My Review of "Men in Black (1997)"

Men in Black (1997) came out to a wave of fanfare. It was a breath of fresh air in so many ways. At the time it was a revolution in special effects. The story also happened to play around with things that were going on in popular culture at the time. I remember loving this movie back in the day but I haven't seen it for a while and was curious how it would hold up.

The movie starts off with an immigration situation at the US border. Some Mexican migrants are looking to cross the border into the US but are stopped by authorities. Already it's pretty clever because we're looking at illegal aliens. The authorities look to thwart the trespassing of these potential migrant workers when all of a sudden a mysterious car drives up.

Out comes two agents dressed in black suits. They look to be an authority and start taking over the situation. One of the individuals in this immigrant group is not actually human at all. There's a huge commotion and the mysterious men eventually eliminate the "alien" threat.

Everyone in the scene has their memories erased of the whole situation. We are now introduced to a world of aliens in hiding. All of us are oblivious of these aliens living in plain sight because of these mysterious men.

Now we cut to Jay who is a NYPD officer. He's hot on the trail of some petty criminal. Of course the criminal isn't just any normal criminal. He's faster, stronger and more agile than normal. Jay starts to realize that this guy isn't quite human and when he finally realizes what's going on the perp commits suicide.

Upon trying to report the situation he gets laughed. This of course comes up to the attention to special agent Kay of the mysterious men in black. Kay sees a lot of potential in Jay and decides to see if he can recruit this young officer into his special bureau.

Of course Jay makes it in and it then becomes a fish out of water situation. Jay starts to learn the world is more gigantic than he thought. The rest of the movie is Jay and Kay trying to navigate New York's underground alien life to find a galaxy. It then becomes a bit of a small crime mystery that unfolds.

All the antics and characters of this movie really make it extra charming. Everyone is so unique and the art direction of all of the creatures and objects that they play with are incredible. Still by today's standards the special effects are pretty darn good. There's a lot of practical effects that really shine in this movie.

One of the interesting aspects of this movie is the question of duty. You start to question is this job really worth it? It's a very lonely life to live as such an agent. We see this in the beginning and closer to the end when we realize you have to sever all your ties to the regular world. Still if you don't do the job then who is going to do it? It seems like such a stressful job but then again you get to see the truth about what's going on in the world. To some that's worth it alone.

This initial movie actually closed off pretty nicely and there really didn't need to be so many sequels but since they made so many sequels I have to check them out.

Overall, I had a grand old time watching this movie. It was surprising how well this movie passed the test of time. It is about 25 years since this movie has come out and it still hits. That's pretty impressive. That's why I have to give this movie an 8 out of 10. This is a movie that I can watch over and over again. I saw this movie on 4k Blu-ray and I thought it was an absolutely amazing transfer.