Men in Black: International

PG-12 | 1h 54min | 13 June 2019

Chris Hemsworth! Tessa Thompson!
Again united in a movie, after Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Endgame. A new movie couple that reminds you of classic Screwball Comedies with Spencer Tracy / Katherine Hepburn etc. Considering all the action and comedic violence, it seems a comparison with  Bud Spencer / Terence Hill might be more appropriate …

Anyway, for me just the pairing of those two once again was enough reason to drag me into the movie theater on premiere day. Plus, it’s the “Men in Black” franchise which alone deserves to be continued, here under director F. Gary Gray.

The story: The Men and Women in Black have a new recruit, Agent M (Thompson), and Agent H (Hemsworth) a new partner for a demanding international mission, under the watchful eye of Agent High T (Liam Neeson). Besides the scum of the universe in this new adventure, they also tackle their biggest threat: a mole in the Men in Black organization.

This new movie holds up nicely in comparison with the MiB classics and offers about 2h of excellent entertainment. Yet the very first MiB remains the unchallenged milestone with all those crazy ideas, awesome performances and a philosophical undertone. In this movie it’s mainly entertainment and the obvious tongue-in-cheek play with spy and SF movie standards. And you see some old friends again, eg. the cafeteria aliens (unfortunately only briefly). But there are new amusing alien creatures and lots of gags referring to the previous MiB movies.

Hemsworth is a reckless Agent J/Will Smith, James Bond and – yes, Thor crossover (Thor from the first movie, meaning pretty cocky). And it seems he is even going for a Thor parody, considering a particular and hilarious scene… Thompson convinces as strong female once again, here much more a nerd than a Valkyrie though – still in every aspect a positive role model. And the on-screen chemistry between them simply works – they seem to be friends off screen as well. And I would not mind to see those 2 again in another MiB movie.

Or in a “real” Screwball-Comedy following the classics, e.g. “The Front Page”, and maybe a chance for both to play characters outside their Thor / Valkyre type casting roles…