Arguably the biggest hit of my time working as a projectionist in 1995 was Bad Boys; the debut of a music video director; starring, in the three lead roles - as two mismatched Miami cops & the witness they're protecting - a comedian with only a handful of TV credits to his name, a singer whose prior acting experience was pretty much playing himself in a long-running sitcom, and a relative newcomer with only a few supporting roles & TV credits to her name, who'd also starred in her own sitcom, albeit with significantly less success & longevity than her co-star.
The video director was Michael Bay, and the film's stars: Martin Lawrence, Will Smith & Téa Leoni. All of whom would go on to do very well for themselves after this.
Watching this again, it's remarkable to think that, aside from 1993's Six Degrees of Separation, this was Will Smith's breakout role after The Fresh Prince of Bel Air; it just seems like he's been around for a lot longer.
The films opens with shots of Miami, all tinged in orange for some reason (see the poster above for an example, or any episode of CSI: Miami, for that matter, also perpetually tinged in orange).
We see a Porsche 911 (Michael Bay's own car, trivia fans) speeding along conveniently empty roads, while another car follows.
Inside the car we meet Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) and Mike Lowrey (Smith), bickering at each other, and not for the last time. Burnett has a burger & fries, and Lowrey, whose Porsche this is, is none too impressed at the prospect of having food spilled on his upholstery.
Burnett drops a handful of fries by the handbrake, causing Lowrey to pull over for yet more bickering about the lack of cup-holders etc. in such an expensive car.
This all serves to give us an introduction into the relative personas of our two heroes: one the flashy single man, the other the slobby family man.
Meanwhile the car behind pulls over too, and a leggy girl is pushed out with instructions to walk around the Porsche.
Having seen a few of Michael Bay's films in my time I've come to realise that he has a signature shot, which he even includes in films that are ostensibly aimed at kids, like his Transformers movies: the camera tracks a girl, usually wearing a mini-skirt, always with long legs, at just above ground level, for much, much longer than is absolutely necessary.
As Lowrey is distracted by the girl, and Burnett remains distracted trying to retrieve his fries, two carjackers appear at the Porsche's windows with guns.
Here's the first of a few scenes in which Burnett & Lowrey use their continual bickering to do some distraction themselves, and to show to the audience what a well-drilled partnership they are.
As they step out of the car they continue their argument long enough to pull out their own weapons, announce that they're cops & overpower their significantly larger assailants.
Cue the credits.
There are more shots of an orange-hued Miami, I guess it's meant to look moody or atmospheric, but only succeeds in making the city look like Sydney during bushfire season.
We cut to a truck driving through the city streets at night, inside are a gang of villainous types, one of whom is dressed in a police uniform and who announces that his role is that of the decoy.
The lead villain, who we'll come to learn much later in the film, is a Frenchman named Fouchet, shoots him, causing him to fall out of the back of the truck into the street.
Fouchet then places a call to 911 about a cop being shot, causing a city-wide manhunt by all police resources.
Fouchet & his gang arrive at a near-empty Police HQ and break in. We see lots of shots of the team scurrying down tunnels, knocking out CCTV cameras, drugging the one elderly cop remaining, until they get to their target: a massive haul of foil-wrapped bricks of heroin.
Using an elaborate & fast paced trolley device in the ventilation system they load all of the heroin and drop it into the waiting truck outside, before making their own escape via the same method. Meanwhile, the truck driver grabs a brick for himself and stashes it in his bag. You know that this won't end well for him...
The next morning Burnett is at home with his wife, Theresa, and three young children, when Lowrey arrives to collect him for work. A call comes in for them to get to the precinct. Isn't that where they were going anyway?
As the duo walk into the precinct we meet the flustered secretary, Marilyn Monroe-a-like Francine, who has an unrequited Moneypenny-style crush on Lowrey; and the foul-mouthed, perma-angry Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano, from pretty much every TV show & film you've ever seen. The omnipresent Pantoliano was in another film that came out during my few months as a projectionist: Congo)
Howard explains to Burnett & Lowrey that the haul of heroin, the "career-making" heist they had been responsible for, has been stolen from the precinct and they have no leads as everyone was out chasing the rogue cop-killer.
Alison Sinclair from Internal Affairs arrives (Marg Helgenberger, 8 years before she would star as Catherine Willows in the long-running TV show CSI), it's clear she & Howard have history and she antagonises him further by stating the robbery has to have been an inside job.
Burnett : [to Sanchez and Ruiz] Where were y'all last night?
Lowrey : Yeah, why don't you just tell your cousins to bring the shit back?
Sanchez : Yeah we tried to, but you know what? We came up with a problem; your mama snorted it up!
Why is everyone in this film so argumentative?
Why is everyone in this film so argumentative?
Howard explains (shouts) that they have roughly 72 hours to find who did the heist before they're accused of involvement and the department is shut down. There doesn't seem to be any justification in announcing this deadline, other than a throwaway "you know how it is" comment from Howard.
Sanchez & Ruiz are tasked with finding out who installed the precinct's ventilation system, while Burnett & Lowrey go to speak to a few contacts. First up is Jojo, a reformed former drug dealer/cook now running a tyre dealership, played by a young Michael Imperioli. Next is a visit to a boxing gym where Lowrey speaks to his ex-girlfriend, and escort, Maxine. Lowrey asks "Max" to keep an eye out for any newly-rich, drug-dealing types, which she agrees to do. Meanwhile Burnett plays around with gym equipment, revealing himself to be out-of-shape & incapable of lifting weights.
So, with that onerous task done, having spoken to just one ex-drug dealer & one of Lowrey's ex-girlfriends, our pair get the call to make their way to the home of the ventilation system installer instead.
Remember, this was meant to be Sanchez and Ruiz's job, it appears that their role stops at getting an address.
The pair arrive at a giant mansion, in what I suppose to be one of the more expensive areas of Miami, to find the door open, so enter, with their guns out. Inside they find the decomposing, long-dead body of the ventilation system installer, lying across a desk.
Burnett wants to call in the homicide department, but Lowrey starts to look through the various files on the desk, and through the pockets of the corpse. It's interesting to note that a seasoned police officer sees fit to do this without first donning a pair of gloves, and with no thought of how his actions may interfere with a crime scene. Marg Helgenberger would be appalled.
Lowrey discovers that the ventilation installer had gambling debts and had received a massive payment recently, which it's presumed was a pay-off for the plans to the system his company installed at the precinct. It's also then deduced that he couldn't be trusted to keep quiet so was killed.
Having tampered with a crime scene, and presumably implicated themselves in a murder, Burnett & Lowrey return to the precinct. On the way they discuss Burnett's slow driving (this is relevant for later), his car (a Volvo, also relevant for later), how the two have known each other for years, and how Lowrey has inherited family money (so we know that his riches haven't come from nefarious means - he's wealthy, but an honest & hard-working cop).
We also get a brief burst of the two of them singing the song that lends its name to the film's title: Inner Circle's Bad Boys. In a nice twist Will Smith sings it badly; this is not a film, like so many of his later ones, in which Smith appears on the soundtrack, like a more credible Dennis Waterman.
We cut to a Madam, Lois, running an escort agency from her bedroom, taking calls from clients while Max, Lowrey's ex from the gym, lounges on the bed. Max asks if there have been any newly-rich clients on the scene, and of course, there is.
Lois explains that someone has been wanting to procure two girls, and asks if Max would be interested. She could even take her flatmate Julie whom she knows needs money. Max explains that Julie "isn't a working girl", but is convinced when Lois tells her it would be $2K for one night's work, and besides "he's so off his face he probably can't get it up".
Anyone else hearing alarm bells here? You'd be right to.
Max & Julie (the aforementioned Téa Leoni) walk to the client's hotel, discussing Julie's situation as an out-of-work photographer, and how they're doing this as a favour for Mike, the cop that Max "is secretly in love with, and who might secretly be in love with [Max]".It's not made clear why Max doesn't call this in to Lowrey, but decides to embroil herself and her best friend in what could be a perilous situation instead.
They enter the client's hotel suite, and it's Eddie, the driver from the heist, who has made a start ingesting the brick of heroin he snaffled from the van earlier.
Seeing the state of him Julie makes her excuses and leaves to go to the bathroom. While she's away Fouchet and the rest of the gang enter the suite, Fouchet spots the brick & is angry. Julie watches from a mezzanine as Fouchet shoots Max in the back, in all-too-explicit slo-mo, and knee-caps Eddie.
Eddie pleads for his life, explaining that it was him who got Fouchet "connected" on the inside, but to no avail as he's shot multiple times by the gang.
Julie is spotted by the gang and runs, making her escape across the rooftop & jumping into the hotel pool many stories below. A nice homage to Lana Woods similar stunt in one of my favourite films, Diamonds Are Forever.
Fouchet tells his men to find out who she is, and who she works for.
Later, Burnett & Lowrey arrive at the hotel to investigate, alongside a host of other cops. They recognise Eddie, he's an ex-cop, fired for being on the take, and they see that the remains of the heroin brick are still on the table. You'd think a gang of hardened criminals, looking to tidy up every loose end, would've cleaned that up; but no.
There's some neat detective work as someone spots two shades of lipstick on separate glasses. There was another girl here, and judging by the bullet holes around the walls the crooks had spotted her as she made her getaway.
Lowrey then sees that the other dead body in the room is Max, causing him to get angry & upset, and to race off to Lois's house, guessing, rightly as it turns out, that she could be danger. As we cut to a shot of Lois in her house we see her power get cut off...
Burnett is at the precinct with Captain "Shouty" Howard, as the pair of them try to work out who Eddie went to work for after he was fired from the police. Meanwhile Lowrey, again disregarding proper police protocol, arrives as Lois's house alone, to find it in darkness, with blood on the floor. He calls it in, following protocol at last, but as he does so he's thrown through a window by Fouchet's gang. In slo-mo, of course, this is a Michael Bay film, after all.
Back at the precinct Howard answers a call on Lowrey's phone, it's Julie, but she'll only speak to Lowrey. Burnett is convinced by Howard to take the call in Lowrey's absence, posing as Lowrey - "Mike Lowwwwrey" - and arranges to meet her at her & Max's apartment. And so begins the farcical escapade where the two have to pretend to be each other.
To be honest, there are a lot of comments about how different the two leads dress in this film, but I struggled to see much of a difference in their respective styles. Maybe that was the point.
As Julie & Burnett-as-Lowrey quarrel Fouchet's men arrive & open fire, having obviously got the address from Lois prior to killing her. Burnett returns fire, killing one of the gang, and they, together with Julie's two dogs, manage to make a getaway in his car. Cue more banter as Julie suggests that the aforementioned Volvo, with a baby-seat, is not what she imagined Lowrey to drive. He explains it by saying he's been working undercover as a family man.
Julie tells Burnett-as-Lowrey that she refuses to go into protective custody, as she doesn't trust the police after meeting Eddie - incidentally, I don't recall anyone mentioning Eddie was a cop whilst she was there.
Julie says she'll only stay at Lowrey's apartment as Max trusted him. Remember, this is the same Max that got killed doing a favour for Lowrey.
Burnett takes Julie to Lowrey's apartment, and has to first bribe Chet, the doorman, into letting him in. Chet is another of the film's comic turns, a wannabe cop who failed the test, but is astute enough to deliver the line "Who's the chick? How's your wife?" upon seeing Burnett arrive with Julie.
Once in the apartment Burnett-as-Lowrey falls over a lot, and can't find basic stuff like light switches, leading Julie to again suspect that all is not as it seems.
Burnett-as-Lowrey leaves Julie alone in the apartment, and heads home, to a grilling from Theresa.
The next day, back at the precinct, a dazed & concussed Lowrey is briefed on the situation and the pair are told to maintain the ruse until they get who the people responsible. So far, all that Burnett has gleaned from Julie is that they're "making the drop in 4 days".
Burnett, with Lowrey, goes home, so he can tell Theresa that he is going to Cleveland on a case, and that Lowrey will be moving in while he is away. There's a vague explanation of him staying there for the safety of Burnett's family, but it's not immediately obvious why a man of independent wealth & means feels the need to stay at his friend's house while his is indisposed.
We next see Fouchet & his gang on a ship in the docks, it's here that they're adding a cutting agent to the drug to make it go further, or something. The chemist, a bespectacled student-type, with an overly laid back assistant, tells Fouchet that they need more cutting agent as it doesn't work as well in the damp conditions. Clearly a ship in docked in one of the most humid cities in the USA is the worst place for them to be.
Later that night Julie & Burnett-as-Lowrey are in Lowrey's apartment again. She asks who the man in all the photos is, as every photograph in the place is of Lowrey. Burnett says it's his partner, and having multiple photos of your partner is "a cop thing". This leads Julie to say that she thought he might be gay. And as day follows night, this inevitably leads to Burnett-as-Lowrey denying he's homosexual in the most emphatic terms.
The pair of them then go through some mug shots, and Julie recognises one of Fouchet's gang. It transpires he works in a nightclub, Club Hell, providing the detectives with their first lead.
The next day at the precinct Burnett & Lowrey are bickering about their respective situations, namely having to live each other's life, when Lowrey takes a call from Theresa. The pair flirt on the phone, much to Burnett's annoyance.
Lowrey & Francine, the precinct's nervy secretary from earlier, are attempting to read Eddie's file, but aren't able to as access is denied.
Burnett & Lowrey then return to Lowrey's apartment, still in character as each other, to collect a load of weapons and to inform Julie that they're going to Club Hell to arrest Fouchet's henchman. again, they duo discard with regular police protocol & make plans to go to the club on their own, no back-up, no uniforms, no warrant...
More farce ensues as Lowrey observes that Julie's dogs have crapped everywhere, including on his new rug. Then, another woman lets herself in & begins undressing. Burnett-as-Lowrey evicts her, much to her annoyance as she doesn't have any idea who he is (more suspicious glances from Julie) and causing Lowrey himself to get angry as he was onto a sure thing.
We cut to outside Club Hell, judging by the looks of the clientele it's the kind of club where only supermodels and Olympic athletes are allowed in, and, even then, only if they're partially clothed.
Waiting outside the club is a simpleton in a truck, and his boss, berating him for smoking, which allows him to explain that the truck is carrying highly flammable ether. This is the additional cutting agent that Fouchet's chemists wanted.
Back at Lowrey's apartment, Julie takes one of Lowrey's guns & points it at the computer screen, which Burnett has conveniently left switched on showing the henchman's mugshot, including details of his whereabouts, and bizarrely, also the details of a $18,000 reward for his arrest and a warning that he's armed & dangerous.
Even more bizarrely, in the next scene, Burnett & Lowrey discuss how the henchmen is on parole and working in the nightclub. Which is it, is he on parole or a wanted man?
Burnett & Lowrey enter the club, and we now get Michael Bay at his video-directing best. As Nine Inch Nails blast over the soundtrack, we see countless beautiful people dancing in slo-mo.
Lowrey positions himself at the bar, ostensibly to ogle a woman lounging, literally, on the bar, whose foot is all we see. Burnett, meanwhile, goes to the toilet. On the way there, and unbeknownst to him, he's spotted by Fouchet & his henchmen from an upstairs office overlooking the dancefloor, and recognised as the man who was in Julie & Max's apartment. Two thugs are dispatched to take him out while he's having a leak. One puts a plastic bag on his head, while the other punches him. Burnett proves himself more than capable in a fight though. This is the same man who floundered in a gym earlier, unable to lift any weights.
While Burnett is fighting off the two henchmen he desperately tries to get the attention of Lowrey, through the giant fishtank that doubles as the toilet wall, enabling club patrons & toilet-goers to watch each others activities. Lowrey, meanwhile, is still busying himself with a drink & the disembodied foot.
Burnett knocks out the two thugs, but in the melee the fishtank is destroyed, scattering water & fish everywhere.
It's worth mentioning here that, for an action film, Will Smith/Lowrey hasn't yet involved himself in any action. So far, Burnett & Julie have featured in more. Speaking of which...
Julie now enters the club, with Lowrey's handgun drawn & aims it at Fouchet & his henchmen, who watch as she does, from their office window. It's amazing how they're able to pick people out so easily in a packed nightclub.
Burnett & Lowrey spot Julie too, and race to stop her from shooting. She does get a shot off though, causing panic in the club.
Spotting that Fouchet's men are giving chase, the trio make their escape & Burnett commandeers the nearest available vehicle outside: the ether truck. I guess Lowrey's Porsche was parked just too far away.
Fouchet & his men have no such difficulty locating more suitable vehicles and chase the van, shooting as they go, and, in turn, being shot at by Lowrey.
Burnett is the first to notice the smell of the ether, so, during the chase, Lowrey & Julie throw the barrels out at the chasing cars, causing explosions and killing many of Fouchet's men, including their one lead, the henchman that Julie recognised from the mugshots.
With their lead gone, and Julie angry that Burnett-as-Lowrey seems unconcerned about avenging Max's death, the trio argue on a road bridge while a news helicopter films them from above.
The three then go to a convenience store, where their presence & their clearly visible weapons unnerves the store owner. Burnett & Lowrey discuss the ether & its use as a cutting agent in heroin. They agree that they need to speak again to Jojo, the reformed drug dealer/cook turned tyre fitter, and the only person the pair of them seem to know in Miami.
Meanwhile the store owner has convinced himself that he's about to be robbed, so pulls out his own gun & yells out "Freeze mutha-bitches!". Burnett & Lowrey do their bickering/diversion trick again, and confuse the store owner just enough to allow them to pull out their own weapons on him, and deliver the following infamous lines, which were apparently ad-libbed by Smith & Lawrence:
Mike Lowrey: Now back up, put the gun down, and get me a pack of Tropical Fruit Bubblicious.
Marcus Burnett: And some Skittles.
Time goes a little haywire here. Presumably the events at the club happened late at night, as the club was packed, then there was the car chase, which surely had repercussions & a cleanup operation, then the three must have to go back to the club's locale to collect Lowrey's Porsche, and then they have the stand-off at the convenience store.
It must be about 4 or 5am by now, but we still have time for more incident this evening.
Burnett-as-Lowrey & Julie are back in Lowrey's apartment. Julie is clearly working out what's going on, she's visibly flirting with an uncomfortable Burnett, and winding him up by suggesting that "Burnett's wife" is a lucky lady, spending every evening with a man like Lowrey-as-Burnett.
Wracked with jealousy Burnett calls home, to overhear Theresa and Lowrey giggling while they look through old photos. Again, it must be about 4am at least, and all four are up chatting to one another.
As Lowrey takes out a photo, and Theresa implores him to "put it back in", Burnett misunderstands, and, enraged, grabs Julie and drives to his house.
Back at Burnett's house Lowrey has spotted a car parked outside & places a call to Sanchez & Ruiz, who are on watch outside the house. Inside the car are two more of Fouchet's men (how many does he have?!), who observe Burnett arriving.
Burnett handcuffs Julie to the steering wheel (I'm not sure why, she came to them after all, and isn't a suspect), and sneaks up to the house to see what's going on. Yet more farce ensues as Lowrey mistakes him for one of the bad guys from the car & attacks him.
Again, Lowrey must be one of the most inept police officers in Miami. Rather than do the whole "Freeze! Armed police!" thing, he just launches himself at Burnett, with no idea of who he is, whether he's alone or with others, or if he's armed or not.
Burnett, believing that Lowrey has been sleeping with Theresa, fights back. In their car the two thugs watch the fight, joking about how they don't need to kill them if they're going to kill each other first. They're still laughing when Sanchez & Ruiz turn up and arrest them.
On the lawn, after their fight, Lowrey explains that he wouldn't do anything with Theresa, and the pair reconcile. There's some talk of how they've been friends all their lives too, since well before they both joined the police.
The next day at the precinct (actually probably only about 30 or 40 minutes after the longest night ever) Sinclair from IA is again arguing with Howard, and asking why records show that calls were made from there to Club Hell. Howard is now convinced they have a mole. But who?
Meanwhile Sanchez & Ruiz are doing some actual police work, interviewing the two thugs they arrested outside Burnett's house. They know little, apparently this was their first job, "Oh, so does that make you union?" asks Sanchez.
However the two do get a name: Fouchet. This is the first time the gang leader's name has been mentioned.
As per their earlier conversation Burnett & Lowrey go to visit Jojo the tyre fitter. Burnett again dispenses with the police handbook & pulls a gun on Jojo, threatening to kill him if he doesn't tell all that he knows about chemists who would cut heroin with ether.This is another of the two's tactics, but Jojo isn't to know that. Burnett leaves, making a show of being appalled and scared by Lowrey's temper & imploring Jojo to talk.
Jojo recalls the name of the chemist, and so the cops, with Julie (for some reason) keep watch outside his house, with Julie again handcuffed to the steering wheel. As the chemist leaves they follow him to the ship in the docks.
While the three of them watch the ship, from perhaps the most obvious viewing position they could find, they begin bickering again, with Julie again making suggestions that the two of them might be a couple. Meanwhile Fouchet is watching them from the ship's deck; in all honestly, he probably heard them squabbling too.
At Burnett's house one of his kids is watching the news, and sees the footage of his father on the bridge after the car chase of the previous evening. With Theresa now aware that Burnett is not in Cleveland she decides to go to the one place she'll suspects that he'll be, Lowrey's apartment, to confront him.
Back at Lowrey's apartment Julie finds a key to the handcuffs, and takes it, thinking, rightly, that she may need it if she's going to be handcuffed to a steering wheel again.
Burnett & Lowrey are busily bickering again, as Lowrey gets changed, when Theresa shows up. Julie lets her in, much to Theresa's annoyance: "I'm here to kill my husband Marcus"
"The short one or the tall one?"
"The short one" she replies
"Thought so", and so Julie finally gets the confirmation she's wanted that the two of them have switched places
Julie walks out as Theresa confronts Burnett, with a partially dressed Lowrey close behind him. Lowrey spots that Julie has left & races to stop her, while Burnett attempts to explain what's going on to Theresa.
Theresa storms off too, with Burnett continuing to explain as she does.
All four of them converge on the apartment lobby as Fouchet & his men arrive. There is an almighty shoot-out (again, in slo-mo) as Fouchet grabs Julie and makes a getaway. He, Julie & his men jump into a car and drive away, chased by Lowrey on foot.
Theresa, instantly realising that her husband has been on police business, not engaged in some kind of debauched threesome with his best friend & the strange woman in Lowrey's apartment, tells Burnett she loves him & makes him go after the bad guys.
Now we get one of those chase scenes where the belligerents race through different locations for comic effect, I remember the Dirty Harry films of the 70s doing this regularly. With Lowrey shooting at will on the streets Fouchet's driver crashes their car. They then continue to get away on foot: through a bikini photoshoot, through a hairdressing salon, out into the street, and steal a taxi.
Meanwhile, Burnett, with that second sense that cops in movies so often have, arrives from a different direction, just in time to jump onto the taxi's roof as it speeds away.
Fouchet's driver deliberately crashes the taxi, sending Burnett sprawling onto the street in front of them. As they rev up to finish him off Lowrey comes from the side to sweep him off the road.Fouchet and his men get away, with Julie; and Michael Bay gets his image of his two stars for the trailer: the pair of them on the street, shirts nearly off, in baggy 90s jeans, panting & sweating.
Here's where it all gets a bit confusing: Fouchet had no need or intention to kidnap Julie, all along he's been wanting to kill her, so why grab her in the lobby? Why even go to Lowrey's apartment at all? He'd have been better off keeping a low profile & quietly going about his business.
Anyhow, now that he has Julie he decides to use her as insurance, so places a call to the precinct, where everyone has assembled, telling them to keep away from him or he'll kill her.
To show he means business he tells them that he killed his chemist. OK... I'm not sure why he called in the first place, and why bother boasting about killing the chemist?
Sinclair is at the precinct too, telling Howard that she's shutting them down & re-assigning them all. While this is going on Burnett is with a computer hacker (former basketballer John Salley) accessing Eddie's file. The hacker can't understand what the issue is, as he's able to access the file without having to resort to any nefarious means: in it they see that Eddie had a girlfriend: Francine, the secretary. The team have found their mole.
Francine tearfully admits that it was her giving the information to Fouchet, but only because he & Eddie had taken explicit photos of her & threatened to post them on her children's school noticeboard.
Now that they know more about Fouchet & his operation Burnett puts in a call to one of his henchmen to triangulate his phone, and discover they're heading to a local airfield. Enrolling Sanchez & Ruiz as backup they go to the airfield too, as Howard calls in some favours & arranges SWAT teams, helicopters etc.
Fouchet is at the airfield, in a hangar, meeting up with a stereotype of a South American drug baron; Julie is once again handcuffed to the steering wheel of a car nearby. Fouchet and the drug baron discuss their deal, which will net Fouchet $90m, and watch as a car, an AC Cobra, is loaded onto the drug baron's plane with the huge quantity of drugs.
Suddenly a garbage truck bursts through the walls of the hangar. Suspecting a trap Fouchet kills the drug baron & a gunfight with the "garbagemen" ensues; it's Burnett, Lowrey, Sanchez & Ruiz. For no apparent reason Sanchez & Ruiz have decided to dress the part in overalls too.
In the confusion Julie uses the key she stole earlier to escape her handcuffs and sends the car she's in into a pile of ether barrels, causing them to explode.
There's a lot of gunfire, and we see what's left of Fouchet's seemingly limitless supply of men get killed; as Fouchet makes a getaway in the Cobra, pursued by Burnett (with Julie & Lowrey) in the Porsche, the hangar, and plane, explode.
This explosion was apparently at the insistence of Bay, who was so keen on the idea that he paid for it himself.
There's a brief Porsche v Cobra car chase along a runway, in which Burnett, urged on by Lowrey, surprised that his slow-driving friend can handle a car at speed, pushes Fouchet's car into a crash barrier at high speed. Fouchet is alive, but barely, and starts to stagger away as the Porsche comes to a halt & the three get out. Again, eschewing the traditional "Freeze!" stuff, Lowrey shoots him in the leg as he runs.
The three walk towards the villain as he lies prone on the ground. Lowrey makes to shoot him, wanting revenge for Max's death, but Burnett persuades him otherwise, giving it the "He's not worth it..." shtick.
As Lowrey lowers his gun Fouchet pulls out a pistol, Lowrey sees a glint of light from the barrel & shoots.
With Fouchet dead, and paramedics treating our heroes, Burnett once again handcuffs Julie, this time to Lowrey, and limps away, in the gunfight he took a bullet to his leg. There's further banter as Burnett tells them he's off home to his wife, and the implication that Julie & Lowrey should get together.
Unfortunately for Téa Leoni, this was to be her only appearance in the Bad Boys films; a shame, as her character Julie added a decent dynamic, and, I thought, lifted this film above most buddy-cop movies.
It might have been an idea for the character to return in the sequels, perhaps in a capacity as a CSI (she's an out-of-work photographer, remember?).
Watching the film again, and this was one of the few that I watched all the way through at the time, it strikes me that it's a really long slog, and summarising it here was hard work. It does not stop for breath at all. We cut from one scene to the next at an unrelenting pace, but strangely, compared to a film from, say, the Fast & Furious franchise, there's very little actual action.
There's also not much in the way of character building. Any backstory the characters may have is delivered in throwaway lines: we know Burnett & Lowrey have known each other since childhood, we know Lowrey has inherited wealth but always wanted to be a cop, we know Burnett married his childhood sweetheart and is a family man, we know that Julie is an out-of-work photographer, but that's pretty much it.
Sanchez & Ruiz are clearly the better cops, and it would've been interesting to see more of them & learned more of their characters, but we get so little of them.
We see that there's history between Howard & Sinclair, but nothing is made of that.
We know Lowrey is a ladies man because he has a history with Max, there's also the uninvited woman undressing in his apartment, and he'd rather ogle a woman in a club than assist his friend when he's being attacked, but there's precious little evidence of his reputation other than his word.
All in all, an entertaining action film (but, as mentioned before, Will Smith rarely gets involved in the action), but it's not without its flaws; and, not surprisingly, it does have the look of a music video director's first foray into cinema.
Something that did come to mind while I re-watched it: the multiplex where I worked had a couple of security staff, two lads from a local security firm that worked weekends & evenings, usually keeping an eye on the car park, and hovering around whenever anyone got loud or abusive to the other patrons or staff.
Often though, in their absence or when they had other incidents to deal with, I would be called upon, as one of the taller members of staff, to leave the projection booth to assist management in throwing out objectionable patrons. For some reason, this film seemed to attract more than its fair share of those, and I spent a fair few evenings loitering behind one of the managers as they attempted to placate or eject a few more-than-boisterous clientele.
I've no idea why this film, more than others, seemed to rile up audience members so much. Some might point to the excessive, glamourised violence on screen, or the constant wise-cracking, swearing, & banter, but Bad Boys seemed no worse in that regards than many other films before or since, and was not in the same league as one of the other few box office successes that summer (and topic of a future blog): Pulp Fiction.
FIN
