Bad Boys 1995 Action Comedy Film

Directed by Micheal Bay and Starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence

Sep 13, 2009

Two narcotics detectives are given a week to retrieve stolen heroin, and have to swap identities to fool the only witness to a related crime so they can catch a drug lord

Michael Bay (famous for blowing things up) directs Bad Boys a film in which Miami Narcotics Detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett are must to swap identities to fool the only witness to a murder, who is their only connection to a ruthless criminal who stole a one hundred million dollars worth of heroin.

One night a band of criminals lead by the ruthless French drug kingpin Fouchet (Tchéky Karyo) break into a secure police vault and flawlessly steal a hundred million dollars worth of heroin. The criminals get away clean and Internal Affairs come down hard on the Miami-Dade Police Department believing that the crime was the result of an inside job. Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) are given a week to find the drugs or Internal Affairs will shut down the whole narcotics division.

Soon after the robbery, a member of the gang and former cop Eddie Domínguez (Emmanuel Xuereb) decides to let off some steam by hiring a couple of escorts and taking some of the heroin the gang stole. One of the escorts is a woman named Max (Karen Alexander), and is an ex-girlfriend of Lowrey. She tells her best friend and fellow escort Julie Mott (Téa Leoni) that he is the only person she can always count on and knows that is she was ever in real trouble he would always be there for her. During the party, and whilst Julie is out of the room, Fouchet shows up and murders both Eddie and Max. Julie witnesses the crime and is chased but manages to escape.

Later Julie calls the police and demands to speak to Lowrey (even though she has never met him), but he is not around. After telling Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano) that she will disappear forever if he does not let her talk to Lowrey immediately he does the only thing he can and passes the phone to Burnett who is forced to pretend to be Lowrey.

The rest of the film is concerned with Burnett trying to be as smooth as Lowrey and Lowrey trying to fool Julie into believing that he is the tightly wound family man.

A Good Slant on a Buddy Movie

Since Lethal Weapon is has become the trend for straight family men to be teamed up with more reckless officers. Lowrey and Burnett bicker through the majority of the film, and there does seem to be the hint of jealousy on the part of Burnett about the lifestyle of the rich and womanising Lowrey. The audience learns that Lowrey was left a large trust fund by his parents and Burnett believes that he is only a cop because he enjoys shooting things, blowing stuff up and generally being seen as a tough guy.

The idea of the two characters being forced to swap identities is a good concept, and the fact that Lowrey takes up residence in Burnett’s house (after concocting an reason for Burnett’s wife and children) gives him the opportunity to mess with his partner’s head (but only in a friendly way).

Being a Michael Bay film, don’t expect any real substance, this was one of the first films that took Will Smith (who was still starring in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) and Martin Lawrence (who starred in the series Martin) from the small screen to the big screen. Both are fine comic performers. Will Smith plays Lowrey effortlessly and seems to enjoy the family life, whilst Lawrence’s Burnett convincingly struggles to portray the smooth Lowrey. As Bay is directing expect lots of things to explode, and there to be plenty of spectacular action sequences.

A good slant on a traditional buddy film and is well worth watching over a bag of popcorn.

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