Written by: George Gallo (characters), Marianne Wibberley & Cormac Wibberley and Ron Shelton (story), Ron Shelton and Jerry Stahl (screenplay)
Directed by: Michael Bay
Starring: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Gabrielle Union, Peter Stormare, Michael Shannon, Henry Rollins
Rated: R
Watch the trailer
Plot
Narcotics cops Marcus Burnett and Mike Lowrey return for explosions and fast cars.
Verdict
This throws fast cars, pretty girls, and lots of explosions at you in quick succession. It's made for short attention spans and often feels boring. The story is flat and lacks tension or surprise. The excess feels like a ploy to hide the faults. The comedy is crude, the action is just spectacle, and while Smith and Lawrence have great chemistry the script does a poor job of giving that life.
It depends.
Review
Bad Boys II is never as funny as it thinks it is. A lot is going on in just the opening which sets the tone for the frenetic pace. Marcus and Mike (Lawrence and Smith) infiltrate the Klan, complete with full costumes, them singing a rendition of the song Bad Boys, and then a shoot out. None of the jokes are subtle, substituting crudeness for comedy. This is a movie made by someone with, or for people possessing, a short attention span.
The high way chase is meant to be epic, but it's difficult to tell whats happening. The editing is so quick that action is often implied more than it's seen. It relies on explosions, crashes, and a Ferrari without giving us an impressive visual. Bad guys are releasing vehicles off the back of a car transport. Instead of a sweeping scene of the cars being released and the Ferrari dodging it, we get bits and pieces that imply that's what happened. This is a Michael Bay film, so the excess is expected.
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| Bad Boys II -Also known as Blow Stuff Up. |
It's an interesting look at nineties culture, despite being released at the beginning of the millennium. Will Smith is rocking the dog tags, and Lawrence is wearing the basketball jersey. Even the language feels tied to the time.
I thought Will Smith didn't have to curse to sell records, but I guess his films follow different rules. Crude language rarely bothers me, but this movie feels like a teenager trying to impress by spewing all the words not allowed by his parents.
We even get a scene of rats copulating. It's crude, but not funny. That is a perfect snapshot of this movie.
The funniest scene involves Reggie, a teen who's going on a date with Marcus's daughter. Mike and Marcus try to scare the kid by hurling insults at him and referencing stints in jail while downing a bottle of liquor. They even point a gun at Reggie. While it's crude, it's a rare instance where the movie succeeds with it's over the top comedy. The actor that played Reggie was told to not look Martin Lawrence in the eye, and he had no idea he would be staring down the barrel of a gun. His fear is real. The scene culminates in Mike asking Reggie, "You ever made love to a man? You want to?" This is what Smith and Lawrence are trying to capture throughout the movie, and this is the rare scene where they succeed.
With so much action this ultimately felt boring. There is no story. It's a bunch of explosions and highly improbably situations strung together. Will Smith is invincible and that robs the movie of any intensity. I never for a second think he'll fail. He escapes the final battle unharmed despite the many bullets fired, some directly through the windshield of the vehicles he commandeered. No one fires at him when he gets out of the car, not to mention he's in a land mine field and misses all of the explosives while firing at the bad guys. There is a big slow motion shot of Will beating the bad guy, but it's just filler in a hollow movie.
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