CLICHE-BATTERING ALIEN ROMP IS A TRIUMPHANT HIT ON EARTH.

``Men in Black (PG-13; cartoonish violence and gore). Our rating: 3-1/2 stars

A deadpan action comedy that exploits our long-held paranoias about the government's relationship with space aliens, ``Men in Black'' is a triumphant blend of droll tone and wacky special effects from director Barry Sonnenfeld.

Based on an obscure comic book series, the movie invents a United States where alien arrivals are old news - multitudes of the creatures have been here for decades, their comings and goings monitored by an FBI-like government agency, the Men in Black (MiB), whose function is to keep the truth from the rest of us, who presumably couldn't handle it.

Nattily attired in black suits, skinny ties and Ray-Bans, the MiB keep their operation secret by using a wand-like device to erase all memory of alien events from any witnesses.

Tommy Lee Jones plays veteran agent K, an unflappable, seen-it-all insider who's way ahead of everyone else in his perceptions of what's going on around him. Will Smith plays his partner, J, with a physical exuberance and cartoony, open-faced naivete that makes the perfect foil for K.

With their long, black Ford LTD and retro attire, these G-men bring a '60s-era panache to the '90s buddy comedy, and the genre-bending is further enhanced by their matter-of-fact mixing with a wild array of alien creatures, inventively designed by Rick Baker (``Gremlins,'' ``Harry and the Hendersons'').

Sonnenfeld keeps the tone superbly consistent and droll, establishing a raunchy, underplayed universe where the most outrageous things can happen and nobody bats an eyelash.

Kudos also to screenwriter Ed Solomon, whose snappy, quip-laden dialogue does much to elevate the picture's I.Q.