Sign up to add this to your collection
|
Sign up to add this to your favorites
|
|
66%
Overall Rating
|
|
Ranked #717
...out of 20,869 movies
|
Sign up to check in!
|
Out-of-control, trash-talking buddy cops Marcus Burnett and Mike Lowrey of the Miami Narcotics Task Force reunite, and bullets fly, cars crash and laughs explode as they pursue a whacked-out drug lord from the streets of Miami to the barrios of Cuba. But the real fireworks result when Marcus discovers that playboy Mike is secretly romancing Marcus' sexy sister.
--TMDb
|
|
Review by Crispy
Added: August 21, 2012
Early in his career, Michael Bay hit the buddy-cop trope out of the park with Bad Boys, but as time went on, he showed an increasing reliance on throwing in a ton of explosions, so considering there's eight years between that movie and this sequel, I was a little concerned going in.
Miami narcotics detectives Mike Lowery and Marcus Bennet have been partners for decades and have brought in their fair share of busts, but this latest case will certainly rank amongst the top of their careers. Following the tip on one of Lowery's snitches, they set up for what should prove to be the biggest ecstasy bust in the city's history. Unfortunately, there seems to have been a problem with the communication, and instead of taking it out at the source, they end up busting the first customers. Obviously, things get nasty since said customers are a KKK sect, hell of a place for two black cops to show up, and Marcus gets a bullet in the ass. Just one more in a long line of bullshit that's put the uptight cop over the edge, and he's requested a transfer from his reckless partner; now he's just trying to work up the nerve to tell him. Likewise, Mike has been dating Marcus' sister, Syd, for the past few months, and is also waiting for the best time to drop the bombshell. Speaking of, she's an undercover agent for the DEA, and is covertly working on the same E case the other two are. The three are going to need all the help they can get, since the drug runner Johnny Tapia basically has the entire Cuban government in his back pocket, and has a history of successful law suits against the Miami PD for wrongful arrests.
So, in some respects, my concerns about Bay's now-trademark perception of action was somewhat warranted. Compared to the last flick, everything is more more more. The action scenes have moved beyond a few cops and robbers shooting at each other and fist fighting and now we've got extended high speed chases complete with corpses flying everywhere and boats exploding. Fortunately, it's not full-out Bay, so while the scenes are most-definitely over the top, they're only toeing that line where you roll your eyes, and they're still a hell of a lot of fun. The action was the driving force behind this sequel, and I had a grin on my face throughout the running time. Also, it's got a higher concentration towards straight-forward comedy this go around. The first movie was definitely funny, but it was the dialogue that created the laughs. Now we get Marcus on ecstasy. Again, the lack of subtlety was certainly a let-down, but fortunately it worked.
As good as the action was, don't forget that the biggest strength behind the first movie was the chemistry between the two stars. While Bad Boys II still has shades of it, they weren't fully able to recapture the magic. The biggest problem had less to do with Smith and Lawrence and was more the fault of the writers. You see, just like Randall and Dante of Clerks fame, the main characters have basically become caricatures of themselves by the time the sequel rolled around. Mike is smooth-talking and collected, while Marcus is wound tighter than a tourniquet. This combination has been a common trope in comedy for ages, but the first one gave the two cops a little extra characterization that pushed the movie to a higher level. Well, that's gone; the two are more one-dimensional, and the quality of the banter between them drops as a consequence. Smith's nonchalant one-liners during the chase scenes are the easiest spot to pick up on this problem ("That one puckered up my butthole!"), but it's prevalent through the whole film.
Bad Boys II isn't nearly as good as the first one, but it still does everything I want my action movies to do. And best of all, no Tea Leoni! 8/10.
|
|
Rate Movie? 
