BAD BOYS

Starring:
Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Tea Leone, Theresa Randle, Marg Helgenberger, Joe Pantoliano and Tcheky Karyo

Director:
Michael Bay

Running Time:
118 mins

Out to buy on Blu-Ray 07/06/10

• Will Smith and Martin Lawrence have good screen chemistry

• Michael Bay's first feature and you can tell
• Very 90s and has not aged well at all
• Not enough action

"Whatcha gonna do?"

After completing the biggest drug bust in their precinct’s history, Mike Lowery (Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) were the talk of the LAPD. When a gang led by French terrorist Fouchet (Karyo) break into the Police’s evidence save and steal back all of the drugs, Lowery and Burnett are back to square one. They get a break when a young girl called Julie witnesses Fouchet committing a crime and she can now identify them but the gang will stop at nothing to silence her so their drug deal can go through.

Everyone has to start somewhere and when a young director called Michael Bay took the step from music videos to motion pictures, the world changed forever but was it for the better.

In 1995 Uber-Producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson unleashed a director onto the world who would redefine the Hollywood blockbuster in the many years that followed. With huge hits like ‘The Rock’, ‘Armageddon’, ‘Pearl Harbour’ and the ‘Transformers’ movies still to come in his career, as well as starting his own production company, Platinum Dunes, Michael Bay had to start somewhere and ‘Bad Boys’ was that film.

Back in 1995 a young actor was trying to move away from his TV guise as ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ to become an accomplished film actor. Going on to star in mammoth hits like ‘Independence Day’, ‘Men In Black’, ‘I, Robot’ and ‘I am Legend’, it was as rich-boy Detective Mike Lowery in ‘Bad Boys’ that Will Smith matured on screen. That good boy image was gone and he showed that he could become a major action star and movie icon in the making. Also comedian Martin Lawrence was making the step from comedy to action as Marcus Burnett and the pair had instant chemistry but that was the only real plus point of the movie.

Certain films can be ageless, no matter when you watch them but ‘Bad Boys’ is not one of those movies. The dreadful early 90s fashion, the corny one liners and Michael Bay’s music video style may have made the movie a hit at the time but now they just age the movie. The performances of Smith and Lawrence are key however, making the movie more watchable than it should have been. Where Will Smith went onto super stardom after this, Martin Lawrence never really matched its success until ‘Bad Boys 2’ in 2003.

Support comes from a young Tea Leone as Julie, the star witness in their case after millions of dollars worth of drugs are stolen from the police compound in Los Angeles. We also have Theresa Russell as Marcus’s wife and a fun turn from Joe Pantoliano as the stereotypical police Captain, ‘C.S.I.’ star Marg Helgenberger as Internal Affairs officer Alison Sinclair and Tcheky Karyo as French villain Fouchet.

‘Bad Boys’ is a 90s action movie that hasn’t aged well. While it did launch the action careers of Will Smith and director Michael Bay, it shows two up and coming movie superstars at the beginning of their career but you know there is much better to come.

• movieIQ+sync
• Commentary with Director Michael Bay
• Documentary “Putting the Boom & Bang in the Bad Boys”
• Three Music Videos
  • 69 Boyz “Five O, Five O (Here They Come)”
  • Diana King “Shy Guy”
  • Warren G “So Many Ways

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