Neil Fox on film: Men In Black 3, Moonrise Kingdom

No matter how many chat shows Will Smith appears on being undeniably charming and charismatic, he can’t escape the fact that cinematically he has been treading water for a while.

And this, the first of a run of sequels and prequels he has lined up, is further alarming proof.

Once the most interesting star of his generation and certainly one of the most versatile, it feels like ‘how the mighty have fallen’ watching this sporadically entertaining sequel.

The premise is strong – Agent J needs to go back in time and work with a younger Agent K. The casting is spot on, with Josh Brolin a dead ringer for a young Tommy Lee Jones and clearly having the most fun of all, playing a grumpy, dead- eyed young TLJ.

Sadly, that’s where most of the fun is, with the rest of the film being laboured and searching.

It replaces the arrogance of Men In Black 2 with a lack of confidence, seemingly stemming from being away so long after an underwhelming last venture.

With The Avengers tearing up screens with absolute quality and a strong summer planned, this marginally amusing sequel to a forgotten franchise just isn’t going to cut the mustard. I expected more.

Moonrise Kingdom

Too Wes Anderson-y. Too Wes Anderson-y? What did you expect?

It is the new film from Wes Anderson, one of the most individual, idiosyncratic and visually recognisable film-makers to emerge over the last 15 years.

You know what you are going to get, and that’s usually a brilliant piece of work. His latest is no less strange or unique than The Royal Tenenbaums or Fantastic Mr Fox.

It tells the story of a young boy and girl who fall in love and run away. While they are hiding out, creating their own universe, their families and the authorities try to find them.

A brilliant cast take on this story beautifully, and with Anderson’s trademark style create one of the sweetest, most enjoyable and sumptuous films of the year so far. Wonderful.

What To Expect When You’re Expecting

What to expect from this? I expected it to be a cliché-ridden mess, a patronisingly derivative piece of chick flick, rom com schlock featuring a class of great actresses being absolutely wasted. My expectations were more than met. The story is an ensemble piece following five couples expecting babies, and serves up philosophy that is straight from a ‘Babies for Dummies’ manual. It’s excruciatingly unimaginative and as profound as a dirty nappy.