Columbia Pictures presents a film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld. Written by Robert Gordon and Barry Fanaro, based on the Malibu comic by Lowell Cunningham. Running time: 88 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for sci-fi action violence and some provocative humor).
If Men in Black II
is going to beat the July Fourth box-office record of $84.1 million that the original set in 1997 (when it also opened on a Wednesday), it's going to have to do so without the help of the critics. Most of them have lashed into the film with uncommon dudgeon. Michael Wilmington in the Chicago Tribune is among those who mentions the financial considerations that prompted this sequel, then comments: It's easy to predict huge box-office numbers (at least initially) for this would-be holiday lollapalooza, he writes. But it you're looking for a movie as good as the first, you'd better rent 1997's MIB at the local video store. Kenneth Turan writes in the Los Angeles Times and Newsday: A good faith attempt has been made to duplicate the original elements, but the mix is wrong, bearings have been lost, the balance is off. Carrie Rickey in the Philadelphia Inquirer calls it a sequel that has no compelling reason to exist. Under the headline A Waste of Slime, Ann Hornaday writes in the Washington Post that the sequel is surprisingly lacking in the sly humor, easy chemistry and nimble pace of the original. Steve Murray in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution grades the movie a C- and dismisses it as a parade of stale jokes.