Men In Black 3

       If you're going to make a totally unnecessary 3rd film in a series, at least cast it well. "Men In Black" succeeds on the brilliant casting of Josh Brolin as a younger version of the Tommy Lee Jones character, Agent K. Mr. Brolin completely captures Mr. Jones's mannerism, vocal pattern and facial expressions. It's the best special effect in a movie full of them and the only one not CGI.

       Of course Will Smith is back as Agent J and he continues to be one of Hollywood's most engaging actors. There's not much effort here when you've done this twice before but he's still fun to watch and his chemistry with Mr. Brolin is terrific.  Tommy Lee Jones gets less screen time due to the plot but still has some good scenes bookmarking the film and is as gruff as ever.  Jemaine Clement plays the villain "Boris the Animal" but is buried under tons of makeup and CGI effects and replacing Rip Torn is Emma Thompson as Director O. A welcome addition is the wonderful actor Michael Stuhlbarg as an alien who can predict alternate futures.

        There's not much new to the "Men in Black" world but watching the film is like visiting an old friend and Rick Baker's old fashioned creature effects are still fun. Using time travel to journey back to 1969 is the clever twist and allows for some fun "period" humor but there is  a quick racial profiling scene that doesn't really work and seems uncomfortably out of place.

         "Men In Black 3" is simply a silly summer diversion quickly forgotten as we move to the next "summer blockbuster".