Men in Black: 25th Anniversary Talkback (SPOILERS)

[Viper]

This summer marks the 25th anniversary of the hilarious sci-fi movie: Men in Black.

Will Smith & Tommy Lee Jones were excellent as Agents J & K. The movie had fantastic action sequences & special effects. Also, Tony Shalhoub was very funny as Jeebs. Oh, & Linda Fiorentino was excellent as Dr. Laurel Weaver. Frank the alien pug & The Worm Guys were very funny too.

So, what are your thoughts & memories about this movie? Men in Black will always be one of my all-time favorite movies. I'll also always love the four season cartoon series as well.

 

[JMTV]

I didn't have any memories of Men in Black. I heard of it, but I never watched it until I saw it on Cartoon Network (ACME Night block) a couple of weeks ago for the first time.

Not my favorite, but it was cool and it something I can put on the background sometimes.

However, the song was a BOP!

 

[wonderfly]

This is maybe less about "Men in Black" and more about being in my early 20's and at a point where we had good movies coming out every summer. "Independence Day" in 1996 kicked off a good number of years revolving around a "Summer Tentpole" movie (I know there had been "Summer Tentpole" movies before then, but Independence Day started a renewed trend).

My birthday is on July 3rd. So I remember going to see a "Independence Day" in 1996 on my birthday, "Men in Black" on my birthday in 1997, "Armageddon" on my birthday in 1998, and "Wild Wild West" on my birthday in 1999 (and that movie stunk, so that kinda broke the trend of getting to see a new cool movie on my birthday). But in 1999 we got new Star Wars, and in 2001 we got "Lord of the Rings", so the late 90's/early 2000's were just wonderful.

Anyway, "Men in Black" proved that Will Smith had staying power (than Independence Day wasn't a fluke). I remember discovering it was based off of a Malibu comic book, and thinking that was cool.

.....I remember thinking that the cartoon was even better than the movie.

 

[Rick Jones]

Independence Day hit me hard as a kid. The spectacle and jingoistic action were great but I was at an age when Will Smith was the coolest movie star on the planet to me. I loved him on Fresh Prince but Made in America was the only movie I had really seen him in, and he was just a sort of nerdy sidekick IMO. All of a sudden, he has this image makeover as an awesome, young and cool action star cop in Bad Boys. Then he continued with a similar role as an awesome fighter pilot saving the world from aliens. I was not a big moviegoer before this but I was taken to see Independence Day and it was such an incredible experience for little me. I was drawing comics about it , describing it to everyone I know, I was just in love with the movie and anticipated more cool movies with Will Smith.

I read in one of my grandmother's entertainment tabloids that a movie based on some comic called Men in Black would be his follow-up. It didn't seem appealing to me at all ("Who even makes this comic?") but it was Will Smith. I don't remember exactly when I saw the first preview but I was sold instantly. The movie looked so pretty, the humor seemed so sharp and it felt like a T2 level effects extravaganza. I could not imagine the movie disappointing me at all, and I was lucky that it actually didn't. I loved everything about the movie. The movie had a clever surprise for me through almost every scene. My absolute favorite surprise was the awesome actor playing the Edgar alien. To this day, I feel as though I'm watching a 10ft tall alien struggling to remain stuffed in a 6'4" body. I didn't know this D'Onofrio guy before this but I was now a fan. I had my expectations for Will and Tommy and they more than delivered. I was even playing the soundtrack song constantly. I loved the movie and I will always remain fond of that first one, as well as the cartoon it spawned.

 

[dumbfoolkid5]

Happy Birthiversary

Sent from my SM-G781U using Tapatalk

 

[Pooky]

It never occurred to me before, but I think it is (along with the first Toy Story and *maybe* The Rescuers Down Under, which I need to revisit some time) in the Top 3 of movies I saw theatrically as a kid. That might say more about the other movies I saw before I turned 13 (from memory Tom & Jerry: The Movie, Home Alone 2, Mr Nanny, Thunderbird Six (revival screening), TMNT III, Super Mario Bros. (which I chose over Jurassic Park!), Casper, Batman Forever, Batman & Robin, Space Jam, Hercules, Bean, Star Trek: Insurrection, The Phantom Menace) than this one.

Still this was a good one. This was the first time I'd really been able to participate in the big alien craze of the 90s; I quite reasonably wasn't allowed to watch The X-Files and Independence Day was restricted to audiences of 12 and over in the UK, so I had to sit that one out too (seen it since. Not really a favourite). I was really excited to see it, and I read the novelisation before it came out. Don't think I've seen it in full in about 20 years, but it didn't disappoint and I bought the VHS when it came out.

Didn't really care for any of the sequels. I had heard the bad rap on the second by the time I saw it, so I went in with low expectations and thought it was OK, but when I revisited it I could see why it was so unpopular. Black Suits Coming is a pretty good song though. I also went into the "rebootquel" International with low expectations, and thought it was passable. I thought the trailers for the third were pretty good, so went in with pretty high expectations and consequently was pretty disappointed. The cartoon was great though, and still held up when I watched a few episodes last year.

 

[Classic Speedy]

I re-watched it a few years back. It's still a fun movie. Witty dialogue, creative characters, some unique action set pieces, and the fun of the "no such agency" motif, all adds up to a good time. I too saw it in theaters with my dad- he could confidently say he had never seen anything like it before (and enjoyed it for that).

The sequels... not a fan. Especially the second- what a disappointment that was. The third was an improvement from what I remember but lacks the freshness of the first.

Will Smith gets a lot of the praise (and indeed he's good in this movie) but let's not forget Tommy Lee Jones. He's a big part of why the first movie works so well. Even though he's ostensibly the straight man, he gets a good portion of the laughs by how deadpan and unphased he is in the face of all this absurdity.

 

[Checkerboard]

It's a good classic. Which imo didn't need sequels that were okay-ish. However, the animated series was great.