Bad Boys II

Bad Boys II
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Michael Bay
Produced by	Jerry Bruckheimer
Screenplay by	Ron Shelton Jerry Stahl
Story by	Ron Shelton Cormac Wibberley Marianne Wibberley
Based on	Characters by George Gallo
Starring	Martin Lawrence Will Smith Jordi Mollà Gabrielle Union Peter Stormare Theresa Randle Joe Pantoliano
Music by	Trevor Rabin
Cinematography	Amir Mokri
Edited by	Roger Barton Mark Goldblatt Thomas A. Muldoon
Production companies	Simpson/Bruckheimer
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release dates	July 18, 2003 (2003-07-18)
Running time	147 minutes^[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$130 million^[2]
Box office	$273.3 million^[2]

Bad Boys II is a 2003 American buddy cop action comedy film directed by Michael Bay, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and starring Martin Lawrence and Will Smith. A sequel to the 1995 film Bad Boys and the second installment in the Bad Boys series, the film follows detectives Burnett and Lowrey investigating the flow of ecstasy into Miami. Despite generally negative reviews, the film was a box office success, grossing $270 million worldwide.^[2]

Plot

Eight years after the events of the first film, Miami Police Department (MPD) narcotics division detectives Marcus Burnett and Mike Lowrey are investigating the flow of highly-potent ecstasy into the city. Their surveillance of boats coming in from Cuba leads them to a Ku Klux Klan meeting and drug drop in a swamp docks outside Miami. The subsequent raid on the Klan members proves to be a disaster; malfunctioning radios delay back-up, causing a firefight when Mike accidentally shoots Marcus in the buttocks, while the Klan members are revealed to be mere small-time buyers and not the distributors of the ecstasy. The incident leaves Marcus to further question if he still wants to partner with Mike, while Mike fears that Marcus may discover his new relationship with Marcus' sister, Syd.

Unbeknownst to Mike and Marcus, Syd is an undercover operative with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), as a money laundering agent for Russian gangsters; the Russian gangsters are in fact the distributors of the ecstasy on behalf of neurotic Cuban drug lord Johnny Tapia. During her first assignment in Miami, a violent Haitian gang attempts to hijack the money transport between the Russians and Tapia, putting Syd in danger. Mike and Marcus inadvertently stumble into the action, and an intense firefight and car chase ensues between the gang members and the MPD/DEA, devastating the local area and enraging Police Captain Conrad Howard. Marcus and Mike learn of Syd's actual work, which makes Marcus unhappy, while Capt. Howard demands they find the supplier of ecstasy.

Marcus and Mike go to confront the Haitian gang leader, which results in a firefight and the leader revealing that his information about the transport came from his friend's camcorder. After viewing the footage, Marcus and Mike find out that a local business, the Spanish Palms Mortuary, is possibly being used as a front for money laundery by Tapia. Disguised as pest terminators since Tapia has a major rodent problem, the detectives penetrate Tapia's mansion and discover that Tapia has eliminated some of his Russian distributors and has begun to woo their former associate Syd, who is still undercover with the DEA and has refocused the investigation towards Tapia. The detectives also recover evidence linking Tapia to one of the boats involved in the Klan raid in the swamps.

After pressuring one of the arrested Klansman into making Tapia's boat, the detectives find themselves involved in another firefight, this time while pursuing a morgue van from the docks carrying emptied cadavers. Mike and Marcus decide to infiltrate Tapia's mortuary (disguised as ambulance workers) where they learn that the drug lord is using dead bodies to smuggle his drugs and money. The mission is nearly sabotaged when the pair are almost discovered, resulting in Marcus accidentally ingesting some of the ecstasy and Mike ordering the disguised officers outside the building to crash an ambulance into it, creating a diversion.

After Mike and an intoxicated Marcus obtain a search warrant from Capt. Howard, the mortuary and Tapia's mansion are raided, with the drugs and money being intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard. However, the mansion raid is botched when a vengeful Russian gangster, Alexei, violently storms the mansion on his own, intending to have revenge against Tapia for murdering his friends. Alexei is however unable to get to Tapia as he is shot by the police, while Syd is discovered by Tapia and is kidnapped by him and taken to Cuba. With Syd held prisoner in Tapia's compound and guarded by the Cuban military, the drug lord demands the return of his money in two days in exchange for Syd's life.

Mike and Marcus, along with their voluntary S.W.A.T. team and Syd's DEA co-workers, prepare a military assault to rescue Syd from Tapia's home. During the battle, Mike and Marcus extract Syd and escape Tapia's home, which is blown up. After a lengthy pursuit by an infuriated Tapia, they end up in a minefield just outside U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, where Tapia holds Mike at gunpoint taunting him that the US Navy force can't help him as they are still on Cuban soil. Tapia also suggests that they will stay in Cuba not knowing they are aiming their rifles at Tapia. Syd distracts Tapia by killing one of his men while Marcus rescues Mike with a skillful headshot to Tapia's skull in the middle of the minefield with his last bullet resulting in Tapia's body being blown up after falling onto a mine.

Later, at the Burnett house, Mike has bought Marcus a new pool (replacing a previous pool that had been destroyed in a prior gag), and Marcus finally makes peace with Mike dating Syd and no longer doubts their partnership. Despite the sentiment, Mike's new pool breaks, washing the two into a river, as they sing the "Bad Boys" theme song.

Cast

Martin Lawrence as Detective Lieutenant Marcus Burnett
Will Smith as Detective Lieutenant Mike Lowrey
Jordi Mollà as Hector Juan Carlos "Johnny" Tapia
Gabrielle Union as Special Agent Sydney "Syd" Burnett
Peter Stormare as Alexei
Theresa Randle as Theresa Burnett
Joe Pantoliano as Captain Conrad Howard
Otto Sanchez as Carlos
Jon Seda as Roberto
Oleg Taktarov as Josef Kuninskavich
Michael Shannon as Floyd Poteet
Jason Manuel Olazabal as Detective Marco Vargas
Yul Vazquez as Detective Mateo Reyes
Treva Etienne as "Icepick"
Kiko Ellsworth as "Blondie Dread"
Timothy Adams as DEA van agent
Henry Rollins as TNT Leader
Ivelin Giro as Mike's Police Psychologist
Dennis Greene as Reggie
John Salley as 'Hacker' Fletcher
Brian Anthony Wilson (uncredited) as Tapia Muscle Crew Member
Jessica Sutta, Denise Quiñones, and Taina (uncredited) as Cuban prostitutes
Ben Brocklehurst (uncredited) as Agent
Michael Bay (uncredited) as Run-down compact car driver
Dan Marino (uncredited) as himself
Megan Fox as dancer (uncredited)

Reception

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 23% approval rating, based on 176 reviews, with an average rating of 4.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Two and a half hours of explosions and witless banter".^[3]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film one out of a possible four stars, especially offended by one scene involving a teenage boy and the use of the word nigga, saying, "The needless cruelty of this scene took me out of the movie and into the minds of its makers. What were they thinking? Have they so lost touch with human nature that they think audiences will like this scene?"^[4] On an episode of At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper, film critic Richard Roeper named Bad Boys II the worst film of 2003.

Among the more positive reviews was Seattle Post-Intelligencer critic Ellen A. Kim, who wrote that the film was "mindlessly fun... If you like this type of movie, that is." The film was also praised by a few critics and viewers for its deftly handled action sequences and visual effects.

Box office

The film was a financial success. It made $138,608,444 in North America and $134,731,112 in other territories, totaling $273,339,556 worldwide — almost twice the gross of the original film.^[2]

Accolades

At the 2004 MTV Movie Awards, the film was nominated for "Best Action Sequence" for the inter-coastal freeway pursuit and "Best On-Screen Team", but lost to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and 50 First Dates, respectively.

Bad Boys II was nominated at the 2nd Annual Visual Effects Society Awards (VES) for "Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Motion Picture".^[5]

In other media

Soundtrack

Main article: Bad Boys II (soundtrack)

Video game

A video game version of the film, known as Bad Boys: Miami Takedown in North America, was released in 2004 on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube and Windows. Originally planned for release in late 2003 (to tie in with the film's DVD release), the game was pushed back several months. The game failed to deliver any sort of sales or critical acclaim due to poor development; it was given low ratings from many game websites.^[6]

Sequel

In June 2008, Bay stated that he may direct Bad Boys III, but that the greatest obstacle to the potential sequel would be the cost, as he and Will Smith demand some of the highest salaries in the film industry.^[7] By August 2009, Columbia Pictures had hired Peter Craig to write the script for Bad Boys III.^[8] In February 2011, Martin Lawrence reiterated that the film was in development.^[9] In June 2014, Bruckheimer announced that screenwriter David Guggenheim was working on the storyline for the sequel.^[10] Two months later, Lawrence said a script had been written and parts had been cast.^[11] By June 2015, director Joe Carnahan was in early talks to write and possibly direct the film.^[12] Two months later, Sony Pictures Entertainment announced that Bad Boys III would be released on February 17, 2017, and that additional sequel, Bad Boys IV, is scheduled for release on July 3, 2019.^[13] On March 5, 2016, the film was pushed to June 2, 2017.^[14] Producers plan to begin production in early 2017.^[15] On August 11, 2016, the film was pushed back once again to January 12, 2018, to avoid box office competition with the upcoming DC Comics film Wonder Woman, and retitled Bad Boys for Life.^[16] Lawrence revealed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that filming may start in March 2017.^[17]