1997

Director: Barry Sonnenfeld

Genre: Action Comedy

Ask someone this question: who is the main character in the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off? You'll probably get "Ferris Bueller" as an answer, unless the person you're asking is a total weirdo who actually thinks about these things. The correct answer is Cameron. 

Main characters aren't just the names who appear in the title. A main character is someone who embodies the themes of the film and whose story has a beginning, middle, and end. 

The main character in Men in Black isn't Will Smith. The main character is Tommy Lee Jones. I'm just going to call them their character names now because that's much easier to write. 

There's a scene in this film where K tells J that in order to join the Men in Black he must give up all connections to his previous life, forever. We don't know anything about J's life, and we don't need to. That question wasn't just addressed to J, it was a reminder for K about what he once gave up. K is responsible for the heart of the film. Although we only get brief hints to his previous life, it's satisfying to see him return to that world at the end.

But... this film is also a comedy. And it's a rare breed of comedy that I actually find funny. It's well shot with visual gags in the distance of some scenes and jokes that aren't thrown in your face. The writing is clever with how they address every alien cliche they can think of while still creating a unique universe.

It's not without its flaws, most of which come with the villain. I never found the bug very compelling, and he's never menacing in that Edgar suit. I also wish the lady in the morgue had a more solid character. There are some great comedic scenes with her, but she sometimes just feels like "the girl". 

I want to talk about one scene. The part where J shoots his gun in the middle of the street and K reprimands him. J's hysterical because there's an alien spaceship threatening to destroy earth, and K says how there's always something like that, and the only reason normal people can live their lives is because they don't know about it. I love that. It really enforces the idea that to the Men in Black, saving the world is just an everyday occurrence. 

And that scene illustrates why this job was worth it for K. He's a true hero. He's probably saved the world more times that we can imagine, and yet no one knows his name. It's nice to see a character like this exist, even though this whole universe is nothing more than a galactic game of marbles. 

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