We knew in April that Colombia was putting their intentions to produce a third Men In Black film out there. The sequel might actually be becoming corporeal as the studio has hired Etan Cohen to put together a screenplay with hopes of Smith and Jones returning.

Frankly, Men In Black is among my favorite comedies. It hit at the perfect time in my childhood and is just clever and well-done enough to remain a favorite as I grow older.  There are certainly some 90s-as-fuck moments that don’t sit well, but the film is heavy enough on the Sci Fi and light enough on the pretension to remain timeless- plus the core dynamic between Smith and Jones simply fucking works.

My hatred for the sequel doesn’t burn as bright as it once did simply because I remember almost nothing about it. I watch it once on tape as a teen and remember being disgusted, but have no recollection at all of the film itself. Men In Black remains a singular film to me, one that is unfriendly to the idea of a sequel conceptually, because the fun depends so much on the introduction of a new world. You can’t return to the shadowy mystery that drives so much of the original, so any sequel is going to be hamstrung by the insurmountable obstacle of recapturing that spark of discovery. This is a problem that plagued The Matrix sequels from the start, and is painfully present in Ghostbusters II (which Colombia is trying to similarly resurrect, with even more conceptual issues to deal with).

Be that as it may, the fact that Etan Cohen, writer of Tropic Thunder and Idiocracy (and short film My Wife Is Retarded– where can I see that?) is genuine clever and funny makes this unnecessary move easier to swallow. I wish him the best of luck making this work, and if it does come to fruition, hope I don’t have to neuralize another sequel out of my brain.

Source | Variety

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