Review of Bad Boys 2

Introduction

Bad Boys nearly didn`t happen. It was a $10m dollar film, had a first time feature director, a somewhat unknown film cast in Smith and Lawrence, Don Simpson (one of the producers) thought the script stunk and wanted his name off the project, and Columbia Tristar didn`t seem to care either. It reached the point where director Michael Bay put up $25,000 of his own money to fund a shot that he wanted after the bean counter refused. $60m later it was time for sighs of relief. It looked like this buddy movie worked.

A sequel was bandied about but everyone was just too darn busy. Until 2002 when it was time to step into the breach and get it done. Multiply everything from the first film; explosions, wisecracks, moaning partners and make the film a bit longer. I think that`s all there is to the Bad Boys sequel recipe. It`s about drugs, again, this time imported Ecstasy and a Cuban drug dealer. The Miami bad boys are here to save the day again, how much damage can they do this time?

Video

Presented with a 2.40:1 widescreen enhanced transfer, Bad Boys II looks very good. Considering the film is about 2.5 hours long, the quality remains consistent all the way through with few signs of compression. The colours are sharp and slightly stylised by being over-saturated adding a very modern crisp feel. Detail too is good.

Audio

There`s just an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack here and I have to say that it`s very impressive. Car chases are loud with sound coming at you from all around while bullets make you feel immersed in the action. I couldn`t stop grinning all the way through. I was constantly reminded that this is an action film and this is the way surround sound should sound. The cobwebs will be blown off the sub-bass too! I guess it`s only a matter of time before a Superbit version comes along with a high-rate DTS track.

Features

Easy to navigate animated menus with just the film and a few trailers on disc one. There`s a whole load more stuff on disc two. At 2.5 hours long, the film itself doesn`t leave any room for more than a few trailers, plus there`s no audio commentary. With all the extras that are packaged on disc two however, I think a commentary would be a little redundant.

Disc One:
• Trailers (widescreen enhanced) - Bad Boys II and a whole load of others.

The film and trailers have English and Dutch subtitles.


Disc Two:
• Deleted Scenes (widescreen enhanced) - Seven deleted scenes: Group Therapy, Mike and Mara, Arriving at the Haitians` House, First Scene at Phat`s, Talking About Mama`s House, Hit on Dog and Fake Funeral. It`s good to see the scenes here as it adds a little more to the film and it`s better this way than re-inserted. There`s a reason why these remain deleted however.

• Featurettes: Stunts (9:29) and Visual Effects (18:38). There are tonnes of stunts in the film so only three are covered here in Stunts; the Causeway, the shantytown and the mansion. Visual Effects covers storyboards, animatics, raw dailies and more for a lot of the scenes in the film. I found it quite interesting and at almost 20-minutes it`s an informative extra. It`s a shame that both these featurettes are so short as they`re good at giving a taste of the work involved. I could do with more of this kind of stuff.

• Music Video (La-La-La by Jay Z) (3:52) - A fullscreen music video from Jay Z of course!

• Sequence Breakdowns: Macarthur Causeway, Ice Van Chase, Monorail Fight, 5 Man Ratchet, Tapia`s Mansion and Shanty Town. There`s a phenomenal amount of footage and information for each of these scenes. First you can view the scene from the film, then you can view on the set footage, view storyboards and read the script. It`s well produced and is something I found myself digging into.

• Production Diaries: Genesis (5:45), Training Days (2:21), Swamp (6:14), Night Club (2:44), Intersection Shootout (7:52), Get In My Office! (2:18), Hugs and Kisses (3:25), Poolside (3:00), Jordi Molla (3:11), First Date (2:42), Crime Lab (1:49), Captain`s House (2:25), A Couple of Cameos (2:29), Train Dodging (3:00), Joey Pants (1:52), The Russian is Coming (3:32), Home Invasion (5:41), Bringing Down the House (3:51), Shanty Town (3:00). A `Play All` would have been nice for these 19 itty-bitty extras. These are mere behind-the-scenes featurettes. If you liked the film and you`ve come this far into the extras, then you`ll enjoy these for what they are, just nice little fluffy extras.

All extras have English, Dutch and Italian subtitles. Bad Boys II is packaged in slim 2-disc DVD keep case.

Conclusion

As mindless over-the-top action films go, this is very good. You immediately know what to expect from Michael Bay, though sometimes I suspect he likes to torture us with long films. As far as sequels go, Bad Boys II delivers more than enough punch, character and gloss so if you enjoyed the first you`re bound to enjoy this. There are stunts aplenty with some truly eye opening ones at that. The action film scripting delivers, although sometimes Martin Lawrence`s continued whining grates, but the pace manages to keep the film moving. Excellent sound, very good picture quality and a lot of extras on the second disc make this a worthy purchase for your action collection.