Was there an outcry from moviegoers demanding a sequel to the original "Bad Boys" that I missed? This 2003 sequel to the moderately successful 1994 spring movie that made movie stars out of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence (not to mention unleashing on the movie world director Michael Bay’s arsenal of flashy camera angles) took nine years to reach movie screens, cost over $125 million to make and was in and out of theaters soon after its 7/18/03 release date. It was savaged by critics, yet "Bad Boys II" made as much money as other critically acclaimed movies released around that time (like Columbia’s own "Seabiscuit"). After finally seeing it on DVD for the first time the movie doesn’t strike me as being as offensive or brain dead as others made it out to be.
Its clear that director Michael Bay, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, the stars and the movie’s screenwriters (which happen to include Ron Shelton, writer/director of "Hollywood Homicide," "Bull Durham," "White Men Can’t Jump," etc.) were on automatic pilot when developing this pop corn flick for mass consumption. Every joke, every plot twist, every action scene, every camera angle and every flashy cut seems to have been carefully drafted from the groundwork laid by a well-researched focus group of 18-34 year old moviegoers. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though. When a pop corn movie is well made it can be as fun and entertaining as a well-made Hollywood epic. "Bad Boys II" just happens to be a case of summer blockbuster mentality running amok with the filming process, holding the movie’s well paid stars and top notch technical crew members hostage to a formula.
Take the movie’s incredibly stupid screenplay. It’s filled to the brim with foul-mouthed ‘R’ rated humor and situations that border (though don’t fully cross the line) on being the most racist and insensitive depiction of mindless mayhem since the glory days of Chuck Norris and Charles Bronson macho flicks. The sight of SVU trucks crashing through the shafts of poor people in Cuba (that may or may not have died in the process), in particular, ranks as one of the most ill-conceived excuses for movie mayhem to ever be committed to celluloid. On the other hand the chemistry between Lawrence’s Marcus Burnett and Smith’s Mike Lowrey is genuine and generates some pretty outrageous laughs. These two guys really like and bring the best out of each other, especially when the worn-thin-from-overuse plot of one guy secretly romancing the other guy’s sister behind his back (Gabrielle Union’s Sydney Burnett) reaches the boiling point. It helps the movie somewhat that the lead detective’s constant bickering is framed as the backdrop of some of the best filmed explosions, car chases and gunplay to appear on a movie in 2003.
"The Sopranos’" Joe Pantoliano is a hoot as the cliché police captain whose bark is worse than his bite, and Jordi Molla is decent as the evil drug dealer ‘Johnny’ Tapia. Everyone else in the cast, as expected, is an expendable bit player that is likely to end up either dead or a poorly-written-but-well-delivered one-liner before the credits start rolling. Fans of Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, producer Jerry Bruckheimer or director Michael ‘wrap-around shot’ Bay will find something to like in "Bad Boys II." Even the movie’s biggest fans will be hard pressed to justify the obscene running time (a whooping 147 mins.) and overkill of summer action clichés that constantly prevent "Bad Boys II" from achieving anything more than short-lived pop-culture status. A fun ride while it lasts, "Bad Boys II" isn’t likely to hold as well on repeat viewing as its predecessor has over the years since its ’94 theatrical run (IMHO).
The Disc:
You’d think a movie released theatrically in the summer of 2003 would look sharp and excellent on its trip down the DVD aisle a few months later. But, despite the absence of a commentary track or other supplementary material in disc 1, the Widescreen Anamorphic (2:40:1) Video Transfer exhibits a handful of compression artifacts and small little flaws that keep it out of the running for any 2003 ‘Best of’ awards. It’s still a mostly-pleasant-to-look-at picture filled to the brim with director Michael Bay’s trademark slickness in both visual composition of a frame and cinematography. If you don’t own a big screen or widescreen TV set prepare to squint at the ultra-thin 2:40:1 aspect ratio Mr. Bay chose to use for this production. At least the English & French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtracks keep pumping booming explosions, bullets, engine throttles, racist one-liners and all kinds of hip-hop music into a terrific sound mix that will give your home theater system speakers a severe workout.
English & French Subtitles are also included on disc 1, along with Theatrical Trailers for nine Columbia/Tri-Star media properties (everything from "Spider-Man" to "Once Upon A Time in Mexico" to Michael Bay's two "Bad Boys" flicks). The bulk of the extra stuff is on the second disc. They include Seven Deleted Scenes, Jay Z’s ‘La-la-la’ Music Video (3:50 min.), a 9:27 min. Stunts Featurette, an 18:36 min. Visual Effects Featurette, Six Sequence Breakdowns (choose between on-the-set footage, storyboard segments and pages from the script for six available-for-viewing scenes from the movie) and 19 Production Diary Featurettes. Michael Bay is listed as Executive Producer of the DVD’s bonus features, so he clearly believes there was no need for a commentary track because the featurettes, diaries and sequence breakdowns cover just about aspect of the production one would care to know. We concur!
bottom line:
Noisy, slick, foul-mouthed, homophobic, fast-paced and often times funny as heck (not necessarily in that order or with all the ingredients cooking simultaneously), "Bad Boys II" is the ultimate celebration of the mindless blockbuster assembly line mentality that takes over Hollywood studios every summer season. Hard to believe that Jerry Bruckheimer was responsible for this mindless star vehicle on the same year he produced the vastly-superior "Pirates of the Caribbean" for Disney. The movie’s technical specs are surprisingly average for such a recent big-budget Hollywood movie, and the standard-issued bonus material is strictly filler (though well-produced) self-promotional material. It’s no "Gigli," but "Bad Boys II" will definitely separate the discriminating DVD viewer from the casual one.
By - J.M. Vargas
