{"id":2974,"date":"2012-05-25T06:18:03","date_gmt":"2012-05-25T13:18:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=2974"},"modified":"2012-05-25T06:18:03","modified_gmt":"2012-05-25T13:18:03","slug":"men-in-black-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=2974","title":{"rendered":"Time Travel and Terrible Teeth in Men in Black 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nHollywood is addicted to nostalgia. In the later part of 2011 we witnessed a silent film win Best Picture, Spielberg compose a war film about horse that would of been better received in the 50\u2019s and Scorsese send a 3D love poem addressed to Melies. Recently we’ve seen Tim Burton take a 2 centuries old vampire back to the 70\u2019s and now, with the latest install of the \u201cMen in Black\u201d series, we time travel to the 60\u2019s for some flower power and a killer Josh Brolin performance.
\nThe longing for the past is actually two tiered as \u201cMen in Black 3\u201d is another example of a sequel that should have been made years ago (but should be better received than the pointless \u201cAmerican Reunion\u201d or the clunky \u201cIndiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull\u201d). I\u2019m still waiting for the \u201cBack to the Future\u201d sequel where Marty’s son goes all the way back to 1985 (the year the original was released) and spends the entire movie trying to not sleep with his mother.<\/p>\n

 
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\nWhile it has been awhile it is nice to see the dapperly dressed boys again. It is business as usual for J (Will Smith) and K (Tommy Lee Jones) as they run around New York saving the world from unwanted but very cool looking aliens. When one of universe\u2019s most villainous villains, Boris the Animal (Jemaine Clement), escapes from his lunar prison, K seems even more craggy than usual. K was the man who locked Boris away and the filthy beast wants revenge. So Boris goes back in time to 1969 to murder K before he can arrest him and J, the ever faithful, must travel back in time to stop it.<\/p>\n

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The premise is a good one and the time travel element allows for plenty of Sci-Fi tomfoolery. But the \u201cMen in Black\u201d franchise has always been equal parts comedy with the science fiction and here the comedy is missing. Long segments go by early in the film without a chuckle.  The alien characters encountered as the boys piece together the case, usually a highlight, are limp and lifeless. Instead of visiting an hilarious Tony Shaloub and blowing his face off, we spend time at a bowling ally throwing the grumbling head of an alien down the lane. This is all uninspired and is where the \u201cMen\u201d show their age.<\/p>\n

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Once the \u201cMen in Black 3\u201d goes back in time there is some momentum as Brolin saves the movie with his pitch perfect Tommy Lee Jones impersonation. Clement doesn\u2019t help matters, as his baddie Boris is rather bland. And ultimately Will Smith is Will Smith. Director Barry Sonnenfeld, who helmed all three in the series, seems rusty and should be since the last feature the man directed was the failed Robin Williams\u2019 vehicle \u201cRV\u201d back in 2006.<\/p>\n

 
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\nThe production crew is an all-star cast in its self. Danny Elfman provides the Elfmanesque score. Bill Pope (\u201cThe Matrix,\u201d \u201cScott Pilgrim vs. The World\u201d) is the director of photographer although the camera is a little more tame and stationary compared to past efforts. The script (which wasn\u2019t even finished when the production began filming!!) was a joint effort between A-list scribes David Koepp, Jeff Nathanson and Etan Cohen. In other words, \u201cMen in Black 3\u201d is a big, expensive summer movie that has all the components in the right place. It just doesn\u2019t fully come together.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hollywood is addicted to nostalgia. In the later part of 2011 we witnessed a silent film win Best Picture, Spielberg compose a war film about horse that would of been better received in the 50\u2019s and Scorsese send a 3D love poem addressed to Melies. Recently we’ve seen Tim Burton take a 2 centuries old vampire back to the 70\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[11045,13688,19310,23061,24295],"class_list":["post-2974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-josh-brolin","tag-men-in-black-3-review","tag-summer-movies-2012","tag-tommy-lee-jones","tag-will-smith"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2974\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}