What is most
remarkable to me watching Bad Boys
again, 20 years after its initial release, is how early in his career Michael Bay
In tradition of
many popular buddy cop films from the 1980s and ‘90s, Bad Boys has all of the familiar characters and clichés. At the
center of the storyline is an evil drug dealer for a bad guy, a beautiful woman
as a witness, a screaming police captain, and two cops who break the rules to
enforce the law, all while bickering over their differences (one is a family
man, the other a ladies man) and spouting one-liners. Bad Boys mostly works thanks to the chemistry between the two leads
and dependency on the well-established sub-genre. The action is decent and the
humor works, even if much of the film is photographed like a music video and
action doesn’t come close to matching The
Rock. Mostly Bad Boys seems to be
much better than it is when compared to Bad
Boys II, which seemed better at the time than it actually is.
Will Smith and
Martin Lawrence returned to the franchise and their roles as Detectives Mike
Lowrey (Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence Hollywood
studios were over-excited about the integration of CGI effects in their films,
leaving very few filmmakers still filming action sequences the old fashioned
way. Bad Boys II, for all of its
faults, is filled with real car stunts and explosions. There is something
sincere about this action, even though Bay does it in excess to the point of
obvious overkill. They even purchased a mansion for the sole purpose of blowing
it up at the end of the film.
The biggest
problem with Bad Boys II is the sheer
ugliness of the film, in many different ways. While Bad Boys looks fantastic
remastered in 4K high definition, it is now clear why this is the first time
the sequel has been available on Blu-ray. The cinematography has harsh light
and high contrast that is unflattering to most of the cast’s skin tones, and
the high definition just enhances each of the flaws further. The other aspect
of ugliness comes from the content itself, which is often vulgar and crass with
politically incorrect humor that would never pass these days. It has the societal
tact of Pain and Gain with the visual
excess of the Transformers franchise.
There are several more Bad Boys
sequels lined up, though it looks like Joe Carnahan may replace Bay as the
director of Bad Boys 3, hopefully
saving the franchise from the bad choices of its first sequel.
Bad Boy was already released on Blu-ray,
and although it was remastered for the 20th Anniversary Edition,
little else has changed. The special features (Bay commentary track, making-of
documentary, 3 music videos) are all exactly the same, with the exception of
the original theatrical trailers being added. Bad Boys II has a much larger assortment of extras, including over
2 hours of featurettes, production diaries, music videos and deleted scenes.
The only catch is that all of these special features were previously included
on the DVD release, making the ugly 4K remastering the only selling point for
the purchase of this package.
Entertainment Value:
9/10
Quality of Filmmaking:
6.5/10
Historical
Significance: 7/10
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