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Bad Boys II Customer Reviews (46 - 48 of 70 Reviews)

WOW action salvages an unpleasant film
I recently saw TERMINATOR 3, which I thought had the best vehicle pursuit sequences I'd seen lately. BAD BOYS II tops even that.

Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) are partnered Miami cops looking to bust drug king Hector Tapia (Jordi Molla). Burnett's sister Sydney (Gabrielle Union) is an undercover agent down from the Big Apple as part of a concurrent (and secret from the MPD, of course) D.E.A operation. And unknown to Marcus, Mike and Sydney have A Thing going.

BAD BOYS II is too frequently mean and unpleasant. There's gratuitous gore, e.g. a can of freshly severed body parts and slo-mo shots of bullets hitting flesh. Nor does the bond between Mike and Marcus have the audience appeal of that between Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in the LETHAL WEAPON series, though I suspect the creators of BBII were hoping to achieve it. Indeed, after Marcus learns of his sister's affair with Lowrey, there's downright animosity. Moreover, scenes ostensibly supposed to be comic are instead cruel, as when our two heroes harass a teenage boy who's appeared on the Burnett doorstep for a first date with Marcus's teenage daughter. Lastly, the extreme action sequences are of a sort that obviously leave behind scores of dead and maimed innocent bystanders. Yet, this is never acknowledged beyond reference to twenty-three "totaled" vehicles after an eye-popping car chase on a bridge.

Award for Most Overacted Performance should perhaps go to Joe Pantoliano as police Captain Howard, who rides herd on our fearless duo's excesses. The role would have been better played straight by a grumpy Sam Elliott. Pantoliano is miscast, which compounds this excruciating mistake.

The movie's conclusion features a ludicrous collaborative operation involving the CIA, DEA, Coast Guard, and MPD. It's so silly that I was tempted to knock off another star, but pillorying Hollywood for improbability is like scolding politicians for insincerity.

Despite my disenchantment with the film's many shortcomings, I'm still awarding fours stars SOLELY because of the phenomenal action sequences, particularly the vehicle pursuits and shoot-em-ups. As a matter of fact, BAD BOYS II is, by those narrow standards, perhaps the best thriller of its type I've seen to date. This either means that it's actually pretty decent, or I need to get out more.

Better the second time 'round...
Back again in their second feature film together, Martin Lawrence and Will Smith deliver another tight performance as the two Miami bad boy cops Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) and Mike Lowrey (Will Smith). Director Michael bay delivers another masterpiece of action, comedy, and edge of your seat action sequences. Having the same director for this film and the first, give a depth continuity often missing in sequels.

At 147 minutes in length, this is an epic-sized action film. I suppose the only major drawback of the film is its length, which for some people is enough to speak of it as a lesser movie, but this criticism is somewhat unwarranted. The movie moves along well, and its length is only noticeable at a few points in the film.

The action sequences, in keeping with the first movie, are visually stunning, quite astonishing, and totally engrossing. The Bad Boys II goes beyond its predecessor in this respect, as expected, with even more shot-outs, car chases, and in-depth battle sequences that do not disappoint even the most jaded action-junkies amongst us. Fancy cars are back in this film as well, as Lowrey, a rich man, drives his mean-looking silver, Ferrari 550 through several intricate chase sequences that epitomize every car fanatic's best wet dream. Fancy Cadillac's, Mercedes-Benz, and Plymouth Prowlers do not miss the list either.

One of the more impressive action sequences in the movie comes in the form of a highway chase in which a band of Jamaican pirates have hi-jacked a semi-truck transporting new cars. The pirates then proceed to launch the cars off the truck in an attempt to shake their police chasers, making for a visually dazzling array of smashing cars crashing down the highway at very high speeds, demolishing everything in their path. These big-budget visual effects and hilarious interludes between the main characters keep the film moving along nicely.

Action aside, the true magic of the film lies not within in its violence, but within the chemistry of the two main actors. Lawrence and Smith play old friends in a fragile relationship, swaying between extremes of close kinship and periods of punctuated rivalry with effortless fluidity. The film's opening sequences prognosticate bad things to come and rough waters ahead for this special duo, and their story plays out well, keeping us laughing all the way, sympathetic to each bump in their relationship's rocky road.

Villains are not in short supply either, as Russian mob bosses and the penultimate scoundrel, Joni Tapi, face off for control and distribution of an enormous supply of illegal drugs from Amsterdam. Tapi is a violently disturbed Cuba drug-lord, who is humorous and unflinchingly cruel as he vies for total control over his drug markets in Miami.

The films basic plot is as follows. Hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal drugs have made their way into the US through an intricate network of KKK drug mules, high-speed boats, and secret coffins. Burnett and Lowrey are charged to stop this flow of illegal drugs anyway they can. Tapi, a Cuban kingpin, has contracted Russian mob bosses to distribute his drugs through their Florida nightclubs to a waiting populace. While the two detectives try to uncover the clues, they run into Burnett's sister, the beautiful Syd, who is working on bringing down Tapi through her undercover work with the DEA. Marcus also discovers Mike has been secretly dating his sister, and their personal problems mushroom. The three heroes must discover what Tapi is planning for the drugs and his money, before it kills them, while they try to keep from killing each other in the process.

While the film's length is somewhat daunting, it hardly detracts from the movie's overall appeal. Action-junkies, car-lovers, and those up for a good time, will love this movie. Bad Boys II, while heavy on the action and car chases, does not exclusively rely on such things to carry the film. Marcus and Mike's quarrels, epiphanies, and understandings are aspects of any long-term friendship that most people can value. Bad Boys II is one of the first films in a long time that I have laughed out loud all the way through.

Wild and Hilarious
It took them 8 years, but Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are back for Bad Boys II taking on the evil Cuban Ecstasy cartel and BOY does 8 years make a difference.

THE STORY

Miami P.D. cops Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) and Mike Lowrey (Smith) return to the big screen to take down a Cuban Ecstasy distribution ring. In between raising havoc on the streets of Miami and dealing with some personal issues (Mike's too much of a loose cannon and Mark's getting too old for this stuff) the boys, like in the first movie, wind up in some pretty hilarious situations.

THE COOL STUFF

The action is awesome and the comedy is still as sophomoric and hilarious as ever (that's a GOOD thing). Eight years makes a BIG difference in the terms of special effects and Bad Boys II has taken some pages out of the Matrix, CSI and Fast and Furious in terms of FX and action. The result as the Boys would say is some real COOL [stuff].

Best Scenes

1. The Freeway CHASES

2. Rat Hunting (Hilarious!!!)

3. The Video Store Scene (HILARIOUS!!!!)

4. The Morgue scene (gross, but funny)

THE CRITIQUE

The one MINOR critique with the film is its length!!! At a whopping 2 and half hours this thing is long but thankfully doesn't drag. The action is so intense it's a literal whirlwind ride. The movie DOES take a page from Pearl Harbor though in that JUST when you think the movie is about to end a new plot development opens up and continues for another half hour. The movie may very well have been better to have cut just a half hour earlier but the action in the last half hour, while feeling tacked on, was just as solid as anything else.

THE DVD EXTRAS

Well, not only do you get a stacked movie, but you also get a STACKED set of extras. So much, in fact, that they needed to put it on a whole extra disk.

Among the goodies we get are:

1. 8 theatrical trailers

2. Seven deleted scenes

3. Six sequence breakdowns

4. 19 production diary featurettes

5. A Jay-Z video

Waaay too much to get into but if you're an extras fiend you've got a whole extra disk of it to go through.

THE VERDICT

This is your prototype modern day action flick: pounding soundtrack, TONS of guns, TONS of cars and some pretty wicked street humor to go along with it. Whether you buy it or rent, it's a solid film to watch and a solid addition to your collection if you're into it.

GRADES

The Movie: 5 stars
The Extras: 5 stars
Overall: 5 stars

Highly Recommended

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