It was the early nineties. Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson were the most successful producers of the eighties but their latest picture, Days of Thunder, did not hit the heady heights they were hoping for. Switching from neo-noir to comedic action films worked out, but it now needed to be fresher and bigger. With $500 million from Paramount Pictures burning a hole in their pockets, they began scouting for new talent. Coming from a career in advertising, Bruckheimer knew talent could be mined from commercial directors, and a new up-and-comer had been making waves in the same pool. Impressed with his music videos too, Bruckheimer & Simpson invited the director to discuss their vision and thus, Michael Bay created Bad Boys in 1995.
From a budget of $19 million, Bay built a buddy cop movie with TV stars Will Smith & Martin Lawrence and turned the stunts up to 11, resulting in the box office return Bruckheimer/Simpson were looking for. The story is paper-thin: two detectives have to protect the only witness to a murder whilst investigating a gang who’ve stolen cases of heroin from the police precinct. The sticking point is the witness (Julie, a sex worker played by Téa Leoni) will only speak to Mike Lowrey (Will Smith), a mutual friend of the victim. However, with urgency to solve the case, Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) has to pose as Mike to ensure Julie’s safety. To avoid compromising the case, they are ordered to maintain this identity by Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano), who’s angry New Jersey accent is a highlight of the feature. With an inability to communicate this life swap with Julia or Marcus’ wife Theresa (Theresa Randle), mainly out of distrust and disbelief that they would be able to comprehend the situation, this conflict is what the film languishes on. Ridiculous and misogynistic, a lot of the jokes fall flat, with the charisma of our two main characters doing a lot of the heavy lifting. Watching the stunts with a modern lens, and an overreliance on slow motion, I was numb to the explosions – only a donkey kong-esque set piece on a highway stands out. The buddy cop dynamic had been done better before and since, but the relationship between Lawrence and Smith is likely the reason for the success. Their swipes at each other were mostly improvised, encouraged by Bay as he didn’t trust the script, making the friendship feel real in a shallow picture. Following in the same vein as Murphy’s Beverly Hills cop, it shot Will Smith to super stardom (Martin Lawrence to a lesser extent, depending if you like Big Momma’s house).
They returned 8 years later for Bad Boys II with bigger budgets, bigger stunts and a slightly thicker premise. With an influx of ecstasy coming into Florida from the Cuban cartel, Lowrey and Burnett have to solve their case whilst navigating the bureaucracy of the police department and DEA, the latter Marcus’ sister and Mike’s secret love interest Syd (Gabrielle Union) works for. With emotions running high, Marcus contemplates leaving the force to add further depths to our main characters, allowing me to have further investment. Despite jokes targeting therapy, the familiarity with our main character aid the comedy, and improve the flow of the story. However, to encompass a narrative and the big set pieces (which include a 20 car pile-up and drive through an airport), Bay stretches the run-time to 2 and a half hours. This picture has no business being this long and becomes a hallmark trait of Michael Bay, where you’ll get a story but not at the expense of the stunts.
With the money made and success shared (just not evenly distributed), it seemed unlikely that a third Bad Boys would be made. Bay was focused on Transformers and Smith was spreading his wings in Hollywood lead roles. So it was a surprise that, 25 years after the original film, Bad Boys For Life was released. What I believed to be a cash-in on a nostalgic trend subverted my expectations, acting more as a traditional sequel but diverging from the initial tone. The story is focused more on the action of action comedy, with Burnett still dreaming of retirement but tempting Lowrey to consider as well due to their age. This is until Mike is gunned down and his passion reignited in finding out who tried to kill him. Bad Boys for life introduces a host of new characters in the form of the AMMO division, meaning the buddy cop element becomes diluted. The shift in change comes from the removal of Michael Bay in the director seat and replaced with relative unknowns Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. Time is a flat circle, and whilst the producers remain the same, the fresh talent has come through to try and reinvigorate films from the 80s.
In summary, I can’t say that I think any of these three films are good, Bad Boys II being the best out of a bad bunch. There are aspects that I enjoyed but, even with the attitude of switching my mind off, I was distracted by some outdated comedy before the hard transition into a modern day Bad Boys cinematic universe. However, to end on a positive note, what Bad Boys does achieve is placing two young black men in the spotlight with a new director and turning it into a billion dollar franchise, becoming staples of modern Hollywood.