Bad Boys
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Bad Boys is a 1995 American buddy cop action comedy film directed by Michael Bay, in his feature directorial debut, produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer and starring Martin Lawrence and Will Smith as two Miami narcotics detectives, Marcus Burnett and Mike Lowrey.
Plot
Miami-Dade detectives Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) blow a fuse when $100 million worth of heroin they recently confiscated is heisted from station headquarters. Suspecting it was an inside job, Internal Affairs gave them five days to track down the drugs before they shut down the narcotics division. Action meets farce when Marcus is compelled to masquerade as his partner to gain the trust of a call girl (Tea Leoni), a key witness in their investigation.
Why It's Anything But Bad
- The idea of having buddy cop films about detectives is interesting, despite the generic.
- The performances of Martin Lawrence and Will Smith are amazing.
- Despite the overuse of explosions, the special effects are fun.
- Decent directing by Michael Bay, for the most part, which is the first time.
- The actions are well-made and awesome to watch.
- Likable characters, such as Miami-Dade detectives Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence), who have nice chemistry.
- The dialogue is really enjoyable and creative.
Bad Qualities
- Since this was Michael Bay's first movie, it means there is an over usage of explosions.
- The script did not diverge from the generic plot of a buddy-cop genre film, instead opting for repeated use of formulaic scenes.
Reception
Bad Boys, despite the mixed reception, received very positive reviews from audiences and gained a cult following. On Rotten Tomatoes, Bad Boys has an approval rating of 42% based on reviews from 64 critics, with an average rating of 5.10/10, with audience approval rating of 78% based on over 250,000 ratings. The site's critical consensus reads: "Bad Boys stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence have enjoyable chemistry; unfortunately, director Michael Bay too often drowns it out with set pieces and explosions in place of an actual story.". On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 41 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.