Men in Black 3 (2012)

How far technology has taken us! The IMAX 3D version of this high octane three-quel combines elements of Back to the Future and Forrest Gump with the unmistakable Men in Black stamp, i.e. that weirdo who owns the convenience store? He's really from another planet. Mick Jagger? He is too. As you may have gathered, if you hadn't read or seen it already, Will Smith's agent J travels back to 1969 to keep his partner K (Tommy Lee Jones) from getting murdered. The effects are all the more spectacular on the giant screen with the 3D glasses. I only hope you have time to see it this way before it moves to DVD (it will be in regular 3D for at least another week on at least 10 screens here).

Smith (profiled in Seven Pounds, which I didn't like) is back in form as the nagging, talkative, caring partner of the strong silent Jones (last in these pages in Captain America: The First Avenger), who may never have been in any clunkers. Then we have the fine, fine work of Josh Brolin (after I wrote about him in You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger he was in True Grit) with a literally pitch-perfect Tommy Lee Jones voice impression for half the movie. Speaking of voices, any fan of Flight of the Conchords will recognize Jemaine Clements' (also in Dinner for Schmucks) voice in Boris the Animal, despite the intentional distortion. Only Clements could make such a despicable villain so funny. Michael Stuhlbarg (the lead in A Serious Man, a smaller part in Hugo, and Arnold Rothstein in 24 episodes of Boardwalk Empire so far) is adorable as a mutant named Griffin in the second half. Also appearing as agent O in the present and past are Emma Thompson (after I named my favorites in Last Chance Harvey she was in Pirate Radio) and Alice Eve (Sophia in the last four Entourage episodes) respectively, both playing women I'd like to meet. I wish I had read more before seeing this today, because then we would have looked for director Barry Sonnenfeld's cameo as someone watching the moon launch, and the cameo of seven-time Oscar-winning makeup effects man Rick Baker (for An American Werewolf in London (1981), Harry and the Hendersons (1987), Ed Wood (1994), The Nutty Professor (1996), Men in Black (1997), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), and The Wolfman (2010), four of which I've seen) as a "Brain Alien." Consider yourself alerted. Oh, and the guy in the Andy Warhol wig is Bill Hader, last mentioned in this blog in Adventureland.

Jack and I couldn't help but laugh at the mayhem (even when we were squirming at some particularly sticky grossness), and that's the intention of Sonnenfeld, who first came to my attention as cinematographer for Throw Momma from the Train (1987) because I was closely acquainted with that production, but he also shot the Coen brothers' Blood Simple (1984), Raising Arizona (1987), and Miller's Crossing (1990), as well as Big (1988), When Harry Met Sally... (1989), and Misery (1990). His signature camera move was the dramatic zoom. Then he moved into directing with The Addams Family (1991) and its sequel Addams Family Values (1993), and I loved Get Shorty (1995), the first two men in Black movies (1997, 2002), RV (2006), and the series Pushing Daisies, which had plenty of those zooms. The cinematographer this time around is Bill Pope (three Matrix movies and two videos (1999-2003), Spider-Man 2 (2004), Spider-Man 3 (2007), Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2007), and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) who is definitely up to the challenge. Acrophobes beware, there are a number of dizzyingly high-appearing locations. Production designer Bo Welch (covered in Thor) may get an Oscar nod for the wonderful sets and gadgets from then and the future in Jones' house and elsewhere. The picture cars, which Jack noticed are mostly Fords, are terrific.

The snappy script is by Etan Cohen (not to be confused with Joel's brother Ethan Coen) who wrote 11 episodes of King of the Hill, the cult favorite Idiocracy (2006) which annoyed me, and Tropic Thunder, which we liked a lot, among others, and his writing credit is shared with Malibu comic writer Lowell Cunningham.

There are some good music tracks that were popular around 1969, but the list (I think we counted about 12) doesn't seem to be available. However, the Danny Elfman (see my post of 3 hours ago on Dark Shadows) score has been released on CD at your favorite music outlet, and you can listen to whole tracks starting with this. This is the first of the three Men in Black movies to have a single not performed by Smith--this time it's by rapper Pitbull, and, speaking of Back to the Future, it's called Back in Time.

In its second week of release, this is #2 at the box office, probably due to the fact that it's on the most screens, 4248, about 500 more than Snow White and the Huntsman and The Avengers, and not so much because of critics weighing in at 69% and audiences 75% on rottentomatoes. If you like this sort of thing, you'll love this and should see it on the big screen.