10 Things You Didn’t Know About Bad Boys

I am glad that Bad Boys franchise has come back so successfully because I find the original to be highly entertaining. Bad Boys and the sequels are fun action movies that suit Will Smith and Martin Lawrence to a T. It is hard to imagine anyone other than Will Smith as Mike Lowery and Martin Lawrence as Marcus Burnett and surely they were always the first choices (spoiler alert, they were not). I have seen the movies numerous times, so I decided to watch the Bad Boys Special Edition DVD with commentary by director Michael Bay (in his feature film directorial debut). I found out some things I didn’t know. Ten things in fact. Whatcha gonna do? How about checking out the 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Bad Boys and let me know if they are new to you.

1. The opening carjacking scene was taken from real police stories of carjackings and was added after the test screenings. Since all the money was gone at that point Michael Bay proffered his personal Porsche for filming. Michael Bay’s mother did not like all the swearing in the scene. Nor did she like her least favorite scene, the bathroom fight where a man gets his head dunked in a urinal. Don’t worry, Michael Bay’s mom, it was just Gatorade and Coca-Cola made to look like urine.

2. If you see a lot of fast cuts partly they were used to give Bad Boys an edgy feel, but mainly it was because the budget was cheap the cuts don’t allow you to linger on the chintzy sets.

3. Like I mentioned, it is hard to imagine Bad Boys without Smith and Lawrence, but the script was originally written for Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz.

4. The original script being written for the former SNL stars was, in Bay’s words, “too white and… filled with so many holes.” Unsurprisingly, Smith and Lawrence interjected the films with a lot of improv that makes the film fun.

5. One such improvisational scene features Mike calling Marcus a bitch. And like any normal person, Lawrence did not like to be called that, which is exactly why Bay tried to get Smith to say it and have the cameras rolling.

6. Want to see a mistake in Bad Boys? All the smoke in Mike’s apartment was not supposed to be there and was due to a novice Florida effects department. Bay was forced to add a line about incense to explain the haze. Try watching Bad Boys now without noticing all that smoke.

7. Michael Bay paid $25,000 of his own money to film the explosion in the airplane during the finale because it was going to be cut due to the budget. He eventually got repaid (sans interest) after the film made over $60,000,000.

8. The foot chase in Miami was shot all in one day with Bay operating the camera in several shots, including one which he had to bail on because a car got a little too close for comfort.

9. Surprisingly, Michael Bay is not a fan of the car chase and explosions. Not because he doesn’t like those things, but because the budget wouldn’t allow him to go bigger. Be on the lookout for the safety cables on the exploding car that they couldn’t afford to digitally remove.

10. The final chase with the Cobra on the runway features way too many up close shots and no wide shots of the car because they damaged the car on the first take and couldn’t get another one for a few days so instead of waiting, Bay just shot closeups until the replacement arrived.