Third 'MIB' Outing Ends Series on Weakest Note

After a decade-long hiatus, the MIB franchise goes in a brand new direction - back in time.

Men in Black 3 was simply doomed from the start, desperately attempting to reacquaint moviegoers (or more-so subject moviegoers) to what was already an outdated and lifeless franchise. Times have certainly changed since the late 90s as has the quality of cinematic competition. Will Smith just doesn’t have the star power that he had a decade ago with his trio of revolving summer blockbusters: Independence Day, Men in Black, and Wild Wild West.  

And Tommy Lee Jones is no better off, straying from his slew of Oscar-bait performances for the sole purpose of revisiting campy nostalgia. Back as MIB Agents J and K, Smith and Jones once again don their signature black suits and Ray-Bans ready to take down intergalactic criminal, Boris the Animal (Jermaine Clement) hell bent on altering the space time continuum. So far, the plot doesn’t sound too bad, a bit derivative, but surely not dreadful. After all, Back to the Future and Austin Powers are deep in the time-travel genre and look how it enhanced those franchises.

'Dragon Tattoo' Remake is a Haunting Beauty from Fincher

Rooney Mara assumes the mantle of anti-social cyber hacker, Lisabeth Salander in this remake.

As of late, it seems like Sweden has constantly been getting the goods. From 2008’s Let the Right One In to 2009’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, these titles have not only captivated Swedish cinemaphiles, but those abroad and particularly those here in the United States. The only drawback, reading subtitles. Granted there is a solution. Either dub the language or remake the film for domestic audiences. 

Enter 2010’s Let Me In, which actually gave horror an intellectual feel for a change and now one year later, an American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. And what better way to reinterpret the first of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy than the master of serial killer thrillers himself, David Fincher. Like the Swedish adaptation, Fincher intricately crafts Tattoo as a thriller about a damaged publisher and an antisocial hacker recruited to uncover a decades-old mystery about the murder of a corporate heiress.

'Jack and Jill' Fails to Conjure Up Twin Magic

That's Adam Sandler...and Adam Sandler and that's more than one too many.

We all have relatives that get on our nerves, but there is a fine line between tolerating someone for their annoyances and having that sudden urge to lock oneself in the room when it’s time for that holiday get-together. Take Jack (Adam Sandler), a commercial director who knows that a peaceful Thanksgiving with his wife Katie Holmes and two children is out of the question.  

Dreading the arrival of his awkward, unattractive and needy twin sister, Jill (also played by Sandler), Jack manages every possible solution to ensure the holidays don’t go up in flames. But what was initially intended to be a quick Thanksgiving stay, extends longer than expected, through Hanukkah and New Years, aggravating Jack to no end.