Director Michael Bay and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, responsible for such explosive, deafening extravaganzas as Armageddon and The Rock, are notorious for squeezing more action into one minute than some filmmakers do into their entire careers. Indeed, Bruckheimer has become so synonymous with the genre he's in danger of inspiring a new verb meaning loud and garish, as in "my God did you see the dress on that woman, it's so Bruckheimeresque." Imagine 150 of those ear-shattering, retina blinding minutes with only the occasional moments of comic relief and you have some idea of what to expect with Bad Boys II.
After eight years away, Bad Boys Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are obviously keen to make up for lost time. Even so, there's little excuse for extending their return to two and half hours, a good hour longer than the skeletal plot or patience can take. Having said that, it is good to see the fractious pair of Miami drug detectives back. Much has happened to Smith and Lawrence in their personal lives since originally hooking up in 1995. Lawrence's career has dipped, aided by a few eccentric outbursts, while Smith's has gone from strength to strength, including an Academy Award nomination. Though both are in different places now, their humorous screen rapport picks up exactly where it left off.
For all their excesses, it's impossible not to admire Bay and Bruckheimer for the complex choreography of their action sequences. Bad Boys II includes some spectacular stunts as cars, boats and bodies hurtle towards the screen at an alarming rate. And since it's become ever harder to impress audiences with original stunts, they rely instead on simply having more of everything. More bullets, more explosions, more crashes, more volume, more blood, more gore.
The only element that isn't overdone is the plot, which is the standard off the shelf number involving a sleazy drug dealer (Jordi Mollà) and a Russian mob boss (Peter Stormare). With a massive shipment of ecstasy about to hit Miami, two of the Tactical Narcotics Team's finest, Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) and Mike Lowery (Will Smith), are put on the case. Their conflicting backgrounds and personalities provide Bad Boys II with the basis of its humour. The emotionally unstable Marcus, who is undergoing anger management therapy, is squeamish and fearful while the privileged and smooth Mike breezes through life, relishing the danger and excitement of the job.
Out of expediency rather than plausibility, there's a subplot involving Marcus' younger sister Sydney (Gabrielle Union) who has professional links with the drug ring and romantic ties with Mike. Believability has never been a significant factor in Bay or Bruckheimer's films, along with inteligibility, the only important thing is how cool it looks. Their tenuous grip on reality leads to some of the film's more absurd moments, in particular one hilarious and gruesome scene in a morgue as Mike searches cadavers for drugs while a squeamish Marcus throws up.
'Less is more' is a phrase that neither director nor producer are familiar with, but in this case a little less Bad Boys II would have been more palatable.
