When “Men in Black” arrived in our theatrical world in 1997 and continued with two more sequels starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, those became instant blockbusters as a sci-fi action-comedy. They were a first of their kind. Hollywood seems to have nothing better to do recently than dig up some old stories and try to make them better by redoing them. Some work and some, like the re-boot of the fore mentioned, Men in Black: International, a Sony Picture release that just falls from Heaven without grace. This time around in the 2019 release, the front men and woman consist of the Thor stars Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson along with Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson, Rebecca Ferguson, Kumail Nanjiani and Rafe Spall.
The story is again set around the alien wranglers who are sent on a case involving a worm in the organization. Molly (Tessa) had a childhood encounter with an alien and grows up to be a wannabe super-secret agent in the wrangling industry. She is paired up with agent H (Hemsworth) and she is referred to as agent M. Both are entrusted in protecting an alien (Kayvan Novak) that comes with big blaster cannons and high-tech weapons laced in black beauty cars. The film is sloppy and Hemsworth shows no interest in his role. Car chases and blasts take place on near empty streets and feels fake. Tessa Thompson was added for just the gender fun challenge as far as I am concerned.
I know it’s a sci-fi/comedy flick but this film has nothing on the original three. On a lighter note, a cute chess piece, Pawny, (voiced by Kumail Nanjini) becomes the pairs best non-human buddy adds some real humor to the script. Liam Neeson as agent High T. who plays division boss, can’t even save this destructive mess. All these heavy hitters director F. Gary Grey (“The Fate of the Furious”) has recruited are fun to watch but is a bad experience. MIBI opens everywhere June 14, 2019 and is a Sony Picture release. 2 stars (out of 5)
