Where to watch Bad Boys
3 Stars
Marcus Burnett is a hen-pecked family man. Mike Lowry is a foot-loose and fancy-free ladies’ man. Both are Miami policemen, and both have 72 hours to reclaim a consignment of drugs stolen from under their station’s nose. To complicate matters, in order to get the assistance of the sole witness to a murder, they have to pretend to be each other.
Bad Boys is Michael Bay’s feature directing debut, and his influence on the final product can not be overstated. Yes, it is also the movie that broke Will Smith to general audiences, positioning him as an action hero and leading man, and also confirmed that Martin Lawrence was a box-office draw. Bad Boys, in conjunction with Crimson Tide, reinvigorated the producing careers of Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer while launching Michael Bay onto the A-list of directors. In the Spring of 1995, when Bad Boys hit screens, it was the coolest movie playing in cinemas. Looking back now, the story is very thin, the acting is uneven, and the set-pieces are less impressive than I remembered.
It’s not fair to judge a 30-year-old film by current standards, but the movie hasn’t held up as well as other action movies from the same year. Bay does include all the hallmarks that would become tropes during his career, and it’s fun to see him play it fast and loose with a cast that is up for improvising and script changes on the day. The finale is still effective, and the chemistry between Smith and Lawrence is very appealing. Bad Boys is the rare original that is upstaged by the bigger, funnier, better sequel.
Directed by: Michael Bay
Written by: George Gallo, Michael Barrie, Jim Mulholland
Starring: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Lisa Boyle