Preview Post: MEN IN BLACK I & II

Hey everybody, it's Dru bringing you the preview post this week, pinch-hitting for Dee Babbz who has been temporarily neuralyzed. (I've been assured he'll have his memory back in time for the show, which we're recording tomorrow night.) With this episode, we're starting a new series in which we're going to look at films that are being sequelized or rebooted this summer. We're kicking things off with a double feature of the first two films in a series whose third instalment is in theatres now! In fact, here's the trailer for that one...

I haven't seen it yet, but I think Dave has. Perhaps he'll share some brief thoughts on that film on the podcast! Anyway, we're getting ahead of ourselves! Let's be kind and rewind to 1990, after the jump...

In 1990, Aircel Comics published a three-issue miniseries called The Men in Black, written by Lowell Cunningham and illustrated by Sandy Carruthers. In the first issue, Kay recruits Jay, a DEA agent, into the ranks of the Men in Black, a secret organization that exists to "suppress socially explosive incidents," in the words of Cunningham, the series creator. This includes UFOs and aliens (which happens in issue #2) but also less supernatural phenomena, like a drug-fuelled cult (as in issue #1). 

After Aircel was bought out by Malibu Comics, the latter released a second three-issue miniseries. Malibu was later bought out by Marvel comics, which explains this title card in the 1997 film adaptation...

...though I can't quite explain why it changed back to Malibu for the 2002 sequel...

File that one under "Mysteries of History"... So, as previously mentioned, the film adaptation of Cunningham and Carruthers' comics series was released in 1997, starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, and directed by Barry Sonnenfeld. You might recognize his name as the directors of fellow comic book adaptation The Addams Family...

...and Get Shorty...

...as well as more regrettable films such as Wild Wild West and RV (I'll do you the kindness of sparing you those trailers). You can also read his monthly technology column in Esquire magazine. Tommy Lee Jones you'll surely recognize from his turn a mere two years prior as Harvey Dent/Two-Face in Batman Forever...

Will Smith is, of course, a mega-star, but when this film was made Tommy Lee Jones actually got top billing! Smith's career had already had some of its biggest highs, though, with films like Bad Boys and Independence Day, not to mention his television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air...

In addition to being an actor, Smith was also a popular music act, lending his rapping skillz to the closing credits of the original Men in Black...

...and its sequel...

Nod ya head, indeed. The Men in Black series was so popular that it spawned an animated television series (which Dave might one day write up for this very blog)...

...and a theme park ride at Universal Studios...

I wonder which would make Dave sicker: going on that ride or re-watching Men in Black II? Though the original film was well received by audiences and critics alike, the sequel, which was notably goofier and more pandering than its predecessor, was not. What will we have to say about these two sci-fi comedies? How do they stack up against the comics of the early '90s? You'll have to download the next episode of 24 Panels Per Second to find out. Until then, I'll leave you with the trailers...