Bad Boys II (2003)

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I think this is a good opportunity to get something perfectly straight about my opinions on Michael Bay. I've felt for quite some time now that Bay has always been a pretty damn great action movie director as long as he keeps his hands out of the cookie jar that was my childhood with things like 'Transformers' and 'Ninja Turtles'. If he takes the director's chair on something more original, like the 'Bad Boys' films here, or even 'The Rock', and to a lesser extent, 'Armageddon' (say what you will about that movie, the cast is still its best feature).

Despite what critics have to say about this particular chapter being the lowest rated on the batch with a super-rotten rating of 24%, I am personally stuck on how insanely fun the movie is, and it serves as a friendly reminder that Michael Bay is out to entertain us the way action movies were always made to. To be fair, "there's no way that you could perpetrate that amount of carnage and mayhem and not incur a considerable amount of paperwork." as the great film 'Hot Fuzz' reminds us. But to also paraphrase the film, this is a movie made for someone who just wants to switch off that brain of theirs.

Taking place eight years after the first film, Miami PD detectives, Mike Lowery (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) investigate the trafficking of ecstasy, looking out for a huge career bust. However, while usting up a Klan meeting in search of the drugs, a shootout occurs, Mike shoots Marcus in the butt, and we soon learn that in the background of all this, Marcus is intent on changing his job up to something a little safer, and leaving Mike as his ride-or-die partner.

In the meantime, unbeknownst to Mike and Marcus, Marcus' sister, Syd (Gabrielle Union) works undercover for the DEA as a money launderer for the Russian mafia, headed in Miami by drug lord Hector Juan Carlos "Johnny" Tapia (Jordi Mollà). Of course, when family gets involved, "shit gets real." Marcus not only had to watch out for his sister while trying to bring down a drug lord, but also unbeknownst to him, Mike and Syd are secretly a bit of an item. So as one can probably tell, a lot of the comedy comes from Marcus' mystery here.

I think just to be fair, I should mention that even in the era of 2003, there are a few jokes and gags here that one can't necessarily get away with these days, and there's some degree of homophobia going on here. But IF you can see this as a product of its time, and look past some of the more unfortunate material, as far as action movies for the sake of action, this has got to be one of the best. Not only does it feature one of my favourite all-time car chase sequences, but it's also where I fell in love with single-take action sequences.

Of course, I cannot talk about this film without talking about Reggie (Dennis Greene), introduced here for the first time as Marcus' daughter's first date. In one of the funniest scenes in the series, Marcus and Mike test Reggie's character, and you kinda feel bad for the poor kid. That said, his character goes through some of the best background development over the next couple of films. I will be sure to mention him in the next couple of reviews for the series, as he just adds to the fun of it all.

So, while there may be a detail here or there that wouldn't necessarily fly these days, I feel like I can still recommend this to those who are looking for some high-octane action. You can definitley back-to-back the first two, but know that they both stand on their own all the same, and while the first is more substance, this one's all about style (but like, in a good way). Just go into this knowing full well who was sitting in the director's chair, and it can be a super fun time!

4/5

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