Bad Boys
Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment   -   1995   -   119 minutes

Reviewed by Jacob van Lingen

Review Date: December 5, 2003

FOR STARTERS

PHOTO GALLERY "Bad Boys, Bad Boys, Whatcha Gonna do?"

A 140 million dollar box office draw that was almost never made, Bad Boys pairs Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in each of their first on-screen film roles. A movie about two Miami police officers trying to catch a group of thieves who have stolen a large stash of heroin directly from a police station, this movie was originally supposed to star Dana Carvey and John Lovitz. When Will Smith and Martin Lawrence were cast in the leading roles instead, the movie took off--as did their careers.

After an elaborate scheme to steal the mentioned stash of heroin from a Miami police station, it is up to Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) to try and get it back before a media frenzy erupts. From the beginning, Mike and Marcus, along with Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano), are being pressured to crack the case by Alison Sinclair (CSI�s Marg Helgenberger).

When Mike�s friend and informant is killed by this group of bad guys, Mike takes it personally and is all the more curious as to who is behind this. When a witness to the murder, Julie Mott (T�a Leoni) calls, she insists on only talking to Mike. However, Mike is not around, so Marcus is forced into pretending he is Mike. This leads to many funny scenes not just early, but throughout the movie.

In the process of solving this crime, and keeping their only witness alive, Mike and Marcus get themselves into all sorts of trouble on their way to getting to the bad guys. From hijacking an Ice Cream truck filled with highly flammable ether and practically blowing up a bridge to racing a Porsche down a runway and blowing up an airplane hanger, Bad Boys will keep the both the part of you who likes comedy and the part of you who likes action entertained.

VIDEO

While not being an outstanding visual marvel, Bad Boys has decent video quality throughout. Most of scenes were properly lit and were not too dark or too light. There were a couple scenes where they used a little too much smoke, but this movie being shot on a tight budget, and it being Michael Bay�s first film, it was to be expected. Overall though, the video quality was quite good, with little to no compression artifacts evident in this 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer.

AUDIO

If you need to run any tests on your subwoofer any time soon, this is the movie to do it with. From the soundtrack to the explosions, your subwoofer will be booming throughout this movie. Presented in Dolby Digital 5.1, Bad Boys is definitely one that will wake up the neighbors. There is decent left and right separation, with strong support from the surround speakers throughout. Also, if you�re looking for subtitles, this movie has 7 different languages available. One audio option I found really cool was the �Isolated Music Score� option, which allows you to watch the movie with only the background music. While this won�t help you catch much of the plot, it is an interesting look at the movie. The film�s director, Michael Bay, also includes a commentary track that gives some interesting insight into the movie. However, after watching about half the movie with it on, it got old, so I turned it off.

SUPPLEMENTS

This movie offers a fair amount of supplements in addition to the audio supplements already described. There is a 23 minute featurette, �The Boom & Bang of Bad Boys�, which describes the behind the scenes work necessary to create many of the special effects seen in the movie. While repetitive, it was an interesting piece. Also included on this disc are several music videos from the movie, as well as the theatrical trailer for not only Bad Boys, but two other Columbia TriStar Home Video titles: Blue Streak and Men In Black. There is a section devoted to the stars and cast of the film, which includes bios and pictures of Will Smith, Michael Bay, Martin Lawrence, T�a Leoni, and Mike Meinardus (Special Effects Coordinator). While not filling endless hours of time after watching the movie, there is actually a heaping teaspoon of supplements on this disc.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

While not top 10 material, this movie will definitely keep you entertained for two hours. A combination of action and comedy makes this movie one to add to your collection.