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March 28, 2024, 10:21:08 AM

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Men in Black: International

Started by St_Eddie, April 28, 2019, 03:13:28 PM

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St_Eddie


This looks like gubbins.  I'm willing to bet dollars to doughnuts that the cute little alien in the little girl's bedroom turns out to be a viscous species and will suddenly change its expression to one of menace and show a set of razor sharp teeth (other examples of this trope can be found in Galaxy Quest and Evolution). It's such a painfully tired trope at this point that it seems appropriate for this dead-on-arrival sequel.

Keep on beating those dead horses, Sony.

FUN FACT: It's not quite as funny as the time that Universal did it for The Mummy trailer but Sony initially uploaded the trailer for Men in Black: International without the music track.


Mister Six

Mrs Six and I saw that trailer three times at the cinema before we realised that the hammer bit at the end is a reference to Thor. Without that link, it's just a baffling non-joke.

Anyway, the MIB franchise has been dead since that awful first sequel, and I can't imagine Generic Strong Powerful Woman and Generic Bumbling Young Hottie Played By A Hemsworth revisiting a lot of setpieces and references from a film that came out 22 years ago is going to revive that. Definitely won't bother unless - against all odds - it gets storming reviews.

St_Eddie

Quote from: Mister Six on April 28, 2019, 05:32:17 PM
Mrs Six and I saw that trailer three times at the cinema before we realised that the hammer bit at the end is a reference to Thor. Without that link, it's just a baffling non-joke.

I hadn't realised, as I don't generally watch superhero movies but it didn't seem out of place to me, as all of the jokes in the trailer were unfunny.

St_Eddie


So not only are the little worm aliens from the previous movies in this, but so is Frank the pug.



"'Member Frank the pug?"

"Ooohhh, I 'member Frank the pug!"

Quote from: Mister Six on April 28, 2019, 05:32:17 PM
Definitely won't bother unless - against all odds - it gets storming reviews.

Even then, I wouldn't bother.  A certain other movie with Chris Hemsworth got great reviews; the Ghostbusters remake.

Twed


Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

It doesn't seem like something anyone was clamouring for, other than Sony's accountants, but Hemsworth and Thompson had good chemistry and comic chops in Thor 3. F. Gary Grey isn't Taika Waititi (never seen them in the same room, though), but Fast and Furious 8 was enjoyable. It could be good.

At some point, I expect Neeson's character to walk around with a cosh, looking for some black-suited bastard to kill.

St_Eddie

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on April 28, 2019, 05:45:40 PM
At some point, I expect Neeson's character to walk around with a cosh, looking for some black-suited bastard to kill.

So that's why Will Smith isn't in this one!

mothman

I retain enough goodwill toward the original to hope that maybe just once they'll produce a sequel worth a damn. And as CtRDRSS says, CH and TT work well together. So I could envisage myself being asked by my children to take them to see this, and at least do so feeling there could be worse things I could be going to see.

Worst case scenario it bombs, raising serious questions about Hemsworth's non-Thor bankability, and all of a sudden his asking price isn't putting him out of contention for his proposed Star Trek 4 participation.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Quote from: St_Eddie on April 28, 2019, 05:47:33 PM
So that's why Will Smith isn't in this one!
Or Tommy Lee Jones. Neeson's not racist - he spoke to a priest (whom he then coshed).

Mister Six

Quote from: St_Eddie on April 28, 2019, 05:36:00 PM
I hadn't realised, as I don't generally watch superhero movies but it didn't seem out of place to me, as all of the jokes in the trailer were unfunny.

But at least they're identifiable as jokes, however lame. That just looks like a total non sequitur unless you make the hammer connection.

Mister Six

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on April 28, 2019, 05:45:40 PM
At some point, I expect Neeson's character to walk around with a cosh, looking for some black-suited bastard to kill.

They could defuse the issue by digitally making him black. I can't foresee any problems arising from that.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Quote from: mothman on April 28, 2019, 05:52:04 PM
Worst case scenario it bombs, raising serious questions about Hemsworth's non-Thor bankability
I'd have thought those questions were already being asked, since pretty much every other film he's headlined seems to have flopped. He wasn't even getting much traction as Thor until Ragnarok.

It seems bizarre that it took so long for people to cotton on to his comedy skills, as that was always his strongest suit, going back to the first Thor film.

mothman

Quite likely; but he seems a good egg and I harbour him no ill will, so I'm not averse to him doing well, especially if it shows off his comedy chops, so another reason why I'm minded to give MIB:I a chance.

St_Eddie

#14
Quote from: mothman on April 28, 2019, 05:52:04 PM
I retain enough goodwill toward the original to hope that maybe just once they'll produce a sequel worth a damn.

It's Sony Pictures though.  Modern day Sony Pictures.  There's a 1.7% chance that it will be anything other than a great big honking disaster.

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on April 28, 2019, 05:53:24 PM
Or Tommy Lee Jones. Neeson's not racist - he spoke to a priest (whom he then coshed).



"What's wrong with being racy?"

Phil_A

Is that Kumail Nanjiani as the voice of the worm guy?

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Yes.

I wish they were still doing that Jump Street crossover.

fucking ponderous

Quote from: St_Eddie on April 28, 2019, 03:13:28 PM
FUN FACT: It's not quite as funny as the time that Universal did it for The Mummy trailer but Sony initially uploaded the trailer for Men in Black: International without the music track.
The same thing happened with the trailer for mostly forgotten 2008 comedy First Sunday. I mention this because great internet man Neil Cicierega remixed that trailer into one of my favorite things: https://youtu.be/bg-StCCjE2o (note the audio was originally posted on its own by Cicierega on Soundcloud and has since been taken down. This unrelated YouTube user managed to snag it and put it over the original trailer, but I think it works better with no visual component at all, as the artist intended)
The third Men in Black was alright.

SavageHedgehog

I think this looks OK. I do think the concept of Men In Black has a decent amount of potential that wasn't exactly exhausted by the mediocre sequels, and at least it looks like this isn't a straight retread of the original. It is Sony though, can't deny that.

greenman

Unlike a lot of Sony stuff it actually looks reasonably well made but as said its not really a film I think audiences are crying out for so just being decent probably isn't going to be enough for much success.

phantom_power

I have to stand up for the third film as somewhat of a return to form, despite its tortured production. Anything would be an improvement over the rubbish second one but I think it is genuinely a good film, with an interesting plot and good villain.

I don't think this means anything for this film though, but I agree that Hemsworth and Thompson are both good actors and good comic actors, both together and apart, so at least the chemistry should be good

madhair60

This doesn't look very good. The first trailer was slightly more promising but this one, oof. It looks like R.I.P.D.

SavageHedgehog

Quote from: phantom_power on April 29, 2019, 10:02:32 AM
I have to stand up for the third film as somewhat of a return to form, despite its tortured production. Anything would be an improvement over the rubbish second one but I think it is genuinely a good film, with an interesting plot and good villain.

Have to say I don't really agree. It has its merits; good performances from Brolin and Clement, a few nice ideas, a nice retro 90s feel in places without relying on callbacks to the original. But it's stuffed full of lame jokes and the production problems were very evident, certainly in the unenthusiastic performances from Smith and Jones, but even more in the slapdash storytelling. It is better than the second, but still a fairly poor blockbuster.

St_Eddie

Quote from: SavageHedgehog on April 29, 2019, 03:49:53 PM
It is better than the second, but still a fairly poor blockbuster.

I agree with this.  The third movie is fine but that's the problem, it's just fine.  It zips along at a fair old pace and has moments throughout which work and are entertaining.  Then it ends and you immediately forget about it.  I don't just mean that you don't give it a second thought (though that is also true) but rather that you literally can't recall large swathes of the movie.  It's utterly forgettable.

Oh, and I know that most folk really enjoyed Jemaine Clement as Boris but personally, I thought that it was laughably bad performance.

mothman

I thought the sequels relied too much on gimmicky alien characters to expand the world of MiB. Maybe that's a holdover from the TV show? Anyway, nobody cares about the coffee-drinking praying mantis things, or that pug, or all the others. It made it feel too muppety. And in the third one, Michael Stuhlbarg is always good value but again, character too gimmicky.

Tombola

The second one does feature Stephen Merchant as an alien - probably the only thing it has going for it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmwgNyPJoSw

PlanktonSideburns

Quote from: Tombola on April 29, 2019, 08:44:26 PM
The second one does feature Stephen Merchant as an alien - probably the only thing it has going for it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmwgNyPJoSw

what the hell is the shreiking chimp noise going on in this clip?!

Glebe

It looks fucking awful. "Let's just get Thor and Valkyrie and that'll make it a great movie." NO. NO.

Quote from: PlanktonSideburns on April 30, 2019, 07:21:30 AM
what the hell is the shreiking chimp noise going on in this clip?!

Monkey News.

phantom_power

Quote from: PlanktonSideburns on April 30, 2019, 07:21:30 AM
what the hell is the shreiking chimp noise going on in this clip?!

Ricky was on set that day and found it all hilarious