Men in Black II (2002)

Director: Barry Sonnenfeld

Cast: Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith*, Lara Flynn Boyle, Rosario Dawson

Have I Seen it Before: Only once, so far as I can remember, on its opening weekend all those years ago. Maybe I was in a singularly bad mood in those days, but the film failed to make much of an impression then.

Did I Like It: And I’m not sure it has improved much. It is not altogether funny. With an alarming frequency, it falls into the trap so many blockbuster sequels fall into, where it seems like we’re supposed to be content with this new entry echoing lines and scenarios from the original, while also positively straining its narrative muscles to cancel any conclusions from the first film. I’m ultimately willing to overlook that deficit when I realize that the original film wasn’t nearly as funny as we collectively like to try and remember. The series is more possessed of light science fiction/space opera injected with a certain degree of Peter Gunn energy.

And on that front, the film delivers what it promises. I’m even willing to acknowledge that it aptly takes itself less seriously than the earlier film and embraces the sci-fi cheese that is at the core of its being.

So, does the film work better now than it did back then? I’m in agreement with my previous self to say that as appointment-viewing blockbuster viewing, it feels too slight for its own good. But as a light entertainment to play on a lazy Saturday afternoon while trying to catch up on some writing? A movie that Rob Gordon in High Fidelity (2000) might describe longingly as “something I can ignore”? It works perfectly. That may sound like damning with faint praise, but the world certainly needs movies to play in the background.

They just need to get past opening weekend.

*Man, Jones’ agents must have made one hell of a deal on Men in Black (1997) to still be getting top billing in the new millennium.

The LEGO Batman Movie (2017)

Director: Chris McKay

Cast: Will Arnett, Zach Galifianakis, Rosario Dawson, Michael Cera

Have I Seen it Before: There was very little chance that a film like this was going to fly under my radar, right?

Did I Like It: The version of me that is five-years old—that same version of myself which steadfastly refuses to see any flaws in Batman (1989)—would probably label this movie asa my favorite movie of all time.

The version of me that had been refreshing LEGO.com every fifteen minutes over the past few days to make sure my order of the LEGO 1989 Batmobile has shipped* can also find plenty about the film to enjoy, too. It is steeped heavily in the lore (perplexing and sort of stupid though it sometimes is) of The Dark Knight. References abound, and as Warner Bros./DC keeps doing grave disservice to Barbara Gordon, Rosario Dawson’s portrayal of the character may just be the best for which we can hope for a little while. Will Arnett—extending his work from the superlative The LEGO Movie (2014)—perfectly captures every bad thing about the character I’ve spent the vast majority of my life** apologizing for. The rest of the characters get their due, which is hard to do when there are dozens of them, and double hard when more than a few live-action Batman films have fallen apart when they try to service half a dozen main characters***.

And still, there is some part of me that is unsatisfied. The LEGO Movie was such a perfect exercise in anarchy, that I can’t help but wish there was something a little more subversive at the core of this one, too. “You’re my best friend, and friends are family” is… nice, I guess? I want something darker and more serious. Kind of like Batman.

That may say more about me than it does the film.

*Update: It has.

**Side note: I don’t at all remember the first time I had heard of Batman. The summer of 1989 happened, and it was like I had always been aware of him? I even added a scene in Orson Welles of Mars where several characters realize that it is next to impossible to explain the character without a common frame of reference, aside from calling him “The Shadow, but minus guns and add pointy ears.”

***You may be thinking that I’m talking about Batman & Robin (1997), and well… I am. But I’m also throwing in any live-action bat-production since The Dark Knight (2008).

Death Proof (2007)

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Cast: Kurt Russell, Rosario Dawson, Zoë Bell, Rose McGowan

Have I Seen it Before: Yes. But I honestly have no memory of Planet Terror (2007) the other half of the Grindhouse double feature.

Did I Like It: Which I think speaks volume for this film. I wrote about Jackie Brown (1997) recently that it was the most anonymous of Tarantino’s films, whereas this is the exact opposite. From the opening shot of a woman’s feet* all the way to the cameo of Big Kahuna Burger, this a concentrated dose of Tarantino. If you’re disinclined to like his work, then the film never has a chance.

Thankfully, I’m inclined to the opposite, so the film works, if not to the delirious highs of something like Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood (2019). What holds it down from true greatness is the format. Tarantino has always been interesting in committing homage to exploitation films of the 1970s, but he has always been remixing those elements to create new, vibrant art. Here, he is trying to make one of those films that he so enjoyed. The stark cutting would have riddled films of the genre, but that is part of the environment through which we see those films. Here, it is artificial, and to much less effect. Death Proof is a worthy experiment, if not the crown jewel of the man’s work.

That being said, the stunt work—the film’s entire reason for existing—is exquisite, and of a type we are not likely to ever see in films again. That alone is worth the price of admission, or the purchase of a DVD.

*One wonders if at a certain point Tarantino gleefully steered that motif into parody. We all laugh about the man’s foot fetish, but I start to think it may have been overblown. Then, I pop in one of his films and… Damn. That dude really enjoys filming women’s feet. More power to him, but it’s hard not to see the auteur in those shots.