Seth Paxton
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Nov 5, 1998
- Messages
- 7,585
I agree 100% with Vickie's assessment. At the time the biggest hit of the film was Tommy Lee Jones' deadpan comedy, no one expected him to be so good at it. He really stole the show because of that, though Smith is at his best in this film.
In fact, I think WWW failed because it dropped the charming humor for the more spiteful and mean-spirited sexual/racial humor and put effects ahead of the story. It seems clear to me that they thought they could make WWW into another MIB, but as always they missed what was good about MIB and kept only the shallowest elements.
My only complaint with MIB at the time, and still, is that it was TOO SHORT. With Linda I thought they could have had another 15 minutes of comedy there that they didn't go for.
As for MIB2, I was down on it with the earliest trailers as being too much CGI, but the latest trailers, esp. the one in front of S-M, have shown the exact same type/quality of jokes that made MIB such a big hit. I'm pretty damn excited about the new film now since it looks to still place comedy first, CGI 2nd.
In fact, I think WWW failed because it dropped the charming humor for the more spiteful and mean-spirited sexual/racial humor and put effects ahead of the story. It seems clear to me that they thought they could make WWW into another MIB, but as always they missed what was good about MIB and kept only the shallowest elements.
My only complaint with MIB at the time, and still, is that it was TOO SHORT. With Linda I thought they could have had another 15 minutes of comedy there that they didn't go for.
As for MIB2, I was down on it with the earliest trailers as being too much CGI, but the latest trailers, esp. the one in front of S-M, have shown the exact same type/quality of jokes that made MIB such a big hit. I'm pretty damn excited about the new film now since it looks to still place comedy first, CGI 2nd.