The theme of this year's summer and fall movie seasons probably won't be originality -- with "Star Wars'" second episode and Ben Affleck's debut as Jack Ryan already in theaters and new chapters in the "Austin Powers," "Harry Potter" and "Lord of the Rings" series on the horizon, 2002's release schedule is packed with sequels.
The latest in this stream of big budget retreads, "Men in Black II," doesn't exactly overcome all the usual criticisms thrown at such films. It's uneven, falls back on the old formula without entirely maintaining the charms of its predecessor, and none of the credited writers seem to be trying terribly hard.
1997's "Men in Black" succeeded through its novelty and sense of fun. The silliness of the premise won over skeptics because everyone involved enjoyed their own discovery. A sequel by nature can't maintain the excitement of that newness, and unfortunately "MIIB's" screenplay isn't strong enough to compensate for this core problem.
Good timing was also critical to the original's popularity. A comedy about alien invaders made sense a year after "Independence Day" smashed box office records and during a period when people still cared about "The X-Files;" now the idea is just dated.
"MIIB" does try to do something different by starting off its plot with a role reversal. Will Smith's onetime rookie Agent J is now an authority figure who can't find a dependable partner, whereas Tommy Lee Jones' veteran Agent K is unaware of his former career and reduced to selling stamps to small children at a rural post office. The concept is in theory a good one, but director Barry Sonnenfeld quickly abandons it by restoring Agent K's memory with a "deneuralizer" that smacks of a cheap excuse to return to the characters' crowd-pleasing previous relationship.
There are moments of cleverness in "MIIB," but the majority of the jokes fall flat -- if you saw the film's ubiquitous previews, then you've already caught most of the best gags. The remaining laughs often tend toward the mildly embarrassing: canine agent Frank the pug barks along to the Baha Men's "Who Let the Dogs Out" (obvious but still funny), Smith and Jones battle a "ball-chinian" creature (not worth explaining) and we learn that "almost all postal employees are aliens."
The best thing that the original "Men in Black" had going for it was the unlikely chemistry between its lead actors -- Jones' weathered gruffness contrasted perfectly with Smith's glibness. This time around, director Barry Sonnenfeld makes a major mistake in waiting nearly a half-hour to reintroduce Jones' Agent K.
In the absence of his comic foil, Smith is forced to carry a weak opening section centering around his character's growing loneliness. Once the two reunite, they slip straight back into their familiar but winning bickering, and their performances allow the film at least to steadily improve over its second half.
Less can be said for the women of "MIIB": as head villain/would-be underwear model Serleena, Lara Flynn Boyle (of ABC's "The Practice") overdoes her tough-girl act and ends up just off-putting.
Stock love interest Rosario Dawson is appealing enough, but she isn't given much to do for most of the film other than play Twister with the wise-cracking worm aliens.
A more inspired performance comes oddly enough in the form of an unbilled cameo by Michael Jackson, as an operative desperate to join the alien-fighting agency.
"I could be Agent M!" the king of pop pleads on two occasions. It's hard to say if it's the absurdity of the dialogue or Jackson's frightening appearance that elicits more laughs, but either way the moment works on a bizarre level.
Unfortunately, "MIIB" is short on scenes that provoke that kind of surprise. It's not a terrible film, but it's also very forgettable. The special effects are fun, but nothing we didn't see in the original. Despite game performances by Smith, Jones and many supporting actors (including Rip Torn and MTV "Jackass" Johnny Knoxville), the film ultimately comes across as yet another subpar reunion.
