This is the sort of movie which would divide opinion, some would hate it because they'd think it would be too excessive and a bit over the top in terms of violence, language and action. Other people would love it because they would see it as a thrill a minute, kick ass and cool experience. While I can understand why some would have a negative opinion of this movie, I happen to enjoy it. The dialogue at times was sharp witty and at times funny, and the tension as the story builds towards its explosive climax could be cut with a knife. A few faults would be the pacing was inconsistent, slow at times, then suddenly picks up, on occasion the dialogue was a bit cheesy and macho and some of the action was a tad unrealistic, but at the same time fun. The cast by and large were solid, and the chemistry between Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as partners who happen to be polar opposites when it comes to personality makes the movie work, and Joe Pantoliano as the beleaguered police captain gives a very good impression of someone at the end of his tether thanks to the antics of Mike and Marcus. Onto the villains, Jordi Molla turns in a frightening performance as Johnny Tapia, whose laid back demeanor hides a ruthless and merciless personality, likewise Peter Stormare as the Russian mobster whose muscled out by Tapia in the drug distribution business. The movie depicts a three way criminal drug and turf war between Cuban Russian and Jamaican gangsters on the streets of Miami with the police caught in the crossfire, and shows how ruthless the bad guys can be when it comes to dealing with those who would get in their way, and how explosive the results can be. One of those movies which I like but I can understand why others may not.

Never saw either of the Bad Boys movies until relatively recently. A few years ago my curiosity was ~slightly~ piqued when I saw Hot Fuzz and one of the characters kept asking "You ain't seen Bad Boys II???" Soon afterward I ended up buying the blu-ray double pack, watched the first Bad Boys, and enjoyed it well enough I suppose. I had every intention of following up with Bad Boys II, but somehow the motivation to sit down and watch it simply never manifested and it's been collecting dust ever since. The other day I saw a video of Henry Rollins telling a long, rambling and hilarious story about him going to a disastrous movie audition, with the surprise twist that he actually somehow managed to land the part... revealing at the very end of the story that the movie in question was in fact Bad Boys II. For whatever reason, that made me go to my backlog bin of un- watched (often unopened) DVDs and blu-rays and rummaged through it until I found Bad Boys II, and I finally watched it last night. Not a whole lot to say, really. I generally don't buy into the Michael Bay/Jerry Bruckheimer bashing that's been going on for the last 15 years or so, and I guess I expected more. I thought it was a painfully unoriginal and dull movie, despite all of the car chases, shootouts, and explosions. Why did I think it would be more than a retread of countless cop/buddy movies that had preceded it for 20 years (e.g. 24 Hrs.)? It did have a few genuinely hilarious moments, but at this point I'm assuming that the "fawning homage" in Hot Fuzz was purely sarcastic and I was an idiot for not realizing that until now.

The boys are back. Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) are kicking butt. At least Marcus is getting shot in the butt. Mike has been seeing Marcus' sister Sydney Burnett (Gabrielle Union) who's works in the DEA office. Marcus has asked for a transfer away from Mike. But neither is willing to fess up. They're assigned to investigate the flow of drugs, and run smack into Syd who's gone undercover.Director Michael Bay is unapologetic in creating a big bombastic popcorn movie. It opens with the heroes taking down the KKK. And if you think he can't get any louder, he throws you into a car chase to end all chases. I must admit it is crazy fun. The one thing Michael Bay knows how to do is blow things up. But it does get tiring. It's loud, annoying, and doesn't let up. It's a brutal way to spend 2 and 1/2 hours. But I do recommend the car chase to everybody. It's definitely worth repeat viewings.

Whilst the first outing of the Bad Boys shocked me by how good it actually was, this one left me a little disappointed. I was hardly expecting an Oscar winning deal here, as this was always going to be a Michael Bay adrenalin rush, but for a film with a two and a half hour running time, the adrenalin came in too short a bursts.Bad Boys was Bay's first film and was but a taster of his over the top film making, which first arrives in The Rock a year afterwards, but this made eight years later was obviously going to take this to the next level, if not several levels further than that. But to me, it didn't. Granted, the action was thrilling, outrageous and very enjoyable, but the character development was barely visible. They bicker, Lawrence moaned a lot and Smith was cool and likable but there was just a shell of what there should have been. The entire story, including what's left of their character dynamics are only present to set up the next great action sequence.Then, the was the taste issue. The crux of the plot as it developed was that the drug dealing villains where using corpses to smuggle drugs, and this was used to "Comic Effect" in two major set-pieces. Though in the first, a car chase, it was black comedy as bodies came thick and fast from the back of a van to be run over by the pursuing cars, the second was pushing the boundaries in a to a more disturbing area.A criticism levied at Michael Bay by British critic Mark Kermode has been that he is a filmmaker with "pornographic sensibilities". Not just in the literal sense, but in the way that he views everything from cars, women and explosions for example. But this was no more clearly re- enforced than in a scene about 90 minutes in, when our two 'bad boys' are searching a morgue and after pulling back the sheets on fat white guys, they reveal a large breasted young woman, who is refer to as "The Bimbo" if my memory serves. It's worrying because I don't know whether this was being played for laughs or was supposed to be a titillating shot of a well endowed woman? Is it right to show a dead woman, who looks to have been strangled to death and referred to a bimbo in a mainstream 15 certificated movie?I don't want to sound like a prude but the tone of this and pretty much every scene with the bodies being used, seemed to be in plain Bad, BAD taste and though this humour can play well in the right genre of movie, this just simply wasn't the film to do it in, in my opinion. But, that criticism aside, my main issues are the pacing. It was just too hollow to sustain its running time and my mind was beginning to wander from time to time between the spectacular action and the few moments of decent comedy.It just didn't have the magic of the 90′s actioner, a genre which had faded considerably by the early 2000′s, and without offering anything new besides improved action, which was worth the ticket or DVD price in its own right, or even retaining the original character of the original, this was a sequel failed to hold its own.