4/22/2014

Bad Boys (1995) - Bay's successful buddy cop debut is still fun



Martin Lawrence, Téa Leoni and Will Smith look simultaneously dangerous and silly on the poster for Michael Bay's Bad Boys

QUICK REVIEW:

The Miami Police's drug squad gets a huge problem, when a giant heroin bust gets busted from them. Detective Lowry and detective Burnett are put on the case.
Will Smith (Men in Black (1997)) and Martin Lawrence (Big Momma's House (2000)) are fun at their top game here, and Téa Leoni (Jurassic Park III (2001)) does well as the 3rd spice. Energetic performances and nice action goes a long way to make a good buddy action movie, and that is the case here. Many of the fun scenes between the two stars were improvised, (the script was not even written with two African-American cops in mind.)
The plot-line about Lawrence having to impersonate Smith is for the most part totally unmotivated in the film, which is pretty silly. Still, Bad Boys also features great music and stands tall as a very entertaining, 90's action comedy.
It was also the feature debut of director Michael Bay (Transformers (2007)), who has announced a third entry in the franchise for next year, (Bad Boys II came out in 2003 and is also a fun watch.)
Both Leoni and Lawrence are struggling career-wise today, while Smith can afford flops like After Earth (2013) and A New York's Winter Tale (2014) and still have huge upcoming leads coming his way. The reason, of course, is his 'track record' (the unprecedented number of blockbusters with him in the lead) which used to be phenomenal.

Related review:

Michael BayArmageddon (1998) or, Macho Men Save Earth From Disaster!


Martin Lawrence and Will Smith in Michael Bay's Bad Boys


Watch the trailer here

Budget: 19 mil. $
Box office: 141.4 mil. $
= Big hit

What do you think of Bad Boys?
What do you think of Lawrence, Smith and Bay's more recent movies?

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