I was a big fan of the first Men In Black. I think it's an extremely strong premise for a franchise and, interestingly, the blend of bright, cartoonish sci-fi spectacle and teflon humor actually sets it apart in today's "gritty" world of hyper-realistic Transformers and darkly serious Dark Knights. The first film benefited greatly from catching Will Smith right at the beginning of his rise to international super-stardom, but before his very presence in a film rewriting half the script to fit his public image. On the other hand, Men In Black II suffered from an extremely subpar script that was an absolute mess on screen. I literally walked out of the theater feeling like I had somehow missed fifteen minutes of the movie somewhere.
Now, fifteen years after the franchise began, we've got a glimpse of the impending third go-round:
I actually rather like this teaser, which is obviously drawing heavily from the movie's first act in an attempt to set up the big idea here, that Agent J must travel back in time to the 1969 to find the younger version of Tommy Lee Jones' Agent K, played with impeccable inflection by Josh Brolin. (At least, I hope that's Brolin's voice. I think it is. If they chose to have Jones dub all Brolin's dialogue...BOO!)
One of my problems with MIB II was that Tommy Lee Jones spent half the movie as an amnesiac and without the counter-weight of Agent K, the movie became too much about Will Smith wishing he had a girlfriend. While Jones looks to be AWOL for much of the movie, I have faith in Josh Brolin to necessarily reign in Smith. Plus I love the idea of seeing all of MIB's "advanced technology" from the 1960s. Talk about a fantastic sandbox to play in.
That being said, the movie's budget and production has notably spun WAY out of control, so I wouldn't be entirely surprised if this turned out to be just as messy as the last one. We'll find out next Memorial Day weekend.
Chan-wook Park 's 2003 Korean revenge opus Oldboy has been running laps around Hollywood for a few years now, with multiple actors and directors rotating in and out of the potential American remake. We flirted with Nic Cage under the direction of Justin Lin, then Speilberg set his sights on Will Smith to star. Now the stars have realigned once more, and we're left with looks to be a far more appetizing team of talent: Spike Lee will direct the ever-badass Josh Brolin as a man who's inexplicably imprisoned for 15 years and then just as inexplicably released to take revenge against his captors.
Oldboy is one of the most jaw-droppingly insane movies I have ever seen, due mainly to the inventive direction and the haunting performance from the film's star Min-sik Choi, so don't underestimate the value of Lee and Brolin as a team. The next major question/hurdle will be the script by Mark Protosevich (I Am Legend, Thor), as there's no word yet as to whether this new version will contain the same batshit crazy twist ending as Park's original film. (I'll be astounded if it does. While I trust Spike and, to a certain degree, Protosevich, I just don't see a major studio getting on board with that kind of insanity.)
