Bad Boys II is a 2003 action-comedy film directed by Michael Bay, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and starring Martin Lawrence and Will Smith. It is a sequel to the 1995 film Bad Boys.
Plot
Eight years after the events of the first film, Detective Mike Lowrey and Detective Marcus Burnett are investigating the flow of ecstasy into Miami. Their intel and surveillance of boats coming in from Cuba leads them to a KKK meeting/drug drop in a swamp, Mike accidentally shoots Marcus in the buttocks which leads Marcus to further question if he still wants to partner with Mike.
Meanwhile, a neurotic Cuban kingpin named Johnny Tapia (Jordi Molla), who supplies Miami's drug traffic, wonders why his boats are picked up by the cops and tells his men to change the schedules once again. Two members of the Russian Mob, Alexei and Josef, receive drugs from Tapia to run their nightclub businesses, but end up giving nearly half of their profits to Tapia. Alexei and Josef go to negotiate with Tapia to recoup some of their profits, but this ends in Josef's murder by Tapia's men and Alexei's forced surrender of his Russian nightclubs after his wife and son are threatened by Tapia.
Meanwhile, the relationship between Mike and Syd (Gabrielle Union), Marcus' sister, who also happens to be undercover with the DEA as a money laundering agent for the Russians, continues to develop from an earlier rendezvous in New York. During her first assignment, a Haitian gang attempts to hijack the transport and kill Syd. A massive fire fight ensues between the gang members and the Miami Police/DEA and devastates the local area. Marcus and Mike learn of Syd's actual work, which makes Marcus unhappy.
Marcus and Mike go to confront the Haitian gang leader, which results in a firefight and the leader revealing that his information about the transport came from his friend's camcorder. After viewing the footage, Marcus and Mike find out that the Spanish Palms Mortuary, a business owned by Tapia's Mother and is possibly being used as a front. Disguised as pest terminators, they penetrate Tapia's mansion and find out that Tapia is using dead bodies in the mortuary to smuggle his drugs and money to Cuba. Syd, still undercover with the DEA, has successfully charmed Tapia but is found out, captured and taken to Cuba.
Mike and Marcus, along with their team composed of ex-Delta Force commandos prepare a plan to recover Syd from Tapia's capture. A long gunfight ensues and eventually the Cuban military arrive outnumbering the team. As Tapia's newly built house is destroyed, Mike, Marcus and Syd manage to escape, pursued by the infuriated Tapia. After a lengthy pursuit, they end up at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay. As Marcus and Syd plead with the soldiers, a gunfight erupts between Tapia and Mike. Marcus gets the opportunity to fire his last bullet and shoots Tapia in the head, narrowly missing Mike. Tapia's body falls on a mine and his corpse explodes.
Later, at the Burnett house, Mike has bought Marcus a new pool, and Marcus finally comes to peace with Mike dating his sister, Syd. He even tears up the transfer papers he was going to put in, which would have ended their partnership. However, the pool breaks again, washing the two into the river, as they sing the "Bad Boys" theme song from 'Cops'.
Cast
Reception
Critical reception
The film received mostly negative reviews. Based on 149 reviews collected by the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 23% of critics gave Bad Boy II a positive review, with an average rating of 4.1/10.[1]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film one out of a possible four stars, especially offended by one scene involving a teenage boy and the use of the "n-word" citing, "The needless cruelty of this scene took me out of the movie and into the minds of its makers. What were they thinking? Have they so lost touch with human nature that they think audiences will like this scene?"[2] On an episode of At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper, film critic Richard Roeper named it 1st place on his list of the worst films of 2003, he placed notorious bomb Gigli at number 3.
Among the more positive reviews Seattle Post-Intelligencer critic Ellen A. Kim wrote that the film was "mindlessly fun... If you like this type of movie, that is." The film was also praised by a few critics and viewers for its deftly handled action sequences and visual effects.
Box office
The film was a financial success in the United States Box Office. It made $138 million domestically and $273 million worldwide, which was more than the original film.[3]
Awards
At the MTV Movie Awards 2004 the film was nominated for "Best Action Sequence" for the inter-coastal freeway pursuit, but lost to The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence won the award for "Best On-Screen Team."
Sequel
Main article:
Bad Boys IIISo far it has been confirmed that Columbia Pictures has hired Peter Craig to write the script for a Bad Boys III and all the key players are expected to return.[4]
Recently Michael Bay stated that he is planning to direct Bad Boys 3 either before or after Transformers 3 which is set to be in cinemas in July 1, 2011. This puts Bad Boys III's release at around 2011/2012.[5]
In other media
Soundtrack
Video game
A video game version of the film, known as Bad Boys: Miami Takedown in North America, was released in 2004 on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube and Windows. Originally planned for release in late 2003 (to tie in with the film's DVD release), the game was pushed back several months. The game failed to deliver any sort of sales or critical acclaim due to poor development; it was given low ratings from many game websites. The game received very negative reviews by magazines and it has been called one of the worst film to game flops.
References
External links
