The Scene
A few years ago I noticed that audiences in different parts of a city can react to the same movie with varying degrees of emotional intensity. A big laugh at one place can get dead silence in another. Let us use Linden Boulevard Multiplex as an example; for those of you not familiar with the place, it's on a busy eight lane commercial street, right across from the projects.
As a matter of fact, there's a Chinese restaurant outside the main parking lot. This place is so entrenched into the neighborhood that they play hip-hop and one time I was in there I saw this guy walk behind the counter to use the phone like it was all good. He might have worked there. The worker/owners didn't give a damn either way, they were damn near high fiving everyone that came in; mad friendly. It was a strange sight, welcome, but strange.
These restaurants usually have six inches worth of bulletproof plastic between them and a pack of customers demanding that they empty the hot sauce bottle on that one chicken wing. Then the worker bags up the food, staples it and slides your pork fried rice wildly through a small tunnel... Catch. I'm exaggerating, but you know what I'm talking about.
Linden Multiplex.. yes, I'm off track.. not that people who see movies there are any different from other places in the city, but it might be the comfortable feeling of being home, or near it, that loosens people up. I saw Bad Boys II twice this weekend: once on 42nd street, my normal spot, and then on Linden, my old spot.
For once, the audience in the city was more hype than on Linden. Which trashes my whole theory.. but what's this.. ahh, evidence. The scene in the movie where Martin and Will are talking like gay lovers in the TV room at electronics world, the place transformed into a scene from early Def Comedy Jam. People were spilling popcorn, getting out of their seats, tossing napkins, one chick had her left leg in the air and was slapping her date's shoulder to keep balance. It was a lovely scene representing pure unadulterated appreciation of comedy.
That was about the only time, the place felt better than forty deuce.
What They Say
"Bad Boys II is enough to make a young person feel old, and an old person stop going to the movies." - Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News
"If Bad Boys II had a secondary title, it would be Hurl Harbor; it's that sickening"- Jeff Vice, Desert News, Salt Lake City
"Just when you thought summer movies couldn't get any louder, more violent, more intentionally brainless -- and, worst of all, any longer -- here comes Bad Boys II, its chest all pumped up with the pure pointlessness of it all… This may be one movie where it actually pays to be the corpse."- Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press
"There's enough rampaging adrenaline in Bad Boys II to signal an oncoming heart attack. It's wildly cynical, tasteless, drenched in too-lovingly rendered violence, indefensibly sexist and jingoistic.
.. I can't wait to see it again."- Colin Cobert, Star Tribune
"..Director Michael Bay, as critics long have suspected, is the devil -- and why the overblown orgy of gunfire and crumpled cars called Bad Boys II is the spawn of Satan."- Sean Means, The Salt Lake Tribune
"Boys moves with such assuredness, speed and lack of lofty goals, that to criticize it would be like spanking your toddler for saying a naughty word at a dinner party. Was it too loud? Maybe. Inappropriate? Probably. But your soul must be dead if you didn't enjoy it." - James Hill, BET.com
My Opinion
I'll ignore the negative reviews, the comment by James Hill pretty much summed up my feelings. I'll go one step further though and say this is the best movie of the summer. Up to this point, nothing has been more fun to watch, had me laughing, took unexpected twists, or has looked better than Bad Boys II.
The first ten minutes of it are kinda hard to get into, reason being, I was expecting so much. I mean, it's Will Smith, it's Martin Lawrence and this is the sequel. The last movie was decent enough for a sequel, so the anticipation to continue where that left off - same laughs, same quality - is on from the minute they hit the screen.
And when they do, I'm ready, "Okay, I'm here. We're all here.. be funny." But the whole Ku Klux Klan setup and the one Klan guy saying he's got his rights.. it just felt forced and Will Smith's tough guy talk is so uncharacteristic of him it took some getting used to.
What you do get from that scene is a nice Matrix style sequence where Will shoots Martin in the ass and a Klan member in the neck. Now that was funny as hell. And the way the guy gets hit in the neck, is unexpectedly gory with similar splatter shots throughout the flick. Nice.
If there is one thing that makes this movie stands out it's the action sequences. There are plenty and plenty and plenty of gun shots and car chases, like Martin said, "We're gonna set the record for the number of gun fights in a week."
Thankfully those action scenes aren't computer enhanced ala Matrix Reloaded which was basically a video game. Computers were definitely used but it wasn't as obvious, the director used fast camera motion and cuts to hype things up. One of the best uses of the camera was the shootout at the blond dreds house where the camera swiveled back and forth between rooms. Then there's the car chase on the freeway where the cars are being "thrown" at them. Unrealistic? Yes, but it was fun to watch, especially the second time.
All those crashes, gun bucking and explosions honestly wore me out. After awhile it'll have you saying.. "whosawww." So when the movie slows down to actually having dialogue and dumb jokes that it becomes what you expect in the way of fun. If we're talking real life, I think Martin would be considered the "bad guy" and Will would be the nicey nice one. Put them on screen taking on the opposite of their perceived personalities and you have a perfect combination, peanut butter and syrup baby. That's good, trust me.
The funniest scenes: The electronics store, the chief of police, "Ludacris" at the door, and best of all.. Martin on Ecstasy. That was absolutely classic.
And I can't forget Gabrielle Union. Not only is she one sexy ass saucydame *wink* She was repping the Tupac "Me and My Girlfriend" thing to the fullest when she's driving the black jeep with one door knocked off, and busting guns in a white pant suit and rocking a ponytail. How's that for contrast?
I'lljust about empty the pump on this one.. four squirts on the butter meter.
- CG
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