MEN IN BLACK/BACK IN TIME 3.0***

It’s been 10 years since the poor made sequel to the Men In Black series. Thank goodness this movie uses a fresher, newer perspective. The result is a film that returns to its roots and gives audiences the chance to relive much of what they first enjoyed in the or9iginal MIB –a smart, sci-fi, buddy comedy that embraces everything weird and wonderful about the unknown universe.

In his first movie role in nearly 4 years, Will Smith's Agent J is the usual charming, witty wiseass we expect him to be. Still teamed up with the laconic Agent K (wrinkly Tommy Lee Jones) he is no closer to cracking his older partner’s deadpan demeanor but their relationship issues take a back seat when a nemesis from K’s past, Boris the Animal, turns up to exact revenge for having been captured by Agent K imprisoned on the moon 40 years ago. Boris’ elaborate plan takes him back in the past to the day he was caught but this time he kills K, and sets ripples in the present, where K no longer exists and a different reality results. J has to then literally time jump (off the Empire State building no less) and fix the past for normalcy to return in the present.
. The big surprise is how well Josh Brolin impersonates tommy Lee Jones in the role of a younger K – which should not be a surprise considering Brolin's recent, impressive body of work as a bonafide actor, most notably in W. So chameleon-like is his performance that you forget it's him and actually believe it's just a younger version of Tommy Lee Jones that you're seeing.

The films primary achievement and a true signal of its return to form though are the scenes set in the past. Not only is Josh Brolin a dead ringer for Tommy Lee's K during his youth, but the hip musical vibes of the late 60's/early 70's allow for plenty of playfulness to ensue with a particularly hilarious segment devoted to Andy Warhol. If that isn't enough, everything very neatly ties into another historic scientific moment from that time period and ends on a moment of satisfying emotionality that provides not only closure to the film but the series as a whole. If that doesn't make you forgive all the wrongs that the sequel did and embrace this film as one of the years better movie franchise offerings, the only thing that might work on you is J or K’s neutralize.
This is a fun, fascinating probable ending to the MIB series… and a well done one at that.
Clark