You forget now, but the original “Men in Black” is a pretty good popcorn movie. It falls apart in its last act, but the chemistry between Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith is strong, and it’s got more good ideas in its brief running time than all the movies Smith’s made since, put together. The sequel, however is a disaster, mindlessly rehashing every joke from the original, and seemed to kill the franchise stone dead.
Or so we thought. Columbia announced intentions to resurrect this McFranchise last year and now “Tropic Thunder” writer Etan Cohen is currently mid-way through a draft for a third entry into the franchise, and Will Smith, who surprisingly doesn’t have a current project lined up, is said to be interested. Original helmer Barry Sonnenfeld is loosely attached, presumably because he doesn’t have anything better to do. It’s unclear whether Tommy Lee Jones will return, but we’re pretty sure he won’t – while we barely remember anything about “Men in Black II,” we have a vague memory of him being fairly definitively written out. But then, that was true of part one as well, so we suppose it’s always possible. If we were betting men, we’d say Columbia will swap someone else in. Kevin James? Seth Rogen? Simon Pegg? Smells like what everyone else is doing: reviving a potential cash-cow in hopes of making more dough which isn’t of much interest, but we’ll keep tabs on it cause we probably should, but this could even be less interesting than “Ghostbusters 3” if that’s even fathomable.