BAD BOYS by Michael Bay

Michael Bay, in my books, is the most overblown director in the world. Somehow, he is still allowed to make movies, although I can't say he ever did something that one can feel completely unashamed of for liking. You name it, Armageddon, Transformers II, and let's not even talk about Pearl Harbor. His films actually share a common bond of mediocrity that is almost unreal for a director whose works people still talk about every time he is in production. In 1995, he was no different, as he released this seen it all before cop buddy flick, that just looks like Lethal Weapon with two black people instead of one. Well, actually, Lethal Weapon was good, this is bad.

To NOT help the film are the main characters, who bicker and fight all the time. This would be more annoying, I guess, if the characters shared no chemistry, but Smith and Lawrence somehow manage to look good in this less than average movie. Apparently, Michael Bay was so unimpressed with the script that he told them to improvise some dialogue scenes during the shoot, and I guess that worked the first few times they did it, but after a while, it just seems like there was no dialogue written for the movie at all. The improvised bits slow down the pace of the movie, and eventually it even looks like Martin Lawrence and Will Smith are, to be perfectly blunt, two little bitches who fight with each other all the time for the tiniest reasons.

To make everything more annoying is Tea Leoni's character, the witness that must be protected at all costs, but goes from being terrified to being the most annoying woman that ever lived. This side of the plot is totally unrealistic, as the woman apparently must not find out that Martin Lawrence is not Will Smith and vice-versa. This side of the plot actually drags on until the ending sequence of the film begins. What is the point? It's just a lazy excuse at hooks for comic relief, because clearly this whole aspect of the story would have put the witness in real danger for most of the film, had it not been a Michael Bay movie.

The movie itself drags and drags until it cannot drag anymore. There is no smart solution here, quite simply, Michael Bay does the only thing he knows how to do...blow up stuff. And the final explosion is REALLY big. I guess the bigger the explosion, the more you hide the complete waste of time that all the scenes that preceded it were. After the explosion there is a car chase, that makes no real sense, but in all honesty, is quite an adrenaline rush.

This movie spun a sequel. I won't be watching it any time soon.

WATCH FOR THE MOMENT - The car chase. A real adrenaline rush after the narcotic like previous hour and a bit.