Poster © Sony Pictures Releasing. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreAction, Adventure & Comedy
RatedPG-13
Runtime1 hr 28 mins
ReleasedJuly 3, 2002
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorBarry Sonnenfeld
StarringTommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, Lara Flynn Boyle
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Men in Black II (2002)
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| Men in Black II's Details | |
| Genre | Action, Adventure & Comedy |
| Rated | PG-13 |
| Released | 07/03/2002 |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 1 hr 28 mins |
| Budget | $140M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Based On | The Men in Black by Lowell Cunningham |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Men in Black II's Interests | |
| General | Neuralyzers, black suits, pizza joints, small-town post offices, aliens hiding in plain sight. |
| Music | Danny Elfman. Plus Will Smith back on theme song duty with "Black Suits Comin' (Nod Ya Head)." |
| Movies | Men in Black (1997). The one where J got his suit. |
| Television | The X-Files. Same aliens, a lot less flashy memory erasing. |
| Heroes | Frank the pug. Short, sarcastic, takes his partner badge very seriously. |
| Men in Black II's Crew | |
| Director | Barry Sonnenfeld |
| Writers | Robert Gordon, Barry Fanaro, Robert Gordon (story) |
| Producers | Walter F. Parkes, Laurie MacDonald |
| Cinematography | Greg Gardiner |
| Music | Danny Elfman |
| Edited By | Richard Pearson, Steven Weisberg |
| Production | Columbia Pictures, Amblin Entertainment, MacDonald/Parkes Productions |
| Distributed By | Sony Pictures Releasing |
The best performance in Men in Black II comes from a pug. Frank gets a suit, a badge and more good lines than the two humans on the poster. Everything else is the first movie run through a copier that’s low on toner. Same city, same suits, same alien hiding in a human disguise, and the only new idea is that now J is the grump and K is the new guy, which is like flipping a pancake and calling it a new recipe. Tommy Lee Jones looks like he’d rather be back at the post office. Lara Flynn Boyle plays the villain like she’s waiting for a cab. Johnny Knoxville has two heads and zero jokes. It runs 88 minutes on a reported $140M budget, which is a lot of money per minute of nothing. A 3.8 because the sequel forgot everything that made the first one fun. $4,112 says you forget this movie exists by next week, no neuralyzer needed.
What works: Frank the pug, a few Will Smith one-liners and a short runtime that keeps the damage brief.
What doesn’t: It recycles the first movie’s beats with less energy, a flat villain and jokes that feel written in a hurry.
Who it’s for: Kids who loved the first one and are willing to settle for a lot of pug.
Spoilers
The Light of Zartha turns out to be Laura, the woman J falls for, and she has to leave Earth at the end. K gets his old job back, and the last shot reveals that their whole world sits inside a locker in a much bigger alien station.
Five years after joining the Men in Black, Agent J (Will Smith) is the best agent on staff and the worst partner. He keeps wiping his partners' memories and sending them home. Then Serleena (Lara Flynn Boyle), a shape-shifting alien with very big plans, lands in New York hunting for something called the Light of Zartha. The one agent who knew the case is Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones), who had his memory wiped when he retired and now runs a small-town post office in Massachusetts. J has to get him back in the suit. Barry Sonnenfeld directs. Eighty-eight minutes, and Frank the pug finally gets a badge.
Anyone who forgot something important. J has a machine for that.
Serleenaphoto: derivative work: Wildhartlivie (talk); Kyle_MacLachlan_Lara_Flynn_Boyle_Emmy_Awards_1990.jpg, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Scrad and Charliephoto: www.promiflash.de - Bitte bei Bildverwendung auch Link setzen, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
| Tommy Lee Jones | Kevin Brown / Agent K |
| Will Smith | James Darrel Edwards III / Agent J |
| Rip Torn | Chief Zed |
| Lara Flynn Boyle | Serleena |
| Johnny Knoxville | Scrad and Charlie |
| Rosario Dawson | Laura Vasquez |
| Tony Shalhoub | Jack Jeebs |
| Patrick Warburton | Agent T |
| Jack Kehler | Ben |
| David Cross | Newton |
| Colombe Jacobsen | Hailey |
| John Alexander | Jarra |
| Michael Jackson | Himself |
| Martha Stewart | Herself |
| Peter Graves | Himself |
| Linda Kim | Princess Lauranna |
| Paige Brooks | "Mysteries in History" Lauranna |
| Nick Cannon | MIB Autopsy Agent |
| Biz Markie | Alien Beatboxer |
| Jeremy Howard | Postal Sorting Alien |
| Martin Klebba | Family Child Alien |
| Peter Spellos | Captain Larry Bridgewater |
| Doug Jones | Joey |
| Tim Blaney | Frank the Pug |