Men in Black (1997)

Men in Black rating: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic

IMDb7.3/10· 658K votes

Rotten Tomatoes91%

Metacritic72%

TMDb7.226/10· 15K votes

With 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, backed by 7.3/10 on IMDb and 72/100 on Metacritic, critical reception of this film has been very positive.

About Men in Black

After a police chase with an otherworldly being, a New York City cop is recruited as an agent in a top-secret organization established to monitor and police alien activity on Earth: the Men in Black. Agent K and new recruit Agent J find themselves in the middle of a deadly plot by an intergalactic terrorist who has arrived on Earth to assassinate two ambassadors from opposing galaxies.

Cast of Men in Black

• 

  Tommy Lee Jones

  as Kay

• 

  Will Smith

  as Jay

• 

  Linda Fiorentino

  as Laurel

• 

  Vincent D'Onofrio

  as Edgar

• 

  Rip Torn

  as Zed

• 

  Tony Shalhoub

  as Jeebs

• 

  Siobhan Fallon Hogan

  as Beatrice

• 

  Mike Nussbaum

  as Gentle Rosenburg

• 

  Jon Gries

  as Van Driver

• 

  Sergio Calderón

  as Jose

• 

  Carel Struycken

  as Arquillian

• 

  Fredric Lehne

  as INS agent Janus

Men in Black facts

Budget

$90M

Box office

$589.4M

Collection

Men in Black Collection

Our take on Men in Black

Barry Sonnenfeld's 1997 sci-fi comedy pairs a deadpan Agent K with a fast-talking rookie, Agent J, freshly recruited after a New York City cop chases down an otherworldly being. Their beat is a secret agency policing alien activity on Earth, and the plot kicks off when an intergalactic terrorist arrives to assassinate two ambassadors from rival galaxies. The pleasure lies in the tone: bureaucratic weirdness played straight, gadgets, and a mismatched-partner rhythm. It moves briskly, keeps the effects playful rather than grim, and suits viewers who want inventive comic action over heavy world-building. A breezy, rewatchable entry point for anyone easing into alien-invasion fun.