Film Junk Premium Podcast #72: Men in Black Trilogy

Posted by on June 19th, 2019   Filed under: Featured, Film Junk Podcast, Premium Podcast

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“You’re no longer part of the System. You’re above the System. Over it. Beyond it. We’re them. We’re they. We are the Men in Black.” The recent arrival of Men in Black: International gave us a reason to revisit this well-known but admittedly uneven sci-fi comedy trilogy directed by Barry Sonnenfeld. At least one of these three films holds a special place in Frank’s heart but we also throw in a discussion about another Barry Sonnenfeld / Will Smith team-up: Wild Wild West. Discussion topics include the influence of The Coen Brothers on Sonnenfeld’s aesthetic, improvised vs. scripted comedy, practical vs. CG effects and a Big Willie Style dick slip. So are Men in Black 2 and 3 decent sequels or are they soulless cash grabs? Is it okay for Men in Black to use a neuralyzer for conjugal visits? Why is producer Jon Peters so obsessed with giant mechanical spiders? We make this look good on the latest premium podcast… download it below.

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This series of premium podcasts was created to help support the regular weekly Film Junk Podcast. Head on over to Bandcamp and download full episodes for a minimum donation of just $1. As always, let us know if you experience any technical difficulties or if you have any other suggestions for future specials. Thanks for your support!



  • eliantigiorgi

    Fuck the Premium where is Gamejunk!!! I need that NOW!!! Untill I get Gamejunk E3 2019 then I’ll purchase the the premium podcast.

  • Justin Kinzer

    E3 is dead.

  • kent88

    I haven’t listened yet, but I sure hope this classic Karl Pilkington/Stephen Merchant/Ricky Gervais moment gets mentioned.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmwgNyPJoSw

  • Todd S. Gallows

    Yes, pleeeeeeeeaaaaaaaase…

  • devolutionary

    Did Will Smith ever put out a cheesy theme song for III? I don’t ever recall.

  • devolutionary

    So many tantalizing (and not so tantalizing) titles dangled on a carrot…for 2020!!! :-/

  • Indianamcclain

    Oddly enough a recent film does address Tilda Swinton being an alien.

  • Hunter Allen

    Funny celebrity alien: Kate Capshaw.

  • devolutionary

    lol, The “Scarf” would never abide by that. The ‘Berg would put F. Gary Gray in director jail for that.

  • Hunter Allen

    Well, if that doesn’t work, perhaps E.T. could’ve been a real live alien, instead of a Carlo Rambaldi prop.

    Or for a real deep cut that about 0.1% of the audience would get, E.T.’s still a prop, and Drew Barrymore’s the alien.

    (For the record, I think Kate Capshaw’s a perfectly nice person and don’t even think she’s meaningfully bad in Temple of Doom.)

  • devolutionary

    I actually think she was decent in Dreamscape.

  • Nico -_-

    How did Frank not mention the horrendous trilogy cred with the titles?? Isn’t he all about this? The second movie uses roman numerals which are dropped for the third one. So gross.

    He does an amazing D’onofrio impression though, couldn’t stop laughing at that.

  • OsoDuck

    You gentleman definitely need a related movie tie-in lore book to go along with all future premiums.

    I found a link to a pdf of Men in Black: The Script and the Story Behind the Film, but alas, it was dead.

  • stevens1

    This was one of your best premiums. Maybe it was because of the long hours this week and you guys are even more relaxed than normal, I don’t know. Either way it was a great listen. Thanks SFJ.

  • LongSlog

    Fantastic premium guys, great energy, including frequent readings from Franky’s book was excellent.

  • OsoDuck

    I was thinking about it and Men in Black kind of owes a lot to They Live. Two guys that can see aliens that usually pass as humans, when they don pseudo-magical sunglasses. Jones approaches Smith with the truth of the world, like Piper approaches David with the truth.

  • colin the dude

    Frank is 1,000% correct that Wild Wild West is better than Men in Black II. WWW isn’t any good, but it is Wildly more watchable.