This week’s movie releases

It’s 15 years since the first Men in Black movie, and 10 since the iffy sequel — so the question is, does anyone care that MIB3 is now upon us? Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are once again keeping alien activity on Earth in check as secret agents J and K. Well, more or less, as Jones is soon substituted for Josh Brolin, who plays his younger self in a story that sees Smith whisked back to 1969 to save both his partner and the planet from escaped villain Boris the Animal (Flight of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement).

Reportedly having suffered several rewrites, returning director Barry Sonnenfeld’s movie could so easily have been an insufferable mess — all lame 1960s jokes and mindless action. But, nailed to the central characters, it offers a surprisingly well-worked-out story encompassing Warhol, the Mets, the Moon landings and an alien savant (Michael Stuhlbarg, channeling Robin Williams) capable of seeing multiple realities at once. Smith is as charismatic as ever, Jones/Brolin his perfect foil, while assorted aliens pep things up with some surreal asides. Emma Thompson is left to wither in a romantic subplot and the 3D is pointless, but, yes, there’s enough to make you realize you do still care, though maybe not to start clamoring for MIB4.

The Lucky One is the latest of The Notebook author Nicholas Sparks’ bestselling oeuvre to be adapted for the big screen. Zac Efron plays a soldier in Iraq who’s saved by the photograph of an unknown woman (Taylor Schilling). Upon his return, he tracks her down, and, despite her initial suspicion, the pair strike up a romance.

Named Best Film at this year’s Málaga Festival, Patricia Ferreira’s Los niños salvajes (or, The wild kids) offers an insight into teenagers’ hidden lives as it follows three high-school friends, played by Marina Comas, Àlex Monner and Albert Baró.