As always I come to your reactions in equal measure for the filmic analysis and your unique snark. Barry Sonnenfeld also photographed Raising Arizona, one of my favorite Shanelle Riccio reactions to rewatch (especially the dye bomb scene). By the way, that "font choice" in the credits is Pablo Ferro's handwriting, as seen in his opening title sequences for Dr Strangelove (1964) and Stop Making Sense (1984).
@@AlanCanon2222 Don't forget Addams Family Values, which she did WAY before that one. She also did the original Addams Family but took it down. Still don't know why though.
Can we talk about how great Vincent D'onofrio's physical mannerisms are in this movie? He moves like you imagine a cockroach wearing a human skinsuit and hating everything about this planet would move. Even his violence is jerky, but looks believable. He's got a good balance of physical comedy and believable threat.
Everybody talks about how great he was as Wilson Fisk... I thought that character was terrible (though admittedly that was not his fault)... but yes, he's amazing in so many things aside from that.
Vincent D'onofrio studied for the role's unique physicality by watching bug documentaries and Peter Sellers' performance in Dr. Strangelove before discovering that basketball braces could help him achieve the desired effect. He is truly and underrated actor, he pulled that off well and made us believe he was a big bug in an Edgar suit.
I love a glib fast-talker and stoic badass combo. The chemistry between Tommy and Will is so fun, and then you throw in Linda Fiorentino "She got this whole 'queen of the undead' thing going on..." 🤣🤣🤣 Every time K talks down to J or hands him a terrible job it makes me laugh.
Will Smith was in a summer blockbuster pretty much every year or quite a few years in the mid/late 90s. I grew up right in that period so saw them all in the cinema. Good times!
3:10 The font was in tribute to the credits to Stanley Kubrick's Cold War satire, "Dr. Strangelove". You should react to that film, Shanelle. It's nutty and smart. 4:11 That's Sergio Calderon, who sadly passed away this week, as Jose. He was in "Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End", but I know him best from the two-hour "A-Team" TV pilot, "Mexican Slayride".
My husband and I went to go see this in theaters when our son was about 18 months to 2 years old. We weren't too worried about his age since whenever we had gone to a movie with him before he had fallen asleep during the coming attractions and basically slept through the movie. This time we had brought our comfortable jogging stoller and it worked like a charm. That is until the scene where K looses his gun. It got loud during that scene and he woke up. People in the theater got a kick out of watching me try to watch the movie over my shoulder while I stood in front of my son to try to block his view until all of the giant bug stuff and shooting was over. It was hilarious in hind sight! He is 28 now!
yes, those are pierogi. there used to be a polish deli near me where an old dude that would crank them out by hand faster than you could follow, he’d been doing it for 50 years. yum!
If you watched a legal copy, there would have been subtitles for the restaurant scene and known that it was full of unimportant diamonds, and that they were pierogi
Ive just recently started watching your content... out of all of the "first time seeing" reactors on RU-vid, you are the most knowledgeable about film making and really good at guessing what is about to happen... keep up the good work ❤
I doubt you’ll read this, but just because I have to say it, the website for this movie was pretty awesome, bearing in mind that you had to dial in to AOL and spend minutes to load the main page of the website, just to go to other parts of the website, which also took minutes. That anticipation made it so much more enjoyable.
I was working at a mall at the time and the bus stop was outside the movie theater. I remember closing the store down and checking the posters while I waited for the bus. All the poster was was Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in costume, with the caption, "Mr. Jones, Mr. Smith, Men In Black". I was sold at first glance and wanted to see it with no more information than that, and I succeeded! And it was just as brilliant as I hoped.
When it came out, I was working at Boy Scout camp in Maine. We were usually only allowed to take one night out per week, but could be pulled into other people's nights out if there were a reason. Each night out group needed two things: someone 18+ and a vehicle. As a 19yo with a car, I was pretty much guaranteed to be on any night out trips, and the movies theater about 30min away was about the only thing to go and do. Saw this several times, Air Force One at least once, and I'm not sure what else.
My favorite subtle scene is when the little destruction ball is flying around how Zed doesn’t even look up or change expression as he casually evades it. I like this demonstration that even the bureaucrat in the office is this off the charts bad ass, but I also just like Rip Torn.
When Men in Black was released, it was censored in some countries, including Australia. The censoring involved the suicide scene near the start (the guy who jumps off the building). It was a bit strange, if creative. He dissolved into sparkly stuff as he fell--leaving it unclear whether he'd died or just teleported away to safety. That was the version I grew up with in the cinema and on TV. I remember being puzzled that the movie never picked up that 'dropped plot thread' again or explained what the guy had done. Years later I bought the DVD and was utterly baffled when there was just a thump as he hits the ground. 🤯
35:11 - On that note: look up if you can find it the Barry Sonnenfeld episode of the TNT show The Directors. He talks about directing TLJ and having to tell him to play it straight.
Yes, saw it in theaters and it was awesome! A really fun film that still holds up today, imo. I'm reminded of Jurassic Park in the blending of practical and CGI effects and how a charming first film can set off a whole franchise!
1 Edgar/Bug = Vincent D'onofrio played Gomer Pyle in "Full Metal Jacket". 2. Tommy Lee Jones' roommate in college was Al Gore. 3. Jones has claimed that he's never had a part that he didn't love and doesn't have a job. Just a hobby that pays very well.🤑😁 4. "Congratulations Reggie........It' a squid".🤣 5. Tell me this wasn't a fun movie. I dare you.
Such a great film! Possibly the first "mature" film I saw in a cinema as a small kid. Most of the innuendo jokes flew over my head but was thoroughly entertained throughout. It was also my introduction to the legends Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith and Vincent D'onofrio (Rip Torn was very memorable too)!
I cant remember if I saw this one in theatres or not. That year I know I saw Mouse Hunt and the rereleased Star Wars Trilogy. I did see 2&3 in theatres though, and they were fun for sure. There was also an animated series after the first film.
Knew it was going to be really good as soon as I saw Rick Baker did the special make-up effects and Bo Welch was the production designer. They both did awesome work especially for the time. To catch everything, it may take two or three times watching it because there is so much going on. The actor that played "Mikey" in the beginning just passed away a couple of days ago, but I can't think of his name. It is hard to not give away any spoilers for II and III. "Men in Black: International" isn't too bad, just different.
This stood out at the time for sure. A great fun movie. Simple and predictable. Payoffs w the dialogue and a couple alien surprises and some solid humor.
I believe Tommy Lee Jones got billing over Will Smith because he had won an Oscar for "The Fugitive" a few years earlier, and was enjoying a period of high marketability. On the other hand, "Independence Day" had probably not been released when the actors signed their contracts, so Will was not on the A-List yet. MIB came out almost exactly one year after ID4.
The first movie with a budget exceeding $100 million (that I am aware of) was "True Lies", the Arnold Schwarzenegger/James Cameron action movie. I was in theaters July 1994 and reportedly cost $120 mil, which was quite a bit higher than Cameron's previous movie "Terminator 2". It came in just shy of $100 million. Cameron's next was "Titanic" of course, the first movie to cost $200 million.
This is the second movie I saw on DVD (I saw it in the theater too). In addition to the special features, it was the first time you could watch VFX clearly frame-by-frame. I still remember discovering that the truck that the bug's ship crashes into is just a shell, there's nothing in the engine compartment (which you can see through to the explosion behind it for exactly one frame).
Definitely was notable at the time for the effects. There was a special effects show that I used to watch as a child called "Mega Movie Magic" that did a lot of behind the scenes on film special effects and this was one of the films they covered. Man I miss that show! Haha. At least we have RU-vidrs now like Corridor! (But we are still missing something like MMM - a general overview of how effects are done for major Hollywood productions. Let's bring it back!)
Yes, watched it in the theater with a few friends. This movie was the biggest movie at the time. It was all over ads, commercials and of course, the video was on MTV constantly! They had tie-ins with some fast food chains I think too, for all kinds of items.
When I first heard Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith were paired in a movie, I thought "There's no F-ing way that will work", turned out to be one of the best pairs in movie history!!!
3:18 - That's a dragonfly, not a fly. They don't sting, but if they feel threatened they do bite. And yeah, I thought you might react like that to seeing his name on screen. 😎
I was 11 at the time of this release and one of my scoutmasters owned a theater that had just opened in the area. Because of him this was the first movie I saw in theaters without any family coming along.
@@nsasupporter7557 lol Worse, I did the project. We did a large landscape cleanup of trails and campgrounds for the forest service. I just never turned in the paperwork afterwards.
Yes this was very popular and some of the best special effects at the time! Definitely check out #2, it's still great! I was in my 30s when this came out and all my friends loved it! Thanks for the reactions, I enjoy your channel!
There are a whole bunch of things about this film that work really, really well. One that isn't mentioned as much as it should be, is the script, which gives a whole batch of stand-out moments. One example: the whole mini-monologue by Rip-Torn, over the montage where Will Smith has his identity erased to become 'J'. Yes, it's melodramatic, but it adds to the comedy and textures the movie.
Remembering that it was PETA that got on the films case about the shaking of the dog scene. Think it was a news story just before the movie came out. Could have just been a publicity stunt.
32:47 - More appropriately: 3 years before X-Men. The turn of the century was when the Marvel Cinematic Universe really started. First X-men, then Spoderman (yeah, I watched VKunia's reactions), then Captain America, *THEN IRON MAN.*
About the famous dog in late 90s? You're probably thinking of the Taco Bell Chihuahua. It was a big deal back then, and I made the connection even as a kid that this felt like a weird reference!
Not sure about the MCU comparison... If you want to know what gave Marvel the Idea to start their own Superhero Franchise and that Marvel Superhero Films can make a profit... watch Blade! It was the first bigger budget Marvel movie that made money and was a huge reason for Fox to invest in X-Men and Sony in Spider Man.
More popcorn movies? _The Fugitive_ (1993), Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones. A great action/mystery based on the long-running 60s series that starred David Janssen.
10:37 Back when I was in the army, we always gave our officers shit if they went to West Point. It is inarguably the most prestigious officer school in the US military. So we have to. Helps keep them grounded. Especially since all of our officers were helicopter pilots, making them even worse than your typical military officer. 😂
OK, sounding off: saw it on cable, as always. As for the mix of fx, you'd be surprised but it was pretty common. It's not that CGI was prohibitive or anything, this was the era of the VooDoo-3000 cards and Silicon Graphics workstations and servers. Plus, Toy Story had already come out two years prior. But since Jurassic Park, which brought CGI into the mainstream (before that it was used sparingly, and almost never for actual detailed characters, mostly backgrounds and such) there was this blend of practical and CGI. This is because while it was good, it wasn't considered good enough, so they played to its strength...and hid its (perceived) weaknesses with lighting, visual fx such as blurring, and practicals e.g. puppets, miniatures, etc. by the turn of the century the film industry went full in on CGI 'cause of it's cost/performance beating out practicals by a country mile. Plus, there weren't very specialized 3D artists, so they got away for way too long underpaying them. Now that it's all CGI, and they're well aware of their worth, all of a sudden you see practicals making a come back. Fancy that! You didn't REALLY think it's because they thought it "looks good" or "works better" did you? 😉 Also, I asked Ashley what happened that she never made it to the livestream. They went to visit some family and "almost kidnapped some of them". Yeah, you'd have to be on the Twitch stream to hear that. That's Big Red for 'ya! 🤪
You didn’t recognise the ‘giant man’ have you seen Twin Peaks? Be surprised if you haven’t but David Lynch’s iconic tv show that changed tv forever. Love to see your reaction to season 1
About the budget: One of the other movies you have already seen - Terminator 2 - made a huge splash about its budget of 100 million. When was this? 1991? I believe it was the first to break that treshhold.
Great movie, and series of movies. I was hooked after seeing the first one. And this Post, great. And the "question" you asked, No. Aliens do not live here. The world could not get along well enough to keep the secret. And America, is NOT the only Country on the Planet. I'd like to laugh but it is the truth.
@@ShanelleRiccio that was the summer before 4th grade (or 5th…. I can’t remember) for me when the movie came out and I remember the dog really made an impact on all my friends.
