When the first Men in Black movie came out in 1997, my dad and I built a homemade neuralizer for me to play with. We took a piece of hollow silver pipe, drilled a hole in one end near the top, secured a red light in it, then ran wires down the middle of the shaft to a button on the back. It didn’t actually wipe anyone’s memory, of course, but I didn’t care – I had my very own neuralizer, and it was awesome. I loved the first Men in Black movie. I had Will Smith’s theme song memorized (who am I kidding? I still do), and I was excited about the sequel when it came out a few years later. But the mediocrity of Men in Black 2 turned my devotion to the series into total apathy, and I haven’t bothered revisiting those movies since then. A lot of people my age had similar reactions.

Now it’s 15 years after the original and 10 years after the second movie, and director Barry Sonnenfeld and stars Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are back again for more alien action in Men in Black 3. Why? Because they can, I guess. There doesn’t really seem to be a great reason for this movie to exist, other than the genesis of it came from Will Smith and he’s powerful enough to make it happen. No one was clamoring for a sequel, especially after a pretty questionable second attempt. Against all odds, Men in Black 3 is not a terrible movie. But it feels like a movie that knows it barely has any reason to exist, cribbing a Back to the Future time travel story and providing just enough of a narrative to keep us interested.

The film starts with Boris The Animal (Jemaine Clement from “Flight of the Conchords”) breaking out of a high security prison. He’s got a chip on his shoulder, but not much beneath that – Agent K (Jones) shot his arm off 40 years prior and sent him to the maximum security facility, and Boris is out for revenge. He finds out a way to travel back in time and kills K, which is quite the shock to Agent J (Smith), who wanders into MIB headquarters the next day looking for his partner…but everyone tells him he died in 1969. Turns out K also installed a huge force field over Earth in 1969, but since he was killed by Boris, Boris’ race comes crashing down to Earth, destroying civilization. So in a Back to the Future-inspired plot device, J has to travel back one day further in 1969 so he can kill Boris before he kills Agent K. Once there, he accidentally meets up with the younger Agent K (Brolin) and eventually teams up with him in order to save the world.

If that sounds confusing, I assure you the film does a far better job of explaining it than I did. In fact, the time elements are so by-the-numbers that the movie feels like Time Travel for Dummies. Time travel movie junkies (myself included) love the complicated nature of crossing timelines and cause-and-effect paradoxes that often come up in these stories; here, everything is pretty easy and goes pretty much according to plan. There’s not a lot of time (heh) to spend thinking about the consequences of anyone’s actions, and even though the big reveal at the end (which I won’t give away) causes us to rethink what we know of the first two movies (specifically Agent K’s motivation in recruiting J), the movie doesn’t bother to address these points beyond surface level.

There’s also a guy named Griffin (Michael Stuhlbarg), an alien who can see all possible events in all possible timelines simultaneously, that comes along to offer some exposition to the audience, but the film isn’t concerned with complicating things too much. It’s a simple, entertaining movie, and that’s about it. Sonnenfeld brings his familiar visual stamp, and the score is pretty much just the main instrumental theme played 400 times throughout the movie, so it all seems designed to make you go, “Oh yeah, I remember these movies!” There are some good setpieces and the 3D was surprisingly decent (but still ultimately unnecessary unless you love wasting money), and Smith is his usual wise-cracking self, back on screen after a five year absence.

But the real stars of this film aren’t Smith and Jones (the latter of which is only in the movie for about 20 minutes): Josh Brolin as a young K and Rick Baker’s makeup and creature effects are the main draws here. Brolin is really great, impersonating Tommy Lee Jones but also allowing us to see a side of this character we’ve never seen in an MiB movie before. He’s straight-faced but jovial, and we’re genuinely curious to find out what happens in this man’s life that turns him into the sourpuss we know from the other films. (Don’t worry, that question is answered.)

Baker’s work, on the other hand, is much more subtle. The seven time Oscar winner has designed over 100 new aliens for this movie, many of which only appear on screen for a few seconds, but he’s almost singlehandedly responsible for making the MiB Headquarters such an iconic location because of all the craziness going on in the background. His crowning achievement this go-around is Jemaine Clement’s Boris The Animal makeup, rendering the comedian almost unrecognizable. Unfortunately, all this makeup may have hindered Clement’s performance, as his Boris is completely devoid of everything I assumed they cast him for in the first place: wit, sarcasm, comic timing, etc.

There must be something in the air in Hollywood, because this is the second big-budget movie in two years to involve a story that takes place around the moon landing mission, the other being Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The back half of this movie, much of which takes place in Cape Canaveral, works pretty well from both story and character perspectives, especially considering that when filming began, the screenwriters had only finished the first act. (Word to the wise: this is not a good way to make movies, it just so happened that they got lucky this time.)

I’m still at a loss as to why the film exists, but I suppose it’s not a big leap when you realize a movie studio spent hundreds of millions of dollars to capitalize on nostalgia that no one really wanted in the first place. (Ahem, Battleship.) Men in Black 3 isn’t so bad that you’ll want to neuralize yourself, but you can borrow mine if you still want to try. Until next time…

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Sony Pictures has released the full length trailer for Men in Black 3, the newest installment of the popular comic-book-turned-movie franchise. This trailer definitely brings a necessary dose of plot and nostalgia, instead of just relying on the “Josh Brolin impersonating a young Tommy Lee Jones” Gag, and gives us everything we loved about the first two and then some.

In addition to Brolin, Men In Black 3 brings back the usual cast of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as Agents J and K, in addition to Emma Thompson as Agent Oh, who is head of MIB in the present day but will be seen as a secretary in 1969 (portrayed by Alice Eve), and Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords who will play the villain.

Check the trailer out below:

Agent J travels in time to MIB’s early years in the 1960s, to stop an alien from assassinating his friend Agent K and changing history.

Of course we have the usual formula of an evil alien who must be stopped from destroying the world by Will Smith, but the trailer gives some teasing hints that there’s much more in store this time around. For starters, time travel is involved, giving us a new setting in the form of the 1960s, which is filled with the standard jokes of time travelling of the main characters interacting with famous icons. This is a smart move to change things up, keeping elements such as the plot and characters familiar, but with more mystery and intrigue to keep things fresh.

Honestly, the teaser trailer really didn’t get me interested at all, as it looked like just another mediocre sequel. Luckily the newest trailer promises the complete opposite, providing a deeper look at the mystery involving Jones’ Agent K, a more detailed look at the time travel and consequences (Agent J only has 24 hours or he’s stuck in the 1960s forever, oh no!), and still having that Men in Black brand of humor to move everything along. I have to say, Men in Black 3 has finally made its way to my must-watch list for the summer, but let’s hope the formula isn’t overdone and doesn’t fall flat like the second one did.

Men in Black 3 hits theatres in both 2D and 3D May 25th, 2012 in the U.S.

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After I Am Legend made nearly $600 million worldwide in 2007 there was talk of a follow-up, but if Will Smith was to be involved it would need to be a prequel as his character, scientist Robert Neville, dies at the end of the film.

Nothing has been heard for years regarding another film, but according to Deadline Warner Bros. has closed a deal with Will Smith’s production company Overbrook Entertainment to make a follow-up.

The interesting thing about this is that “the film is not being called a prequel”, which suggests we’ll be getting a sequel. The site says Will Smith hasn’t signed on yet, and he “won’t commit until the script is ready”. Arash Amel (The Expatriate) has been hired to write it, but no word yet on whether original director Francis Lawrence will be involved.

In an alternate ending Robert Neville survives after handing over an infected woman to the invading Darkseekers, and travels with Anna and Ethan to the survivors’ colony with the antidote. But for some reason Neville decided to blow himself up with a hand grenade, so that will need explaining if they are making a direct sequel. The original prequel idea from a few years ago would reveal what happens to Neville before the infected take over New York.

Are you interested in seeing another I Am Legend movie?

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After making over $350 million worldwide back in 2010 Columbia hired Kung Fu Panda writers Cyrus Voris and Ethan Reiff to get started on a sequel to The Karate Kid. Little has been heard since, but now according to Variety Zak Penn has been hired for rewrites which suggests the sequel is still moving forward.

Penn is credited as writing Elektra, X-Men: The Last Stand and The Incredible Hulk, and most recently worked on a Dirty Dozen remake.

While Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan aren’t signed for the sequel they are expected to return. Will Smith will return as producer. No word on the involvement of director Harald Zwart, although given the critical and commercial success of The Karate Kid one would expect him to be considered again.

In 2010 Zwart said he would like to see the next film explore an all-new story rather than follow in the footsteps of the two sequels from the 80s. “I personally think it’s now so much on its own two feet, given the success, that it would be interesting to see where we could take it without ever thinking about the old ones.”

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Forget Groundhog Day – call it Russell Crowe Day. Following the announcement that Darren Aronofsky wants Russell Crowe to play Noah in his upcoming Biblical epic, we’ve got a few more tidbits of news regarding the Academy Award-winning actor.

Variety’s Jeff Sneider tweeted the following last night:

Sure, Russell Crowe, MIGHT star in Aronofsky’s NOAH… but do you know what else he MIGHT star in? Three words: Ro. Bo. Cop. #FloatThisBoat

Again, not a huge confirmation, but something to keep in mind as the movie, set to be directed by Jose Padilha (Elite Squad: The Enemy Within), comes together over the next few months before it starts shooting this summer.

Also, Akiva Goldsman – best known as the writer of the godawful Batman & Robin, but who has also produced things like Mr. and Mrs. Smith and I Am Legend - is set to make his directorial debut on a movie called Winter’s Tale. Vulture says (via The Playlist) that Goldsman’s adaptation of the 1983 novel had previously stalled, but has now gained considerable momentum with the addition of (guess who?) Russell Crowe and Will Smith in supporting roles. The story sounds pretty interesting:

New York City is subsumed in arctic winds, dark nights, and white lights, its life unfolds, for it is an extraordinary hive of the imagination, the greatest house ever built, and nothing exists that can check its vitality. One night in winter, Peter Lake–orphan and master-mechanic, attempts to rob a fortress-like mansion on the Upper West Side.

Though he thinks the house is empty, the daughter of the house is home. Thus begins the love between Peter Lake, a middle-aged Irish burglar, and Beverly Penn, a young girl, who is dying.

Peter Lake, a simple, uneducated man, because of a love that, at first he does not fully understand, is driven to stop time and bring back the dead. His great struggle, in a city ever alight with its own energy and beseiged by unprecedented winters, is one of the most beautiful and extraordinary stories of American literature.

Crowe is in talks to play Pearly Somes, a gangster set on killing the burglar, while Smith would play a judge. So go forth everyone, and Happy Russell Crowe Day.

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Columbia has unveiled the first teaser trailer for Men in Black 3 which reunites Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as Agent J and Agent K, members of a top-secret organization established to monitor and police alien activity on Earth.

The trailer doesn’t show us anything we haven’t seen before, but it introduces us to the time-travelling storyline and we get a brief glimpse at Josh Brolin as the younger Agent K.

Watch below:

In Men in Black 3, Agents J (Will Smith) and K (Tommy Lee Jones) are back… in time. J has seen some inexplicable things in his 15 years with the Men in Black, but nothing, not even aliens, perplexes him as much as his wry, reticent partner. But when K’s life and the fate of the planet are put at stake, Agent J will have to travel back in time to put things right. J discovers that there are secrets to the universe that K never told him — secrets that will reveal themselves as he teams up with the young Agent K (Josh Brolin) to save his partner, the agency, and the future of humankind.

The film is directed by Barry Sonnenfeld who was behind the first two movies, and also stars Emma Thompson as Agent Oh, who is head of MIB in the present day but will be seen as a secretary in 1969 (portrayed by Alice Eve), and Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords who will play the villain.

Men in Black 3 will be released May 25, 2012.

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M. Night Shyamalan’s movies may have decreased in quality over recent years but that hasn’t stopped Will Smith from teaming up with the director for 1000 A.E., a sci-fi/action movie which will also star Will’s son Jaden (The Karate Kid).

With filming set to begin early next year M. Night and Columbia’s are filling out the cast, and according to Heat Vision Zoe Kravitz and Sophie Okonedo are in talks to complete the on-screen family.

In the movie humans no longer live on Earth after it becomes inhospitable. Will Smith is playing a hero, while Jaden plays his son who is considered a failure as a warrior. When the two crash-land on Earth, it is up to the son to save the dad. If deals are struck Zoe Kravitz (last seen as Angel Salvadore in X-Men: First Class) will play Will Smith’s daughter, while Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda, The Secret Life of Bees) will play his wife.

Stephen Gaghan (Traffic, Syriana) was recently brought on to re-write the script, and the studio is aiming for a June 2013 release.

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Over recent years Roland Emmerich has been gearing up not one but two sequels to Independence Day, the 1996 movie which made $800m worldwide. Back in 2009 it was a case of money, with 20th Century Fox reluctant to give Will Smith and Emmerich a big piece of the pie (an upfront fee and then a % of the profits).

Now Vulture brings word that Emmerich and screenwriting partner Dean Devlin are putting the finishing touches to the two scripts, and “they’re expected to be delivered to Fox by early to mid-December”. The site has also heard “Fox is willing to make the movies without Smith” if a deal can’t be made.

Last year Emmerich hinted that Smith would have an important role the films, saying:

“It’s an alternate reality kind of movie,” he said. “We pick up the story, what would have happened after this kind of attack? Naturally, the alien technology has changed everything.”

“Did they rebuild the White House? Who will be president? “Or, who will be president?” Emmerich answered. “Who will be president? See?”

Yep, if Will signs he’ll most likely be playing President Stephen Hiller, instead of Captain. Vulture points out that Smith doesn’t have his next movie completely locked as One Thousand A.E., which has M. Night Shyamalan directing and his son Jaden Smith co-starring, is “going extra-slow on preproduction”. This increases the likelihood of Smith returning for the Independence Day sequels, but the key factor will probably be $$$.

Fox could make the movies without him and introduce new leads. The success of Roland’s 2012 and the Transformers franchise is evidence that you don’t need big stars if you’re just causing destruction, but having Smith involved would help getting audiences on-board.

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Christoph Waltz is in, Leonardo DiCaprio might be, and nobody knows yet whether Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, Idris Elba or another actor will take the role of Django, but what’s more certain is the release date.

According to Box Office Mojo Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained has been given a release date of December 25, 2012. Filming is scheduled to begin later this year, so all Tarantino needs to do is get the cast in place.

Here’s the synopsis for the movie (potential spoilers):

Django is a freed slave, who, under the tutelage of a German bounty hunter (played by Christopher Waltz the evil Nazi officer in Inglorious Basterds) becomes a bad-ass bounty hunter himself, and after assisting Waltz in taking down some bad guys for profit, is helped by Waltz in tracking down his slave wife and liberating her from an evil plantation owner.

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Last week there was speculation this was the case, and now Deadline has word that Leonardo DiCaprio is indeed in early talks for Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained.

Apparently DiCaprio is being courted to play a charming but ruthless proprietor of Candyland, a despicable club in Mississippi where female slaves are exploited as sex objects and males are pitted against each other in “mandingo” style death matches. Candie is a slave’s worst nightmare and the freed slave Django must cross him in order to reclaim his wife.

Will Smith was previously reported to be in talks to play Django, a slave who is liberated and taught the tricks of the trade by a German dentist-turned-bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz), however it doesn’t look like Smith will be appearing in the film at this point. Deadline says other names such as Idris Elba, Jamie Foxx and Chris Tucker are also being looked at. Tucker hasn’t appeared in a film since Rush Hour 3 in 2007, but he previously worked with Tarantino on Jackie Brown (1997), so he must still be on the director’s mind. Getting Leonardo DiCaprio would mean the actor playing Django wouldn’t need to be a big box office draw like Smith, so getting someone like Idris Elba would be a good move.

Filming is expected to begin later this year, so these talks may conclude shortly and we should get some official casting announcements.

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