Back in 1995 when Michael Bay made his leap into feature films from music videos and commercials, he made his mark with a little action-comedy entitled Bad Boys. The road to the big screen was a bit turbulent. Originally titled Bulletproof Hearts and starring Jon Lovitz in the Martin Lawrence role and Dana Carvey in the Will Smith role (imagine Carvey saying the line “who done tore off and whooped your ass now?”) the movie wasn’t gelling with producer Don Simpson who reportedly threw the script in the trash in a meeting with Bay.
Bay scrambling with trying to save his career decided to go a different direction and went with Martin Lawrence and Arsenio Hall, the movie was on it’s way to start filming until Bay caught an episode of Fresh Prince of Bel Air and replaced Hall with Will Smith and found his Mike Lowrey.
The rest is history.
Right from the start with the first two scenes, the tone is set for the rest of the movie. You get our heroes getting car jacked while they argue and bicker about French fries and a Porsche while the car-jackers are standing there confused. But it’s okay, one of them gets kicked in the balls and the other gets an elbow to the face. The next scene involves the bad guys stealing a shit-load of heroin from the police station. The scene involves a lot of quick cuts and a lot of music video type of shots.
Much like Quentin Tarantino and his first movie Reservoir Dogs, Michael Bay hits you with his signature directing style that has stuck with him his entire career. Those first two scenes in Bad Boys really sum it up for Bay. Bay gets a lot of flack for his choices in his films but you can tell he’s only here to entertain.
The main thing that makes this movie work so good is the pairing of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. What could’ve been a stupid throwaway movie (like all Kevin Hart movies) these two guys bring it with the action and comedy. They both have the posture and presence to be badass action heroes who make jokes and insult each other on the side. The “two bitches in the sea” scene is definitely a scene to watch. Along with pretty every scene involving the two detectives interacting with Captain Eddie (played by Joey Pants who does a pitch-perfect “frustrated with these guys’ unorthodox tactics” type role, “I was gettin em all in before you showed up!”)
The movie’s story is nothing to write home about, but it does involve Smith and Lawrence having to switch identities for the witness of a murder (Tea Leoni looking a bit like Megan Fox) and also trying to get the heroin back that was stolen from their police station. Luckily Bay infuses the movie with action scenes that are more and more badass as they go along. The money shot and best action scene has to go to a chase scene and ending with the camera spinning around Will and Martin in slow motion.
The movie is all sound and fury and that’s a good thing with this type of movie. It’s all entertainment, kids, and Bay and company are more than happy to oblige with this one.
Catch Mando on Twitter at @manbat33 when he’s not co-hosting the @TalentedSlacker podcast!