Hello everyone, welcome to another throw back review! It’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these and for this one, and the next one I will be taking a look at the Bad Boys franchise in time for the long waited third installment, Bad Boys For Life. So when it comes to this franchise, some would say the first film was the one that really put Michael Bay, Will Smith, and Martin Lawrence on the map and made them famous. I’ve personally never really heard much about this franchise save for that fact and all I’d know was that there was a third film long in development, so yes I am a newbie when it comes to this franchise. I’d just recently watched them on Netflix and am ready to get my thoughts out on both of them. We are of course going to start off with the one that started it all with the 1995 original! So what do I think of this mid 1990’s trendsetter, well let’s scroll down to find out!
The film starts off with our two main character, Miami Detectives Mike Lowery, and Marcus Burnett, out on a patrol and it is here we get a taste of their love/hate relationship. They’re currently investigating $100 million of seized Mafia heroin that was stolen from a secure police vault and Internal Affairs threaten to shut down the department unless the drugs are found in five days time since they believe it was an inside job. Lowery asks an informant of his (and also his ex-girlfriend) Maxine Logan for suspects, in particular those who are newly rich. This leads her to get hired as an escort along with her friend, Julie Mott, by former crooked cop, Eddie Dominguez. Things take a turn for the worse however, when their meeting is interrupted by Eddie’s kingpin boss, Fouchet, and his henchmen who then kill both Eddie, and Maxine. Julie on the other hand does manage to escape, and calls the police department to talk to Mike Lowery, and ONLY Mike Lowery. And since Mike isn’t there, it is Marcus who is forced by his police captain to pretend he is Mike. So now Mike, and Marcus now have to pretend to be one another once they rendezvous at Mike’s apartment later. But how long can they keep up this act and will they be able to find the drugs, save the department, and stop Fouchet from enacting his plan?
In terms of buddy cop movies the narrative here isn’t anything too special almost feeling like a situation that would occur in an old sit com. That and there aren’t very many surprises as the film goes along as things go pretty much as you would expect them to. So story wise there isn’t anything too special here, but the film still works pretty well by virtue of its characters and dialogue. Marcus, Mike, and Julie are a fun trio to hang out with and it helps that their all likable, and relatable people that are trying to get themselves out of a very big mess. There are also plenty of funny moments that did get a good laugh out of me such as whenever the movie mines the sit com premise as both Marcus, and Mike both try to pretend that they are one another, Captain Howard goes on his rants, Julie’s deadpan wit, and more. But what really surprised me here (especially since this is a Michael Bay flick) was the more grounded tone, and more conservative approach. There actually isn’t too much action present in the movie up until the climax, with there only being little bursts of violence, and action peppered throughout (like a fist fight, or car chase for example) which gives the movie plenty of time to develop the relationships Mike, and Marcus have with not only each other, but also Julie, and Marcus’s family as well. It’s this human touch that gives the movie it’s heart and while not all the relationships are fully developed (we never really get a full taste of how Max, and Mike’s love life was), it still is able to give a good amount of substance to make the proceedings work. Formulaic story? yes. Fun with plenty of things to enjoy? I’d say yes as well.
Considering this was Michael Bay’s first ever directing gig, it’s apparent that many of the things he’s known for aren’t too present in this debut. Compared to some of his later work like the Trasformers movies, and even Bad Boys 2 this one is much more subdued when comes to some of the things he would become known for while also giving us a taste of this new talent’s stylings. The film looks fine with a couple of nice shots if not too theatrical, and the directing is fine for the most part. As for all of the action sequences well they’re quickly edited (particularly the shoot outs), and rely on slow mo at times although save for maybe the final battle in an air field and a brief fight in a bathroom, they’re not very memorable which was kind of surprising. Nevertheless Bay does show his love for big, bombastic explosions here and once again they sure are a spectacle to watch. Fortunately I am able to forgive the relative lack of much in the way of outstanding action sequences thanks to the game performances given by most of the cast. As was mentioned in the opening paragraph this was the movie that helped put Will Smith, and Martin Lawrence on the map and they show off a lot of their comedic chops here. They have great chemistry with one another, with Smith being the more cooler, hot shot of the two while Lawrence is the hard headed, and anger induced yet kind family man. They have some truly great camaraderie and its doubly impressive that they did a lot of improvising. Both are fun character whom I would love to see multiple times and I would also say the same for Tea Leoni as Julie who never really gets talked about for her role her which is a shame considering I liked what they did with her and the two cops, and I really enjoyed her dry wit that played well off of the other two. Sure she is kind of similar to Laurel Weaving in Men In Black and she does become a bit of a damsel in distress in the third act but still I find her to be an underrated part of the film. The rest of the cast is a bit of mixed bag though with only Joe Pantoliano as angry police Captain, Conrad Howard, leaving an impact thanks to his hilarious ranting, while Theresa Bundle as Marcus’s wife has her moments as well. Meanwhile Karen Alexander mostly serves as a plot device as Maxine, while Tcheky Karyo as Fouchet is just a generic drug kingpin who will do anything to kill our heroes. Ironically those with less screen time like Nestor Serrano, and Julio Oscar Mechoso as two rival police officers, and Vic Manni, and Frank John Hughes as two of Fauchet’s henchmen were a lot more memorable thanks to their amusing interactions. Still at least the big players still work greatly to make up for some underdeveloped character here, and there.
In the end the original Bad Boys still holds up as a solid buddy cop flick with a pair of talented stars, a lot of good comedy, and a beating heart at its center. It’s far from perfect thanks to merely okay action, a basic story, and a mixed bag of a supporting cast, and it’s not as good as other films of its genre but it still works well enough. It’s definitely an interesting one to watch as it truly marked the beginning of much of the talent’s careers so it was fun seeing the one that started it all for Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, and Michael Bay. However this would not be the last time they would see each other as a couple years later they would reunite for Bad Boys 2 which, um, is definitely something all right and I cannot wait to review it very soon!
Rating: B
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