK "Genius" you do know that Disney now owns Marvel right? so by that logic all of this is Disney property. The point I was trying to make is that Marvel has their own cannon of know characters, stories and comics and Men in Black is not a part of it. Spider-Man, Thor, X-Men, Ironman, etc. all are.

Jul 6 - 11:00 PM

The comics, today - yes. But even so, they do not own the MiB films - the filming rights for the first 2 belong to Columbia, the third one belongs to Sony. Unless, of course, they made some sort of deal that I'm not aware of. Just like Fox owns the XMen films, for example.

Jul 6 - 11:44 PM

Love Stallion

Because Disney owns Marvel, not Marvel owning Disney. Mickey Mouse is not suddenly a Marvel property, you naif.

Jul 7 - 07:25 AM

@Geoff - http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/04/19/boom-studios-classic-disney-marvel/ - idiot.

Jul 7 - 02:24 PM

Hahahaha...awesome! Fantastic link Watcher

Jul 7 - 06:51 PM