Its attitude is poised somewhere between the deadpan ghoulishness of the Coen brothers and a Letterman-like sense of the absurdity of life in New York's rich ethnic stew.
Great special effects, inventive alien designs and Smith and Jones's hip, hilarious double act make director Barry Sonnenfeld's Lethal Weapon-style buddy picture a fast-paced pleasure.
[Director Barry Sonnenfeld] establishes the premise in the wildly entertaining first 45 minutes and then glides along for the rest of the film on the strength of a poker-faced comic sensibility.
Men In Black deserves credit for supplementing its special effects with a breezy script and genuinely charismatic performances by Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones.
Men in Black, running a breezy 98 minutes, is a showpiece of laconic economy. It's quick, eccentric and deadly funny and for many young movie-goers it's likely to be a close encounter they'll want to see a second and third time.
The plot, trifling as it is, doesn't much matter. What makes the movie such a hoot are the clever gags, imaginative special effects, and the snappy byplay between the well-matched Jones and Smith.
What makes this wildly imaginative setup so much fun is the contrast between the deadpan gruffness of Jones and Torn, and the spectacularly strange environment in which they work.
Men in Black is the wryest, sharpest, most entertaining special effects film in recent memory, a simultaneous participant and mocking parody of the more-bang-for-your-buck behemoth genre.
