BAD BOYS II
A Columbia Pictures Release

review by Joseph B. Mauceri

SYNOPSIS: Narcotics cops Mike Lowrey (Smith) and Marcus Bennett (Lawrence) are back! This time they¹re heading up a task force that¹s investigating the flow of ecstasy into Miami. Their search leads to a dangerous kingpin (Molla), whose plan is to control the city's drug traffic and get his fortune out of the country. In the mean time, Mike and Syd (Union), Marcus's sister, have gotten a bit sexy. That¹s not the only secret she¹s been keeping from Marcus. Her career choice has placed her between the boys and the drug kingpin, and unless the boys can separate their personal lives from their jobs they could blow the case and endanger Syd¹s life.

REVIEW: It seems to me that with every time Michael Bay/Jerry Bruckheimer team up there is less story and more action. In BAD BOYS II Martin Lawrence and Will Smith basically spend most of their time screaming at each other over loud gunfire. There are a few moments where they get the opportunity to be funny, but just when you feel like you can relax and enjoy the film they start shooting again.

The writers have come up with some extremely inventive gags. I think the scene where the bad guys are throwing cars at the duo is original and chilling. Then there are a couple of other scenes that border on bad taste. If it isn¹t the dead bodies falling out of a transport and onto the guys¹ car, there¹s a scene where Lawrence¹s character has a nervous breakdown after they kill all the members of a Jamaican gang. There are a few moments in those sequences that might even belong in a horror film. The film¹s climax takes audiences far into the realms of the fantasy. An excuse for a bigger gunfight, wreck a town on the side of a mountain and ignite the largest explosion of the film, it had me longing for the simpler days of Dirty Harry.

What really troubled me about BAD BOYS II is how easily guns were being drawn and the length of these gunfights. I have never in my career complained about this stuff, but BAD BOYS II drove the point home for me. This film has characters shooting guns, making jokes, killing people, and it sends the wrong message. I know the film is rated ³R², but there were adults bringing kids into the screening I attended. I now can understand how a kid, after seeing this film, might come across a gun and shoot a friend. Kid¹s play make-believe, and we tell them movies are make-believe. If they find a gun and are in that zone real people are going to die. Now that is truly scary!

Once that numb feeling fades, you¹ll realize that BAD BOYS II could have been a feature film version of the popular television series ³Miami Vice.² I think Lawrence and Smith are good together, at least when they weren¹t shooting things up and I could hear the dialogue. The sound on this film had to be as loud as an AC/DC concert. Bay and Bruckheimer go so over the top here that I actually wondered how far they could have brought down the national debt if they¹d taken the budget for BAD BOYS II and given it to the government.

OFFICIAL WEB SITE:
http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/badboys2

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