MEN IN BLACK (1997)

MEN IN BLACK is a sci-fi comedy about a secret organisation that polices alien activity on earth. The film is rated PG and contains mild language, violence and horror.

The film contains mild language throughout, with uses of terms such as ‘shit’, ‘bastard’, ‘butt’ and ‘dick’.

The violence is comic and there are plenty of gloopy exploding aliens who regularly burst into goo and slime all over everyone. In one scene, an alien hand pulls a man into a crater. We hear lots of sucking sounds and see some rubbery skin briefly flop over the edge of the crater. The man then appears as a misshapen version of himself and it becomes clear that the alien has donned his skin. In another scene, one of the main characters shoots the head off an alien who is masquerading as a shop-keeper. The alien pops his rubbery little head up out of the neck and turns back into the original shop-keeper. This is a bloodless effect with the emphasis on humour rather than horror. The strongest scene is probably that in which a bug-like alien tries to kill the king alien. He sends spikes into the necks of the king alien and his sidekick. The action is all very fast and the spikes are like needles, entering their flesh without any blood at all.

The bug-like alien is a little spooky, starting the film as a baggy-skinned man and deteriorating throughout the film until he looks like a decomposing corpse, finally turning into the giant bug. Like all other aspects of the film, the character is played for laughs and there is no real sense of threat.

PG stands for Parental Guidance. A PG film should not disturb a child aged around eight or older. However, parents are advised to consider whether the content may upset younger or more sensitive children.