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Woosah. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence return 8 years on to play their much loved crime fighting partnership of Detective Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett in the aptly titled Bad Boys 2, no fancy taglines for this straight up sequel released in 2003. What took them so long I will never know, but they had to get the script right - and that they have. To open up the film we are shown the production of millions of dollars worth of ecstacy, and you immediately know that the film is going to follows it same drug fighting message that it included back in 1995. This ecstacy just happens to be shipping straight into Miami, and the PD have got their biggest case yet to solve.
One of the first scenes in the movie is an action scene, and there is a lot of this throughout the movie. After a tipoff, Lowrey and Burnett have organised a seige on a group who will apparently have a lot of drugs and cash on them. This scene is quite creative in that it includes a modern day KKK, but for the shock value of that they even it out with a comical value of Lowrey and Burnett actually being dressed up like the KKK themselves to surprise them. Just like old times things won't go exactly according to plan, and Lowrey and Burnett will have another one of their little arguments before tearing the place down. This scene is very reminscent of the first scene in the original Bad Boys, where they
argue as they are being carjacked. Whilst I'm going to refer to them as Lowrey and Burnett throughout the review, unlike in the first film where their surnames cropped up a lot, I can't really remember them being called by their surnames at all throughout the movie - I think that shows the difference that the director had a lot more freedom with this movie having the characters already developed from a previous movie. On the back of first Bad Boys DVD case their first names are not referred to at all, but on the back of the Bad Boys 2 DVD case their first names take the place of 'Detective'. The surnames were a big part of the first film in that when Burnett was pretending to be his partner, he put on that funny voice to say 'Lowrey', I guess without scenes like that they didn't really see the need to throw surnames down our throat.
The main storyline is all about bringing down Johnny Trapia (Jordi Molla), but it's going to take a lot of investigating to solve this crime. Tapia takes his slightly crazy mother and chubby daughter with him everywhere, as he tries to build an empire for himself based off drugs and all the crime that comes with it. Whilst Lowrey and Burnett really need things to go right for them in this case, to level out the amount of things they do wrong, they're not the only one trying to finally get Tapia behind bars. Tapia has alluded the Miami PD for a long time now, even sueing for wrongful arrest and getting $9 million in compensaton, so to finally make an arrest they have to be spot on. The DEA are also launching an assault of their own on Tapia - and a central part of their plan is Syd Burnett (Gabrielle Union), Marcus' baby sister. Marcus has thought all along that his sister was just responsible for pushing papers for the DEA, however Syd is planning to further her policing career greatly through this case. That's not the only thing Syd isn't telling Marcus though, as she is secretly dating Mike. How exactly Marcus will respond to this revelation is unknown as he and his partner are not on best terms as it is throughout the movie, and after Mike accidently shoots Marcus in the butt, Marcus plans on being transferred so he is no longer partners with Mike. Could this be the end of the bad boy partnership that 'ride together, and die together'.
An absolutely huge chase sequence, probably the best action of the film, comes quite early on as Syd runs into a spot of trouble on her undercover mission. Lowrey and Burnett follow her to try and keep her safe, but between all this they have a huge car transportation vehicle that has been taken over by the Haitian Gang having their eyes on the dirty money that Syd is carrying. This makes for some good entertainment, just like most of the action scenes in the movie do. It's not just about action and drugs though, as the comedy aspect has always been a major part of selling the Bad Boys franchise. Burnett's baby daughter has grown up a lot since the previous movie, and now she's ready to go out on a date - as her possible boyfriend, Reggie, arrives to pick her up for the date he gets an onslaught from Burnett and then Lowrey. It's quite possibly the funniest scene of the movie, as they both refer to this 15 year old as looking 30. I guess you have to see it to get it. For those that are interested, the rival Latin crime duo from the first film are also casted still, you've got to love Mateo Reyes (Yul Vazguez) and Marco Vargas (Jason Manuel Olazabal).
What isn't surprising after the success of the original Bad Boys is that they've put the certificate down in order to gain that wider audiance. For me it's still as violent, dark, and has the same level of nudity so maybe this downgraded certificate is just based on what viewers can take since the new millennium? I don't think anyone would be offended by this movie, and the nudity I speak of is simply a scene where Lowrey and Burnett are in a mortuary and there is a dead naked woman. What's the best way to compensate for a lower age certificate? Well Bad Boys 2 is about half an hour longer than the original, running for 141 minutes. That's long. To be honest I think that's probably too long, and the last 20 minutes felt very stuck on. I really do love this movie, but with it being that long it's not a film you can watch very often without losing your social life. For me this film is probably worthy of SIX stars, but loses one because it drags on slightly and possibly isn't as funny as the first - oh, and I can't give six stars anyway. As far as it now being as good as Bad Boys 1, I disagree with that completely - and I'd say they're exactly on par with one another, which is a fantastic testiment to those behind creating this movie. Because of how ahead of its times the first Bad Boys was, you wouldn't blamed for thinking Bad Boys 2 was made a year later, but as far as 2003 cinema goes, Bad Boys 2 is fantastic.
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Advantages: Great on screen relationships, fast paced action, good acting Disadvantages: Main story line is un believable and weak - but that is Hollywood
yackers1 29.04.2009 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Bad Boys 2 (DVD)
Advantages: Great on screen relationships, fast paced action, good acting Disadvantages: Main story line is un believable and weak - but that is Hollywood
yackers1 29.04.2009 ·
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Bad Boys 2 (DVD)
![Bad Boys 2 [DVD] [2003]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78527593.jpg "Bad Boys 2 [DVD] [2003]")
May 14th, 2007
exceptional by (7%):
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