Bad Boys II – Review

A few years later and we hit the streets of Miami again this time with a way higher ego budget and an elongated runtime. Ecstasy pills are manufactured in Amsterdam and shipped into Miami via a convoluted smuggling process to dodge U.S. Customs. Big man bad guy Hector Juan Carlos ‘Johnny’ Tapia (Mollà) is looking to get a large shipment of hundreds of millions of pills in.

Meanwhile, detectives Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) and Mike Lawrey (Smith) have infiltrated a group of KKK members. Guns are drawn in the deep swamp, and things are about to get crazy. I bet slow motion and explosions are likely incoming.

Mike has turned his Posche into a Ferrari. Marcus’ sister Syd (Union) is in town. There are oh so many shots fired and things blown up. As the plot slowly ramps up, the action turns itself up nonstop the whole way through. Bad Boys II is not a bad movie and some fans quite like it a lot, but it has its low points. The good elements are that it leans well into its excesses of action and over the top presentation. These parts are pretty good, but there's not a lot in between.

The story winds up as a bit so-so at best, especially considering how long the movie is. It doesn’t really have the legs for its runtime, and to keep all its action interesting. I feel like less comic hijinks could have helped as some of its joke segments didn’t work all that well, and Lawrence and Smith could have kept plenty of comedic lines without dropping into rats fucking, ecstasy pill cop or getting shot in the butt cheeks. In general, some of the dialogue just isn’t the best.

It looks fantastic though and action seekers will find their cups overflowing. Bay’s style was given free reign here, resulting in an overblown action spectacular without much behind its explosions. For those that dig his vibes you will likely love every second of this extravaganza. For the rest of us, the film is fine, but the runtime and story are disappointing.