Bad Boys [DVD] [2001]

Say what you want about Michael Bay, all criticisms are valid, but I do think that he is a skilled and talented director with a vision, it just so happens to be a poor vision that hasn't changed in 25 years. Bad Boys was his debut feature after honing his skills on music videos, and all this time later he has not matured as a filmmaker, which is kinda sad. He still makes mindless popcorn trash with the stolen aesthetic of Ridley Scott and Tony Scott.Bad Boys took ten years to get to the screen, starting out as an 80s buddy comedy called Bulletproof Hearts that was to star Jon Lovitz and Dana Carvey. It was rewritten, chewn-up and thrown out by the studios before it ended up with Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, who, at the time, did not have a hit since Days of Thunder (which was mauled by critics). They rebranded the script Bad Boys and a phenomenon was born.Does the movie deserve it's popularity? Not really.The plot, for what it's worth, concerns screaming foreign crime boss Fuchet (Tchecky Kayro in an intimidating and effective performance) who slays an idiot member of his drug-dealing gang. Beautiful Julie Mott (Tea Leoni) witnesses the slaying and is marked for death . She calls the cops but for painfully contrived reasons will only talk to Mike Lowrey (the uber-obnoxious Will Smith). Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) is the only person there who can take the call and assumes the role of Mike in order to take Julie into `in-home' protective custody. Why he doesn't just reveal to her right away that he told a little white lie only to get her out of harms way...I dunno. Perhaps it is because it's the only plot element that the legion of writers could abuse to inject the slightest amount of comedy and drag out an 85-minute premise to 2 hours. There are so many lulls in the action that the movie frequently threatens to keel over and die. Bay has a habit of making his movies overly long but even with his debut he couldn't recognise the dead weight that drags everything down.The action scenes, when they do happen, are thrilling, and it's to Michael Bay's credit that he's managed to pull this off. Without him the movie would be long forgotten though he could have reigned in on Will Smith's complete inability to ad-lib and cut out the irritating screaming matches between the various cast members. No one has clever dialogue here, it's all anger and rage, and it's horrible.Strangely, Martin Lawrence comes off the better actor of the two and is almost endearing.Mark Mancina's fun score keeps the slow pace just about bearable and keeps the transitions between scenes ticking over nicely. The 90s soundtrack is a little dated and the entire plot is an 80s relic to the point where it's hard to ignore how unoriginal it is and appreciate it for its true merits, few as they might be.Bay Boys was shot in standard 1.85:1 widescreen by Howard Atherton, famous for his work on Fatal Attraction and Black Rain (where he was usurped, somewhat unfairly, by Jan De Bont) and it looks gorgeous in 4K HDR. The compositions, set designs, and filtering techniques all have a Ridley Scott flavor to them which sets it apart from its wretched sequel. For all it's flaws, Bad Boys sure does have amazing cinematography which I believe helped give Michael Bay the edge he was looking for among the crop of hopeful action directors who were emerging at the time. Being a movie from 1995, it was shot and edited on 35mm so this 4K is the real deal. The Dolby Atmos sound is pretty good, but fails to beef up the shortcomings of the original sound mix.

Taken for it's the only steel available for this must have action buddy movie with Mr Will Smith. Quite a nice transfer. Image is pretty clean and sound blasts from everywere. The steelbook is cool enough the inside artworw is shiny gold and sober. It's Ok, for the outside a glossy finish would have been better and more classy. To my point of view they should have added a picture of the bad guy in some place ( Tcheky Karyo ), but hey I'm french so see what I mean.To resume a good purchase for who wants a really great edition of this awesome movie. Besides it's suitable for everyone for it's region free and with plenty of languages except our spanish buddies to bad for them. Anyway it's more convenient to see it in english original soundtrack.

will smith became hot property in both the music and movie scenein the 90's after got world attension for playing his name sakein the critically aclaimed comedy the fresh prince of belle airethat got both singing and producing credits for the hit showhe went on to bigscreen success with films including independance dayand recently the long over due men in black 3 in bad boys will smith playsthe smooth talking playboy detective that teams up with world reknownedcomedian of the black comedy troup def comedy jam martin lawrence hischaracter is a struggling family guy and a loud mouthed detective bothwill and martin must investigate an robbery of drugs being stolen fromthier precint and to find thoes who were sponsible to avoid furtherscrutiny from boss marg helgenberger this is the miami vice of the 90'sbut its sequal did'nt live upto the first act .review quote:THIS IS THE MIAMI VICE OF THE 90'S-frankie smalesfrankie (cool rider) smalesfrankie smales tv and movie review uk

Was balzed when I watched sick movie

More of a story line, than expected.Not sure that a continuous flow of bad language was needed, but from time to time would have been okay!

Fantastic movie, even if the fashions date it, I'd recommend it esoecially if you plan on watching the new sequel that was recently released.

Bad Boys, Bad Boys, what ya gonna do... what you gonna do when they come for you :D

Always worth watching! On our top 10!