Bad Boys II

What’s the Story?

Martin Lawrence and Will Smith reprise their roles from 1995's Bad Boys as buddy cops who toss off wisecracks in between rounds of ammunition. They are cast against type with Martin as Marcus, the worrying family man and Smith as Mike, the go-for-it playa. This time, Marcus' sister (Gabrielle Union), a DEA agent, is in town, but hasn't told her brother that (1) she is working undercover on a dangerous investigation and (2) she is romantically involved with Mike. Meanwhile, Marcus and Mike have smashed up most of the cars in LA but have not yet made any progress on tracking down the drug dealer they are after. And many, many, many, many more cars will be smashed and many attempts at humor will crash before they do.

Is It Any Good?

The old-fashioned real-deal movie star charm of Will Smith can occasionally be glimpsed somewhere inside this overlong cacophony of car chases, shoot-em-ups, and explosions. It is impossible not to watch him and almost impossible not to smile while doing so. But that's about the only smile in this generic but mind-numbingly loud and violent summer action movie, more theme park stunt spectacular than story.

Director Michael Bay can shoot action sequences and stunts, though he tries a little too hard to be John Woo. He's less successful at making us care, especially when the plot veers into the truly preposterous with a massive invasion of Cuba at the end. For anyone other than hard-core action fans it just gets overwhelming and finally a little tedious. Bay also makes the fatal mistake of forgetting to include a memorable or interesting villain. Instead we get a stereotyped paranoid drug dealer who is overly attached to his mother and daughter.