Today’s quick review: Bad Boys. Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) and Mike Lowrey (Will Smith), a pair of Miami detectives, are assigned to track down $100 million of impounded heroin that was stolen from police headquarters. Their only lead is Julie Mott (Tea Leoni), a witness to a murder associated with the theft. But to get her to talk, Marcus must convince her he is Mike, the only cop she will trust.
Bad Boys is an action movie from director Michael Bay. Bad Boys is a slight variant on the buddy cop formula, where a small lie spirals into an elaborate charade that puts Marcus’ and Mike’s partnership to the test. Beyond this wrinkle, Bad Boys is a standard action movie with a high-stakes investigation, decent comedy, and a healthy number of shootouts, car chases, and explosions.
The crux of the movie is a mishap that forces Marcus to pretend to be Mike to earn Julie’s trust. Marcus, an uptight family man with three children and an ailing love life, is thrust into the lifestyle of a wealthy, charismatic bachelor, a ruse that becomes harder and harder to keep up. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence have a good chemistry and good material to work with, giving the movie the comedy to go with its solid action.
Bad Boys’ one major failing is that it is a loud movie. Most of the humor comes from the characters’ bickering, which works well in small doses but becomes grating after a while. In particular, Marcus has too many lines, and his good jokes are drowned out by his bad ones. Apart from the investigation itself, almost all of the characters’ problems could be resolved by calm discussion, making their shouting matches even less justified.
On the whole, Bad Boys is a passable take on the buddy cop genre. Its standard plot and better-than-average action are balanced by slightly misjudged comedy and limited innovation. Bad Boys is a fun watch if you are in the mood for an action movie, but you can find better entries into the genre without much effort.
6.8 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 6.5 for good action and comedy with a couple of dialogue misses.