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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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66
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64
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69
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Men in Black II
EMAILPRINTColumbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Entertainment

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 37 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 32 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Sci-fi
Written by:
Robert Gordon (also story)
Barry Fanaro
Lowell Cunningham (comic book)
Directed by: Barry Sonnenfeld
Release Date:
Theatrical: July 3, 2002
DVD: November 26, 2002
Running Time: 88 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for sci-fi action violence and some provocative humor
Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, Rip Torn, Rosario Dawson, Patrick Warburton, Lara Flynn Boyle, Tony Shalhoub, and Johnny Knoxville
This sequel to the 1997 hit, which was based upon a Marvel Comics comic book, features Agents J and K (Smith and Jones) in battles with alien rabble-rousers who take the form of a host of estrogen-charged extraterrestrials.
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Men in Black
GAMES: MiB II: Alien Escape
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
New Times (L.A.) Luke Y. Thompson
Delivers a quick buzz, lots of stuff to look at, and a totally nonnutritious joy that can only be attained with the aid of artificial flavorings and Yellow #5. In a nutshell, it's the perfect summer movie.
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Retains the earlier film's ability to delight the viewer with surprise effects and flights of fancy, only now the effects are better.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine Peter Rainer
The hang-loose grodiness of these films has its charms, and the Ray-Banned team of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, at its best, is good vaudeville.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
It's visual magic, and director Barry Sonnenfeld, who followed his MIB high with the lows of "Wild Wild West" and "Big Trouble," revels in it. He doesn't so much direct MIBII as load it with cool stuff and flit around to whatever takes his fancy. As summer escapism goes, you could do worse.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
It's a welcome and nicely goofy bit of sci-fi froth with the occasional hint of genuine comic smarts.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
Short, flashy and about as complex as a beer belch, Men in Black II is also brisk. The film clocks in at 88 minutes total running time, and it's loaded with new special effects and monsters.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Michael Jackson is an alien? Tell me something I don't know.
ReelViews James Berardinelli
Would be a thoroughly entertaining affair if it wasn't for one thing: the plot. The annoying and pointless storyline is a constant irritant because it diverts our attention from the real reason to see this movie - the easygoing chemistry between actors Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
So eager to please, it practically licks you in the face.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
Large budget notwithstanding, the movie is such a blip on the year's radar screen that it's tempting just to go with it for the ride. But this time, the old MIB label stands for Milder Isn't Better.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
The most refreshing thing about the original Men in Black was that it was relatively small - a modest, slapdash, 98-minute special-effects farce. The most refreshing thing about Men in Black II is that it is 10 minutes shorter.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
It's interesting to see how a potent premise -- those among us who behave like aliens probably are -- can sustain, more or less, an erratic, disjointed sequel.
Washington Post Desson Thomson
The only active ingredient is the dynamic between Smith and Jones. There's just enough of that to get us through.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dana Stevens
As fizzy as the first, but not quite as refreshing. The pleasurable, eye-popping sense of surprise has diminished, and the teasingly referential attitude shows signs of fatigue.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
There are just enough fresh, funny gags and witty throwaways to keep the 88-minute MIB2 percolating -- it fulfills its end of the bargain: a good time will be had by almost all.
Variety Todd McCarthy
Elaborate, sporadically amusing but awfully lightweight followup, which has close to the same tone as its predecessor but makes one realize that freshness had a lot to do with its impact.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Ron Wells
Hey, I'm not saying it's bad. It's kind of entertaining, what I can recall of it after two days. It's, uh, okay. Just okay, though.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Some motion pictures portray ultimate passion; others create ultimate thrills. Men in Black II achieves ultimate insignificance -- it's the sci-fi comedy spectacle as Whiffle-Ball epic.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
A business-as-usual blockbuster blueprint that rarely surprises you.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
None of it sticks, but with the door left open for a third Men In Black movie, the one advantage of forgetting everything is not knowing exactly what's coming two summers from now.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
On the positive side, the four Worm Guys haven't lost their squiggly charm, and Rip Torn is always welcome as MIB mastermind Zed. On the minus side, you get two Johnny Knoxvilles, one of them a tiny head that protrudes from the big one's shoulder.
Read Full Review >Village Voice J. Hoberman
However cool, Smith's lovable braggadocio and Lee's practiced deadpan don't exactly make them Laurel and Hardy.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Suffers from a fatal lack of purpose. This sleek, visually inventive but frustratingly flat movie is made up entirely of throwaway bits -- occasionally amusing, even ingenious bits. But still, they're just bits.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Moderately amusing sequel, which is best when it relies on dead-pan acting by the stars, worst when it drags in summer-movie stupidities like an incessantly talking dog.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
There's something wrong with this picture, and the problem is there on Smith's face -- Smith looks distressingly I-was-an-Oscar-nominee bored. That goes double for Jones.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
To his eternal credit, Jones gives his considerable all and even coaxes a startling note of poignancy from one scene, while Smith just bops along, lobbing gags and grinning at the special effects.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
For all its bells and whistles, only when it lingers on Jones' dry wit and pained, rheumy eyes does this film about aliens ever seem alive, let alone human.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Chuck Stephens
Smith and Jones sometimes have to paddle hard to keep their heads above the toilet water in which screenwriters Robert Gordon (Galaxy Quest) and Barry Fanaro (Kingpin) occasionally dunk them. But if the presence of Smith and Jones is indeed the tinker-proof ingredient of the Men in Black formula, little else seems to have survived the production unaltered.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
A disappointment. A good-faith attempt has been made to duplicate the original elements, but the mix is wrong, bearings have been lost, the balance is off. It was attitude that made "Men in Black" special, a particular kind of cool insouciance that has proved as impossible to duplicate as it was irresistible to experience.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Jeff Stark
Here's an idea: Let's just take that same gizmo-packed alien-attack buddy-flick blockbuster from the summer of '97 ... and make it dumber!
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The astonishing success of the original "MiB" was partly because it was fun, partly because it was unexpected. We'd never seen anything like it, while with MiBII, we've seen something exactly like it.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
Smith and Jones seem like superannuated company men: They're going through the motions, but the zip is gone.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker David Denby
Apart from this going-postal moment, and a nice song from Frank the Pug (a resident alien from the original, played by the same dog), MIIB is pretty much a disaster -- repetitive beyond belief, and so busily inconsequential that it neuralizes your brain and leaves you with nothing to respond to. [8 July 2002, p.84]
Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
Mercifully short -- a mere 80 minutes, plus the end-titles. That means I had to slap myself in the face fewer times than usual to stay awake in a movie this grindingly mediocre.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
If it isn't the worst sequel ever made, it's only because it has too much competition: Impersonal and frenetic, it's a landmark Hollywood disgrace.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 4.6 (out of 10) based on 32 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Dave S. gave it a0:
This is probably the worst sequel ever made - bar none. A zero is fair due to the moronic upvoters.
[Anonymous] gave it a6:
This movie is mostly recycled MIB, with new parts that waver between bad and good. Frank and the worms score some moments, though, as well as some other aliens. Overall, though, there are better choices in this genre.
Andrew M. gave it a 7:
It's witty, entertaining and energetic...but not as witty, entertaining and energetic as the original...what a surprise! The dog-doing-Gloria-Gaynor was hilarious though. 'Nuff said.
Pat C. gave it a 2:
Once in a while a movie comes along that, as a sequel, is both enjoyable and enhances the memory of viewing the original hit. This is not that movie.
B. S. gave it a 3:
Way to crap up the movie jay.
Richard gave it a 5:
Starts off really well but runs out of steam in its last half hour, with the antics reeking of desperation after a while. Tommy Lee Jones, however, is equally good in the crap parts and the fun parts.
Steve D. gave it a 3:
It's not really bad, just really bland. While I never cringed, I think I chuckled once. This is the worst kind of movie because at least if it would have been outrageously bad it would have been fun to mock.
