“Just Another Day with Mike Lowrey.”
Of the two Bad Boys movies I recorded a couple years back, I was most interested in seeing Bad Boys II since it was the one that introduced the character of Sydney Burnett as played by Gabrielle Union that was spun off into the TV show LA’s Finest. While I didn’t find the original super impressive, I went into this one with an opened mind. Sadly, it didn’t even live up to my low expectations.
Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) and Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) are narcotics cops working in Miami. They are trying to stop the biggest shipment of ecstasy to come into their city, but their tips aren’t leading them to the source of the drugs.
Meanwhile, Marcus’s sister Syd (Gabrielle Union) is visiting from New York City where she works a desk job for the DEA. She and Mike reconnected when he was up there last month, but Marcus doesn’t yet know. And neither of the men know that Syd is actually in Miami undercover, going against the same drug king pin they are after. With all that set in motion, just sit back and watch the sparks fly.
Good action movies make the action an important part of the plot. This movie is a series of action scenes loosely help together by a plot. Don’t try to think about it or you will strain yourself. Just sit back and wait for the action.
I’ll give the movie this – it does the action scenes well. As improbable as they are, they are fun.
The first movie also provided enough character development to make us care about the characters. That’s something else missing here. Yes, we get some character arcs, but you know where they are going to wind up. The characters are cardboard pieces to be moved around as deemed necessary by the plot.
This isn’t a reflection on the actors. This is all the fault of the script which just focuses on the action scenes and little else.
The first movie had a few scenes and lines that made me laugh. Here, we have Will Smith and Martin Lawrence (and some of the other characters) arguing over the top of each other substituting for the comedy. Martin Lawrence does get a few bits of physical humor that I did enjoy.
Then there are the nitpicks – some major, some minor. Like how is Marcus able to afford his house on his cop salary? If they hadn’t made a big deal of Mike being the rich one in the first movie (and mentioned it again here), it wouldn’t have struck me as a big deal. That isn’t his house from the first movie either. So how did he get to be so rich?
Also, Marcus and Mike have been friends since school. Maybe it was just my assumption, but I thought they grew up in Miami. Yet Syd has never been to the city because they are talking about showing her around Miami at one point early in the film.
I was working under the assumption that there was little from this movie that followed the character of Syd into the LA’s Finest TV show, and I was right. In fact, the only thing that followed was the character name and that she once worked for the DEA. Definitely glad I didn’t wait until I’d seen the movies to watch the show. If you started with the show like I did, there’s no need to worry you are missing anything if you haven’t seen this movie.
And, honestly, you aren’t missing anything if you haven’t seen this movie. Bad Boys II is completely skippable because it is immediately forgettable. Unless you are a huge fan of someone in the cast, don’t waste your time watching this one.
I haven't seen either movie, so I think I'll pass on this one.
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