Men in White

This film was a complete waste of time, totally unfunny and just about everything in the movie has been seen before ( ok I know that's the point up to a degree but Spaceballs managed to show us a load of stuff we'd seen before in an original and entertaining manner ). Obviously the only reason anyone decided to slap National Lampoons onto the title is because no-one would otherwise touch this pile of cack with a barge pole. I know Tom Wilson is deserving of better than this sorry effort and although he does well with the really naff dialogue he gets it's still not enough to save this turkey......AVOID!!! On the plus side though my kids (3, 5 & 6) thought it was quite amusing.

I saw this film back in 99 when it was first on in the UK, and here I am writing about it in 2004. Since then I consider myself a little bit older, a little bit wiser but one thing still remains the same- This film is one of the worst ever to grace (or is that disgrace?) celluloid. I understand a few of the gags more, most notably since I watched the likes of 2001 and that but they are still absolutely abysmal. Gags should appeal to everyone of the target audience (bit of advice for you Mr writer) but jokes about smoking aren't really going to make the kids laugh are they? So what else is terrible in this film? Well I only have a 1000 word limit on the IMDb so I will keep it brief so let us start with the dreadful plotting.

One previous writer is correct, a dead cat could write something better. Then we have the characters, two idiotic morons which worked well in Dumb and Dumber because they had the dialogue but in this film I won't even go there, OK then I will as you insist..."We've been saving the Earth from alien invasion", "I hope you don't expect any extra bonus for this..." you get the picture in this dire picture. Another previous writer was correct also, Tom Wilson is a decent actor as he showed us in Back to the Future, but since then work has kind of dried up. He shouldn't be getting this guff at all, but the question we need to ask ourselves is WHY Mr Wilson decided to do this film in the first place? If you haven't seen this diabolical mess of a film, then I have a surprise for you...watch it! Seriously, watch this film, I kid you not. And why? Well if you are a budding screenwriter it is truly a lesson of how NOT to make a film.

The only other National Lampoon movies I've seen are the Vacation and Christmas Vacation movies. Those are good and this can't hold a candle to them. Maybe I'm being too hard on a TV movie. No, TV movies have given us great things like "Temple Grandin". This is an awful movie no matter how you look at it. This movie is a supposed parody of "Men In Black", but it feels a lot more like a knockoff product. The film has virtually nothing to do with "Men In Black" at all. Instead, it mostly just features two garbage men and a bunch of aliens they fight.

It might just be because "Dr. Strangelove" is such a great movie that I particularly hated this. There's a Dr. Strangelove parody in this and again, that has nothing to do with "Men In Black" or even alien movies in general. It's great how those few minutes he was on screen were infinitely better than all the screen time this guy was on. The special effects in this are terrible. It might have been okay if they had just used costumes, but instead they used horrendous CGI. It's the worst I've seen in a long time.

I know this was 1998, but "Jurassic Park" was 1993 for crying out loud! This throws in a bunch of "Star Wars" stuff. There's even a scene where all the bad guys are running out of the ship that seems like a ripoff of a scene in "Spaceballs". This wasn't for theaters, TV, video or anything else. Some of these jokes I can see coming from a mile away. I guess even on TV, spoof movies were becoming awful at this time. *

I think of the title of "National Lampoons" and i think of a hilarious insight into popular culture and the "cult" things of our times. I had expected something close to "Spaceballs" but was reminded instead of why i grew up! Do not view this movie unless you are grafting your child onto the realm of "Star Wars"....

Please step lightly!

Although properly warned I actually sat down to watch this movie. In part because I usually give every movie an even break, and because I thought that a single movie couldn't be that bad. I stand corrected. Not even George Kennedy, Barry Bostwick or Ben Stein could save this turkey from sinking like a ton of bricks. Only once during this humor forsaken travesty of a spoof did I laugh. Namely during the Simon says scene. The other jokes are either poorly carried out or simply plain unfunny. And some of them you actually see coming a mile away. This movie just hasn't got what it takes to be a good parody like Airplane! (I+II), Naked Gun (I+II+III), or Scary Movie. They all had A. funny gags, B. good dialog and most important of all C. unforgettable quotes. Men In White has got D. none of the above. To call this movie bad would be a gross understatement. AVOID THIS MOVIE ANYWAY YOU CAN! CONSIDER YOURSELVES WARNED!