Bad Boys II (2003)

Director: Michael Bay

Cast: Martin Lawrence, Will Smith, Peter Stormare, Gabrielle Union, Jordi Molla

Country: United States

Rating: R

Run Time: 147 minutes

Whereas Bad Boys was a small scaled cops and robbers genre picture with a $19 million budget, Bad Boys II was a full fledged blockbuster with a whopping $130 million price tag. The sequel finds Bay in full form eight years after the release of the initial film, amping up everything from the comedy, to the action, to even the budget and run time. If two hours of Bad Boys wasn't enough, than how about two and a half? Bad Boys II is pure excess from start to finish, a cinematic guilty pleasure if there ever was one. Heck, Edgar Wright even admitted his love for the film in his own Hot Fuzz.

Bad Boys II is a much better film than its predecessor simply for how unabashedly ridiculous and over the top it is. Bay blows the hell out of Miami with a plethora of set pieces that put every action scene in Bad Boys to shame. However, viewers should not expect a better film in terms of plotting or character development. Bad Boys II is more of the same, right down to its insanely offensive comedy and over sexualization of women. In fact, Bad Boys II finds a way to be even more offensive than the original Bad Boys by cracking jokes at the expense of both homosexuals and animals. While I groaned out loud at Bay's sense of humor, I was in pure cinematic bliss during his action sequences. Few filmmakers deliver the same level of high octane entertainment and juvenile immaturity time and time again as Michael Bay. At this point, the only person that you can blame for your suffering while watching a Bay film is yourself, as the filmmaker is not going to change any time soon.

Smith goes full action hero in Bad Boys II.

Bad Boys II is nearly the same as its predecessor: Mike and Marcus, two narcotics division detectives, must take down a drug smuggler and his cash. However, their investigation is complicated when Marcus' DEA sister, Sydney (Gabrielle Union), finds herself undercover within the same case. Bad Boys II is the cinematic equivalent of candy. While candy may be terrible for me, I admit to enjoying it slightly, just as I do Bad Boys II. In fact, I would go one step further and say that Bad Boys II is sugar coated garbage, a real piece of unadulterated trash that can only be enjoyed by numb skulls or those willing to turn off their brain for two and a half hours.

Michael Bay directed such mega hit films as The Rock, Armageddon, and Pearl Harbor in between both Bad Boys features. The man had most definitely amped up both his budgets and his level of destruction since Bad Boys' measly $19 million antics. Therefore, Bad Boys II finds Bay in full form with his signature teal and orange color pallet, rotating camera shots, juvenile humor, and an insane amount of on screen destruction. Bad Boys was merely a warm up for the massive vehicular damage on display in Bay's sequel that puts the Bay in "Bayhem."

Unfortunately, Bay had not matured as a filmmaker since the original Bad Boys adventure and showcases the same storytelling flaws as before. Bad Boys II follows a very specific pattern from start to finish: comedic banter between Smith and Lawrence, bad guy plots drug smuggling, the boys run into Marcus' sister, crazy action sequence ensues, and than the captain yells at them for the damage they caused. If seeing this pattern of events repeat itself for 147 minutes does not interest you, than do not watch Bad Boys II, as the film is nothing more than this.

Bay's money shots are one of the film's saving graces.

Bay finds a way to be even more offensive than before, taking shots at both homosexuals and animals in some of the most mean spirited comedy I have ever witnessed in a major motion picture. When main villain Tapia (Jordi Molla) shows his cohorts where he hides his money, he discovers that numerous rats pester his home's sewers. Instead of just showing Tapia shoot at the rats for comedic purposes, Bay takes the time to include shots of rats exploding from Tapia's bullets. It's enough to show someone shoot without a result, by why go so far as to show bodily harm in such explicit detail?

Bay goes even further with his degradation of animals when Mike and Marcus go undercover as rat exterminators in Tapia's home. When Marcus hears a pair of rats having sex, he turns around to see the two of them humping one another in the missionary style and declares, "They have sex just like us!" I cannot recall the last time that I groaned so loudly at a film's awful attempt at humor. How did no one on the production team, including Jerry Bruckheimer, step in and tell Bay that a shot of robotic animal sex was too much and completely out of tone with the rest of the picture? Or how about that rats don't have sex like that in real life!

Animal humor is one thing, but homophobic humor is a whole other realm of insincerity and immaturity. Remember when I complained about the liquor store scene in Bad Boys and how it halted the plot for no other reason than more comedy? Well, Bay one ups himself and includes an even longer and more unnecessary scene in Bad Boys II where the boys visit an electronics store to view footage from a destroyed camera. Instead of being content with just showing the boys watch porn on a large screen television (already unnecessary enough), Bay includes a scene where Mike and Marcus sit on a couch and talk with one another about Marcus' anal injury from the opening action scene of the film.

However, the boys don't realize that they are being filmed by a set of cameras that project footage to the monitors on the main floor of the electronics store. What follows is two grating minutes of bystanders mistaking Mike and Marcus' conversation for a discussion of anal sex, resulting in numerous homophobic jokes that just about set me off. The fact that this kind of humor was allowed in a film from 2003 is almost shocking. Bad Boys II feels like a film made by all of the insensitive bullies from your high school days at times.

**** just got real.

Contrived humor and ridiculous plot points aside, Bad Boys II features a plethora of exciting action sequences that any hard nosed action fan would be hard pressed not to love. Even cinematic guru Edgar Wright considers it to be one of his favorite action films, or at least one of Danny Butterman's. One cannot help but bask in Bay's gorgeous visuals and distinct style at times. Bay lights up the screen with J.J. Abrams-esque lense flares and a teal and orange color palette that brings Miami, Florida to life on the big screen as no other filmmaker before him.

Besides the opening shootout in which Bay makes light of the Klu Klux Klan (no complaints there), Bad Boys II doesn't truly explode until its second set piece: a massive car chase that spans a parking garage, the streets of Miami, and a freeway overpass. This massive car chase is the stand out set piece of the film and it arrives a mere 30 minutes into Bad Boys II's proceedings. As Mike and Marcus chase a semi-auto carrier, the criminals aboard it repeatedly dump various sports cars onto the freeway in order to knock Mike and his fellow police officers off their tail. What follows is several minutes of cars flipping, smashing, and exploding. My favorite moment of the entire car chase occurs right at the tail end as the auto carrier wedges a trailer carrying a boat up against the side of the freeway. When the carrier pulls away, the boat launches off of the trailer, flies through the air, and collides with a police car, resulting in a massive multi-car pile up. Scenes like this are the reason that people keep watching Bay's films despite their dumb humor and over long run times (if you are one of those people who enjoys the humor though than I don't apologize because you need to acquire some taste or a heart).

The sequel also contains a solid close quarters shootout that is complimented by a rotating shot through various holes in the room's walls. This rotating camera shot is a staple of Bay's filmography and can also be seen in Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and Pain and Gain. Bay also delivers one heck of a finale jam packed with as much gun fire, explosions, and vehicular damage as you can imagine. This finale is especially neat because Bay pays tribute to none other than Jackie Chan as Mike and Marcus drive a hummer through a hill-side town made of tiny shacks, the exact same stunt that opens Chan's 1985 opus, Police Story.

Gimme more of this and less humping rats.

After nearly redeeming all of its comedic nonsense with an action packed finale, Bad Boys II lets the audience down with a one-two punch of stupidity as a minor character makes a last second betrayal and an abrupt ending brings all of the entertaining chaos to a close out of nowhere. The ending of Bad Boys II is essentially a reminder of Bay's talents as a filmmaker. He is a man who can excel to the greatest of highs at times, only to fall down and take the film with him moments after. I would like to recommend Bad Boys II to all action fans, but know that the mean spirited humor and terrible character interactions will turn off many viewers. Even the two and a half hour run time will turn off viewers, as this film contains about 90 minutes of actual cops and robbers content and about an hour of comedic riffing and ad libbing. Bad Boys II biggest flaw is that its tone is inconsistent. Bay blends animal sex jokes with deadly serious action where people's bodies explode and corpses roll onto the streets. These two things do not mix, as one is painfully juvenile and the other deadly serious. Bad Boys II feels more like a straight comedy at times than it does an actual buddy cop film a-la Rush Hour or Lethal Weapon.

I learned a valuable lesson after watching both Bad Boys films for the first time this past week. If I have to endure two and a half hours of Michael Bay's juvenile humor, disregard for character, and terrible sense of plotting, than I would prefer that it involve human characters shooting and chasing one another in cars than it be robots leveling a city. I also learned that the only person I should be mad at while watching a Bay film is myself, as I know exactly what I am getting into each and every time. I may tackle more Bay films in the future on my blog, as the man did direct The Rock, a legitimately fantastic action film devoid of immature humor and comedic rambling. His first Transformers film is also mildly enjoyable to an extent. However, I think that I fully understand Bay as a filmmaker now after tackling his first franchise. 

Rating: 6/10 - This grating and insensitive sequel is saved by its bonkers action sequences that remind you why people eat popcorn at the movies...and how Michael Bay is a middle aged man with a 12 year old's brain.

Franchise:

Bad Boys (dir. Michael Bay, 1995)

Bad Boys II (dir. Michael Bay, 2003)