Men in Black III

The third film and second sequel in the Men in Black franchise. Recently released in the summer of 2012, it is directed by Barry Sonnefeld and once again led by the dynamic duo Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. I watched this one in theatres in Sao Paulo. Its nice to see the audience here are just as receptive to all the humour and nuances in this film as I was. Though its not surprising since this is a mass appeal film. Its got Will Smith! How much more universal can you get?

Plot:

Since this is a recently released film, I won't be too free with the spoilers.
Boris the Animal a rather unpleasant biker dude with vagina dentata on his hand escapes from the high security prison built for him on the Moon. He's out to seek revenge against Agent K who shot his arm off and put him there. His plan is to go back to 1969, the day K shot him, and kill K before he can complete his plan. Apparently K also single-handedly wiped out Boris's entire evil alien race that was bent on destroying Earth by launching a defense system called "Skynet". After Agent K is mysteriously erased from present time, Agent J goes back in time to change it back again and save K's life. In the process he meets a younger K and they get up to shenanigans, namely nearly disrupt the Apollo 11 launch. Oh and the Earth is going to be destroyed in under 24 hours if J doesn't save K.

Now that I look at freeze-frame, that gaping hole is a bit disturbing

I wonder how he faps.

Thoughts:

No comparison to the first since its original and set up the movieverse. I do think this is more enjoyable than the second film, which walked a fine line between low-brow funny and plain annoying. Upon rewatching it recently I decided the combination of the man with a floaty sock puppet second head, the annoying worm aliens and the talking pug just gets to be too much. Not to mention the romantic subplot was cheesy and unbelievable as hell.

They realized their mistake this time, skipped the romantic subplot and stuck to the bromantic mainplot. Smart move. Although the set-up of their sudden relationship angst is obvious and a bit forced, as was the final over-poignant 'twist', its still effective in introducing the main emotional conflict, making this MIB more than just plain save-the-world-from-aliens action movie.

There are some really amusing scenes and the overall comedic value is high. I like how they tapered the obnoxious funky aliens down to a minimum. The obligatory funky alien in this one is a wise multi-dimensional crazy but mild-mannered hobo. Funky? Yes. Annoying? No. Good job writers.

Also I approve of the younger Agent K. He's pretty good, pretty convincing.

Notable Scenes:

"No, I just have you."

Aww, that's some touching bromance they got going on.

"O...K...."

This scene made me laugh the hardest. Oh Will, you've still got it.

TL;DR:

Watch MIB III if you liked the any of the first two, or if you like Will Smith and his brand of humour.

Enter the Void

A 2009 film by Gaspar Noe. Known for being shot from a first person point of view, head wobbling and blinking included. Then shot from a dead first person point of view.
Trippy cinematography. The whole movie's one long gorgeous bad acid trip. I had to finish it in two settings because I got motion-sick halfway through.

Plot:

It's an exploration of the seedy underbelly of Tokyo. Really pretty plotless. Some burnout kid from the states lands himself in the drug scene in Tokyo pretty deep and has half a mind to try to get out. His little sister's down on her luck and comes joins him. His friend pressures him into one last deal but it turns out to be a bust by the cops. In his hurry to destroy evidence he locks himself in a bathroom stall and takes half the pills while dumping the other down the toilet. He gets shot through the stall door in the stomach and drifts into a disembodied spirit. The rest of the film is a half death-vision half drug trip from bird's eye view.
He, or it, mostly haunts his sister. The girl falls into grief, then with the shady no-good characters he called his friends, who all wasted no time capitalizing on the naive young thing. Sex happens. Drugs happen. Drama and violence happen.
There's a short intersperse where he hallucinates that they somehow revived him, but he can't speak, can't do anything but blink while everyone treated him with disgust. Its implied he's back ala Frankenstein's monster style, an abomination that can barely quantify as living.
At the end of drifting, he enters into his sister's belly glowing in the middle of coitus (yes he watches his sister having sex) and is seen reborn as a baby. I took it as a happy ending.

Bird's eye view porn. Unusual I guess.

There are several interpretations of it. The director himself states that the whole thing's a hallucination of his drug addled brain in the few moments before total brain death. Time does get wonky when the brain's in a different state.

Notable scenes:

Scary as shit sudden flashbacks of when their parents died. Two little wailing children in the backseat staring at their dead parents' upside-down bloody mashed-up face inches away from their own. My gosh. If you had a mind of watching this movie while tripping on something, be careful of those scenes. They turn up unexpectedly and quite a few times.

 This film isn't about the dialogue.

What I liked:

All the rainbow neon love goodness. All the colors of the city night. 

<3

TL;DR

Seriously seriously beautiful and trippy movie. The tripping scenes and the shots of soft glowing neon Tokyo is enough to warrant a watch.

List of Movies

Here's a list of movies I've watched for the first time since opening this blog, excluding the ones I've already posted about. The purpose of this blog was to prevent myself from watching too many films because I have to write up a blog entry on each film. Guess that didn't work out too well. I will review them, one way or another. I'll do short reviews, and maybe proper ones for select films. I'll be coming back to strike-through the ones I reviewed.

- Professor Layton
- Bridesmaids
- Iron Man II
- Scott Pilgrim
- Zombieland
- Source Code
- Rio
- Brazil
- 12 Monkeys
- Green Lantern
- Cars 2
- Burn AFter Reading
- Harry Potter & Deathly Hallows II
- Enter the Void
- Kick Ass
- The Big Lebowski
- Barton Fink
- Udaan
- Man on Wire
- Fear and Loathing
- From Dusk till Dawn
-The Animatrix
- The Princess Bride
- All About my Mother
- Delicatessen
- Paprika
- Pokemon Movie 8
- Ghostbusters
- Punch Drunk Love
- Sherlock Holmes 2
- Sleep Dealer
- Borrower Arriety
- Blade Runner
- Final Destination 5
- Hugo
- Lilo & Stitch
- Jacob's Ladder
- The Human Centipede II
- Brothers
- X-Men everything
- A Knight's Tale
- Thor
- Hot Tub Time Machine
- The Usual Suspects
- Men in Black III
- Taxi Driver
- Pacific Rim
- Leon the Professional
- Heavy Metal 2000
- Clash of the Titans
- The Hobbit
- The Avengers
- World War Z
- Wreck It Ralph
- The Room
- Rocky Horror Picture Show
- Taxidermia
- In Bruges
- Babies
- Captain America the First Avenger
- Cabin in the Woods
- Splice
- Olympus has Fallen
- Monster University
- The Purge