No Surrender Cinema: Bad Boys
Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as the coolest members of the Miami PD since Crockett and Tubbs? Michael Bay kicking off his career with a film full of the excessive action he’s become synonymous with? A soundtrack that still gets regular airplay on my car stereo? What other movie could possibly be the subject of July’s No Surrender Cinema? There’s no second guessing this one, because of course I’m talking about Bad Boys!
It’s a movie that in some ways is so very 90’s (makes sense, given that it was released a mere 23 years ago in 1995… God do I feel old), but has withstood the test of time as one of, if not THE best buddy cop movie ever. Bad Boys is an epic action roller coaster that may have borrowed a lot from films like Beverly Hills Cop, Tango & Cash, and Lethal Weapon, but endeared itself to moviegoers with two of the most likable leads Hollywood had to offer. At the time, stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence were enjoying amazing success as the stars of their own sitcoms (Will of course being the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, while Martin was…Martin). Each of them also had several cinematic releases under their belt, but neither had achieved leading man status. Bad Boys was a breakthrough, and it was the perfect mixture of in your face action and humor that never felt forced… probably because for the latter, our two stars were more often than not casually improving their dialogue and allowing their natural chemistry with each other to move the movie along. Quite often that’s considered a risk, but with Bad Boys it not only worked, but it made both men into even bigger stars than they were before.
Mike Lowrey (Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) are cops working in the narcotics division of the Miami Police Department. Funnily enough, we first find out that they’re cops not because of an undercover sting operation or a case gone sour, but because they become victims of an attempted carjacking. After a funny first few minutes where our heroes spend time arguing about fast food and automobile cleanliness, they dispatch of their assailants (one of whom is Kim Coates, who many people would know as Tig from Sons of Anarchy) and allow our title sequence to start.
It’s during the title sequence that we get a look at what will start the major thread throughout the film. As fun as it might be to just have Lowrey and Burnett riding around poking fun at each other and slapping around petty crooks, there’s more major developments at play. A man named Fouchet goes to great lengths (killing a member of his own crew that was disguised as a cop to play decoy, bringing a former cop into his crime ring, and breaking into a police station) to get his hands on a stash of drugs that was locked up in evidence. The brazen theft sets off alarms in everyone’s heads that it might just be an inside job, and Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano) assigns our heroes to find out who did it, find the drugs, and make everything right before Internal Affairs puts everyone out of a job. They’re given backup in the form of Sanchez and Ruiz, two fellow officers who are pretty much the Latino Lowrey and Burnett and are really just around for the occasional comic relief segment until shit gets too real towards the end of the film. As you’d expect, the few leads they stumble upon lead to dead ends, and eventually to a couple of dead bodies. When Fouchet finds out that Eddie Dominguez, the former cop that went rogue, is a junkie who skimmed some drugs from their score, he goes to Eddie’s hotel room and offs him, but not before killing Max, a call girl who was there to party with Eddie. This makes things personal when Lowrey finds out, because it was established that not only did he know Max, but there was an obvious history between the two. The only bright side to the scenario is that Max’s friend Julie (Tea Leoni), a non-hooker who was simply along for the ride, survived the shootout at the hotel and is now running scared, only willing to trust Lowrey because of all the things Max told her about him.
Cops, crooks, drugs, dead bodies, hookers, guns… fine for an action movie, but can it be played for laughs? It most certainly can, and most of those laughs come mainly from two factors; the interaction of our leads, and Lawrence’s physical comedy when Burnett is faced with various situations. Smith plays it slick, since Lowrey is supposed to be a bachelor with a badge, and he’s essentially the straight man to Lawrence’s out of sorts, some days barely hanging on everyman. When Julie calls the cops to say that she saw everything in Dominguez’s hotel room but will only deal with Lowrey, Captain Howard has Marcus pretend to be him so that they don’t lose out on their only witness. So now, as if Marcus wasn’t already a stressed mess who just wants a night alone with his wife, he has to play the role long enough for he and the legit Mike Lowrey to crack the case. Naturally, this makes Marcus the punchline of several jokes, such as the doorman in Lowrey’s apartment building thinking Marcus is using Mike’s place to have an affair, and Julie assuming Marcus is gay because of all the pictures of Mike displayed around the place.
Going into Bad Boys, we knew it had to be at least somewhat funny giving our leading men, but what about the flip side of the funny? What about the forces of evil that our heroes are up against? Fouchet and his crew are not easily scared. When Fouchet finds out who the madam that Max was working for is, he sends his henchman Noah to take care of that loose end. Lowrey arrives on site at the same time, hoping to get some info from her, but winds up thrown through a window by Noah, who tells Lowrey not to mess with them. A confrontation in a club has Fouchet’s crew attacking Marcus in the men’s room, avoiding Julie’s attempt at revenge, and getting involved in a car chase involving barrels of ether and a road under construction. The pivotal point of the movie would be when Fouchet finds out where Lowrey lives, and he and his cronies come in with guns blazing, putting our heroes, Marcus’ wife, Julie, and even Chet the doorman in danger. This is not a man who will stand for having his plans messed with, and he shows no bias in his will to kill off cops and civilians. Tchecky Karyo gives off a strong Alan Rickman/Hans Gruber vibe in a lot of ways. While he’s missing the sinister charm of the legendary Die Hard villain, he plays Fouchet with an almost calming demeanor that makes him seem like even more of a psychopath. When he sees Julie pointing a gun at him inside Club Hell, he doesn’t turn and run, he stares right at her with a smirk. Fouchet is a cold hearted killer, a criminal mastermind, and a perfect foil for Mike and Marcus.
Bad Boys is a movie that I could watch over and over. It’s fun and still feels fresh after all these years, and most of the jokes in the movie are still ones that could actually fly today despite our overly PC culture trying to destroy all of our entertainment. The action is exciting and a bit over the top, but it’s a far cry from what Michael Bay showed us what he was capable of in later years. Bad Boys is a throwback film that feels like a throwback film, because looking back on it as a product of the 90’s is a reminder that in 1995, this felt almost like an 80’s movie. To me, that shows just how timeless it is. Who would have ever thought that a movie that continues to entertain generation after generation as much as it did when it was first released would be a movie where Martin Lawrence talks about waking up on his couch with a Power Ranger figure stuck up his ass?
The success of Bad Boys spawned a sequel that, while entertaining, was a bit too over the top and lacked the charm of the first. Almost everyone in that film was a caricature, and although it was quotable and delivered as far as both comedy and action were concerned, it doesn’t compare to the original. The first Bad Boys is streaming now on Netflix, and can be found easily on various media formats and cable channels. It’s one of those movies that always seems to be playing somewhere, and that’s a testament to how many people would agree with my assessment of it. There’s a reason a movie like Bad Boys is kept in rotation, while something like Blackbelt II is not. Many of you reading this may have already seen it, and maybe this will make you check it out again. For me, it’s one of those movies that never gets old, the jokes are still funny, and the action is still entertaining. If you need a distraction for a couple of hours, or even some background noise on a Saturday afternoon, you don’t get much better than Bad Boys.
