Bad Boys

The 1995 Michael Bay buddy cop action flick, Bad Boys, feels like a solid showcase of the differences between how critics view media and how audiences view media. The film was not critically well received at the time, with many viewing it as a stale retread of several outdated ‘’buddy cop’’ cliches that lacked the grounded grit and charm of previous classics like Lethal Weapon and 48 Hours, yet that didn’t stop the general public from really getting into it, earning the film a sturdy amount at the box office and helped spawn a franchise that was recently continued in the 2020s. In spite of certain familiar elements, it seemed that Bad Boys registered with some people in a way that allowed them to look past the flaws of a clearly bad movie. In the overwhelmingly orange streets of Miami, lifelong friends and police narcotics partners, Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett (played by Will Smith and Martin Lawrence) are told to investigate the theft of $100 million worth of seized heroin from a sealed police vault, which was the subject of the biggest bust both officers had ever committed. Now tasked with weeding out the criminals responsible for this as well as a supposed double agent who assisted in the heist, Marcus is contacted by a woman named Julie (played by Téa Leoni) who has recently just survived an attack from the very criminals responsible, led by French drug kingpin Fouchet (played by Tchéky Karyo). After a miscommunication forces Marcus to pretend to be Mike, he and Mike (who now has to pose as Marcus) are acting out a lie whilst simultaneously trying to capture Fouchet as well as keep their normal lives in a stable condition (which is especially hard since Marcus is married). Bad Boys goes hard, loud and explosive in almost every way possible, but unlike other properties which have at least been able to bring a sense of mindless charm to that mentality, this film has none of the sort and is instead an irritating, cliched, childish romp that cannot keep your attention despite how hard it tries.

Since cop films can be very cliched with the genre’s archetypes, situations and conflicts becoming extremely overused with each consecutive release to the point of being unbearable, it’s a type of film that needs some assistance in order to be tolerable. From the viewpoint of some, Bad Boys is at least aware enough to not try and be a serious, dramatic picture, and instead adopts a more laid-back, quippy action-er atmosphere that doesn’t take itself too seriously, which was no doubt influenced by who was helming the picture. Being produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, who were pretty familiar with producing dumb over-the-top action films like Beverely Hills Cop, Top Gun and The Rock, you can feel a lot of their usual tricks, like an overly masculine personality, visuals that seem to be just as sweaty as the dudes on camera, extreme color saturation that feels comically noticeable at times (Miami is so orange and dusty that it feels like it was filmed on Mercury), and a mindset that follows the rules of ‘’never think, just go in guns blazing’’. In some of their projects, that kind of personality has paid off and resulted in some crazy, dumb fun, guilty-pleasures, and while this film is at least aware of its bottom-tier nature, it still resorts to some truly dumb and lame elements, which is shown the most in the story written by George Gallo. With a conflict as old as time with two cops needing to work together to solve a drug bust, nothing is adding to this formula to make it feel fresh or new in the slightest, resulting in a hideously dry plot that lacks any sense of tension or effort, uses its characters as idiotic chess pieces rather than actual living beings, and gets instantly distracted away from any sense of turmoil or emotional dilemma by an overly long comedic routine or an explosive action sequence. The script written by Michael Barrie, Jim Mulholland, and Doug Richardson is so bad, not just from a narrative standpoint, which never once feels emotionally engaging or connectable, but also from a dialogue standpoint, as everybody in this film is a childish idiot who spurts out insults like a fifth grader and acts as accordingly. This makes more sense when it’s discovered that this was the directorial debut of Michael Bay, who is infamous for making movies that are pretty puerile and cater to a demographic that don’t really care about depth, intrigue or emotions, but rather mindless action scenes, attractive people shoved being in their face (women being noticeably more objectified in that department), and writing that sounds like a typical debate in a children’s school ground. Ironically, this isn’t one of his worser movies as despite its dull storyline, annoying script and meandering pacing, it does succeed in capturing the kind of identity it’s trying to achieve, and considering it clicked with some people, it must be doing something right. It doesn’t make it good by any stretch, but at least gives a reason as to how he would become such a popular filmmaker of the time.

Despite how iconic both Will Smith and Martin Lawrence have become in these roles, they weren’t the first choices to star in this film, with that honor going to Jon Lovitz and Dana Carvey (which would not have improved things in any way and might’ve even made it worse on a whole different level). It feels like they made the right choice, as while both of these roles are phenomenally boring and the only shred of character comes from whatever the actors are bringing to the table, both Smith and Lawrence are charismatic people who can bring a sense of life usually into any role they’re given, and in a universe like this where it’s okay to be a little wackier without entirely losing that sense of harshness,  they can pull it off okay. Sometimes it doesn’t always work like Lawrence can be a little too much at times, with his multiple attempts at comedic bits that very rarely work, and it feels like he’s playing way too hard to the camera in almost every scene, but otherwise they are some of the only decent performers in the movie. Will Smith is a lot more reserved and pull-backed this time around, but it actually does work to his favor as he makes for a decent leading man in spite of his comedic persona, and even though the two don’t have extremely strong chemistry (at least not to the realms of what the movie is setting up), they do work off each other okay. It helps that they have some of the only dialogue that is passable in this film (probably because most of it was improvised and not restricted to the garbage script), which results in some of the few funny scenes, so even if it doesn’t mend any of the problems, they are one of the only saving graces. While some of the supporting actors aren’t terrible like Joe Pantoliano as the police captain, who brings an intentionally over-the-top component to an otherwise stale archetype which makes him a little more comically self-aware than other portrayals of the trope, the rest of the cast is honestly pretty awful from both a character and an acting standpoint. Téa Leoni is a pain to sit through, is equally as dumb as everybody around her, and has her familiar stale delivery that leaves her as very unsympathetic, Nestor Serrano and Julio Oscar Mechoso as antagonistic cops are insufferable to be around due to their loud-mouthed attitude and bland writing, and Tchéky Karyo is so awful as the villain, with a bland goal, zero interesting motivation, dialogue that feels spat out of an AI-generated script, and acting so atrocious that it doesn’t even sound like he has any idea what he’s talking about, he is easily the worst part of this movie (and the rest of his crew like Vic Manni, Frank John Hughes, Marc Macaulay and Emmanuel Xuereb aren’t any better).

For a buddy cop film in the late 1990s directed by Michael Bay and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, it’s kind of shocking how little violence there is. There are a few shoot outs sprinkled throughout, and the climax is pretty full-on in terms of crazy overblown antics but considering the tone of this film and the fact that it clearly doesn’t care about building character or story, you’d figure they’d deliver more on the explosive action scenes, but they strangely don’t. With that said, the briefs moments of action are handled relatively well, as in spite of Bay’s poor directing choices and his somewhat inconsistent manner of handling action, he is at least aware of how to structure and pace them. They have good energy, there is an aggressive quality to them that is strangely lacking outside of these instances and helps add at least a sense of intensity, the actors are honestly much better in frantic disarray than in any form of normalcy, and while the camerawork by Howard Atherton and the editing by Christian Wagner can be a little hit-and-miss during these instances, it isn’t as incoherent as you’d predict and can produce a decent shot when it has the chance to. The world the film inhabits is strangely lacking in any sense of grittiness or roughness, and it really would’ve assisted it since it instead just comes across as juvenile (it might be rated R, but it doesn’t deserve to be). There is constant swearing, but the violence is pretty tame, there’s no real nudity (unless there’s a moment where Bay can’t resist to show an almost naked woman for no reason), and maybe if the film had a vibe more akin to something like Grand Theft Auto (where the world and characters are extreme, imperfect, and over-the-top, yet still contain a sense of believable grittiness), it might’ve flowed better, but instead it just feels misguided and unable to separate the film’s comedic leads from an unpleasant environment. The music by Mark Mancina is honestly trying way too hard for a movie that clearly doesn’t deserve such an energized cool-sounding piece, but it’s appreciated and shows good talent at least.

With the recent resurgence of the franchise (under different leadership, which probably explains the improved quality), Bad Boys still seems to be at least slightly appealing to those that got into it originally, but upon looking back on this original film, it’s very difficult to find what could be so appealing in such an underwhelming, irritating experience. The film isn’t even the worst or will result in the biggest groans, but it features so many minor grips that are either poorly done or just not entertaining in the right way, which results in a movie that even in spite of knowing that it’s trash, still being pretty garbagy. Smith and Lawrence are good actors and there is an occasional funny line or engaging action scene, but the flat acting, poor directing, and truly awful script, holds back what could’ve been a fun ‘’turn-your-brain-off’’ romp. Definitely not as iconic as the song, but still enough that people still want to check it out all these years later.