Name: Retro Film Review: Bad Boys (1995)
Item: Bad Boys
Rating: 50
Author: @drax

(source: tmdb.org)

(NOTE: The capsule version of the review is available here.)

Even the most talented, successful or celebrated filmmakers in modern-day Hollywood seem to lose their abilities when they have large budgets at their disposal. This could be applied even to the career of Michael Bay, director whose films are today always associated with nine-digit price tags. Even he had to make movies for much smaller amounts of money and even in his case the quality of such films was better than today. Bad Boys, his 1995 directorial debut, is a good example. Shot for "merely" 17 million US$ this action comedy could arguably be viewed as his best work.

Protagonists of this film are Marcus Burnett (played by Martin Lawrence) and Mike Lowrey (played by Will Smith), two Miami police detectives whose careers are on the line after unknown criminals have raided police storage and took 100 million US$ worth of seized drugs. Their superior Captain Howard (played by Joe Pantoliano) informs them that they have 72 hours to retrieve the drugs before Internal Affairs division and FBI take over the investigation and thus permanently damage their reputation. Burnett and Lowrey have the only lead in the form of Lowrey's informer who is brutally gunned down. The only witness to the murder is young and attractive Julie Mott (played by Tea Leoni), but she will co-operate only with Lowrey. Since Lowrey is out of town, Burnett must impersonate him in order to earn Mott's trust and in the process he tries to protect her from ruthless European drug lord Fouchet (played by Tcheky Karyo).

In Bad Boys producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson simply used the formula already refined in 1980s - lots of gunfire and pyrotechnics combined with plenty of verbal humour, "cool" soundtrack and MTV-style editing courtesy of directors who earned their trade by making music videos and commercials. Michael Bay seemed perfect for this formula, but faced with the small budget his method of filmmaking shows much more discipline and gives impression of director actually having some skills, at least compared with films like Armageddon or Pearl Harbor. Of course, the screenplay, written by four-man committee, is only weak excuse for series of surreal action scenes and endless "buddy buddy" banter between two protagonists. The latter is provided by Martin Lawrence and Will Smith, two talented black comedians whose talent and ability to improvise pull this formulaic project above the mediocrity level. The other actors are less then stellar, though. Tea Leoni's character is so badly written that the audience don't know whether she is prostitute or not, but in the end it doesn't matter, since the viewers would remember her appearance due to her legs rather than some acting ability. It is the same story with French actor Tcheky Karyo who sleepwalks through the role of 1980s-style European villain. All in all, Bad Boys is not particularly bright film, but good acting, proper doses of humour and at times impressive action are reasons why it could be recommended as light entertainment.

RATING: 5/10 (++)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on September 30th 2002)