Men in Black 3

[3.5 stars] [IMDb Link]

[Amazon Link]
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With Christmas and its preparation over, and with nothin' but reruns on the tube, it's time to plow through the Netflix disks. This is—OK—probably a cold-blooded attempt to squeeze out another few dollars out of a beloved movie, but it's (at least) watchable.

The villain here, intent on (what else) the destruction of Earth, is "Boris the Animal", played by an unrecognizable Jemaine Clement. (Really unrecognizable: I've seen every episode of Flight of the Conchords and I didn't realize it was him until the credits rolled.) Boris escapes from the lunar prison where Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) placed him back in 1969, and comes up with a devious plot to undo that history via time travel. Suddenly Agent K is gone in the "present"; only Agent J (Will Smith) remembers him. And the protection K wangled back in 1969 is absent, leaving Earth in peril from Boris's species. So J must travel back in time to untangle the time stream.

And so he does (spoiler, sorry). But it's an awful lot of fun along the way. J meets up with the younger K (Josh Brolin does an uncanny Tommy Lee Jones impression) and navigates the late sixties with aplomb.


Last Modified 2024-01-28 7:18 AM EDT

URLs du Jour

2012-12-28

  • [Cynthia Chase] Libertarian site Free Keene quotes a Blue Hampshire post in its entirety. It's by Cynthia L. Chase, one of Keene's representatives to the New Hampshire General Court. The title is "Free Staters Unwelcome Here". Where "here" is the state whose motto is "Live Free or Die".

    It's an amazingly perfect storm of snooty arrogance and name-calling; well worth your attention if you're interested in a window into how these people think. The thesis is: keep those foul immigrants inspired by the Free State Project out of New Hampshire. They are, Cynthia says, New Hampshire's " single biggest threat" Eek!

    How to keep them out? Well, mostly by being rude to them. Cynthia relates an example:

    Here in Keene we had a couple show up on Central Square to take part in our weekly Saturday morning peace demonstration. In the course of the conversation they allowed that they were Free Staters considering moving to Keene. The folks on the Square told them in no uncertain terms not to do that because Free Staters are not welcome here. Cheshire County is a welcoming community but not to those whose stated goal is to move in enough ideologues to steal our state, and our way of life.

    As a point of reference: the FSP chose New Hampshire for its participants to move to back in 2003. Cynthia Chase has only lived in New Hampshire since 2006.

    Now: I've only lived in New Hampshire since 1981, and sometimes still feel like a n00b. I don't know if I'll ever live here long enough to exhibit Cynthia's imperiousness in declaring how hostile "our state" should be to people who disagree with me politically.

  • Although, Cynthia? Brattleboro, Vermont is less than 20 miles from Keene, thataway. Just sayin'.

  • Among those Cynthia would probably consider one of those nasty Free Staters is P.J. O'Rourke, who has content in the WSJ today, providing advice (certainly a fruitless task) to President Obama.

    Mr. President, your entire campaign platform was redistribution. Take from the rich and give to the . . . Well, actually, you didn't mention the poor. What you talked and talked about was the middle class, something most well-off Americans consider themselves to be members of. So your plan is to take from the more rich and the more or less rich and give to the less rich, more or less. It is as if Robin Hood stole treasure from the Sheriff of Nottingham and bestowed it on the Deputy Sheriff.

    Read the who… oh, you've already clicked over.

  • Another Pun Salad fave, Kevin D. Williamson, has a good article rebutting a softhead on the gun issue. He speaks the truth about the Second Amendment that will make nearly all Democrats (and not a few Republicans) squirm:

    The Second Amendment is not about Bambi and burglars -- whatever a well-regulated militia is, it is not a hunting party or a sport-clays club. It is remarkable to me that any educated person -- let alone a Harvard Law graduate -- believes that the second item on the Bill of Rights is a constitutional guarantee of enjoying a recreational activity.

    Mr. Williamson has a book coming out in May: The End Is Near and It's Going to Be Awesome: How Going Broke Will Leave America Richer, Happier, and More Secure I have pre-ordered, and you should too.


Last Modified 2022-09-28 6:35 AM EDT