Bad Boys II: The Return Of Michael Bay

Ghostboy · July 18, 2003, 02:50:09 AM

I hope there's not already a topic for this because I forgot to look. Anyway, I just got out of it. The good news is, it's a hard-R action move in which stuff gets blowed up real good and real impressively and real frequently. Also, it has two funny guys in it. And the violence is satisfying if you were disappointed by the pussy-footing sense of agression in The Matrix 2 or Terminator 3.

The bad news is that it's two and a half hours freakin' long, and while it never really gets boring, it does have a way of bludgeoning you into having a good time, so that it's fun while it lasts but you sort of have a killer headache afterwards. The movie has all the grace of a hummer smashing through a house, which actually happens multiple times in the movie (among other unwiedly vehicle-building couplings).

So basically, it's a Michael Bay movie. Thankfully, he's eschewed the sentimentality and emotional bombast of Armageddon and Pearl Harbor and replaced it with grisly humor and more action. Predictably, he has yet to open a dictionary and learn the meaning of, much less visibly employ in his direction, subtlety. Not that I was expecting it. Ultimately, this movie is trashy and awful, but I guess I enjoyed it. In the way that you enjoy something after you manage to forget that Bruckheimer and Bay practically have guns to your head forcing you to enjoy it.

A word on the car chase(s)...I think Jerry Bruckheimer was purposely trying to one-up Joel Silver. The Matrix Reloaded car chase was much longer and more involved, and had a clear geographic scope to it (due, of course, to the custom built highway). The ones here, though, are far more visceral, intense, (hard to follow) and crazy, mainly because you get the sense that they were doing a lot of that crap for real. Which they were.

oakmanc234 · July 18, 2003, 03:16:43 AM

I can't wait for this one. Is it true that there's a gun fight all in one shot?

Ghostboy · July 18, 2003, 03:29:31 AM

Yeah, to an extent. You might have seen a bit of it in the first trailer...Will Smith on one side of the wall, the bad guys on the other, and the camera circling around the two rooms. Thanks to some CGI-window panes and clever editing, the single shot lasts (or appears to last) for a good while, but it doesn't last for the whole gunfight. It's a pretty good scene. The whole movie is full of really good scenes, actually. There's just too darn many of them.

Sal · July 18, 2003, 05:52:48 AM

Heh, I agree. I came out of it holding my head. It was very entertaining though and a good time had by all. And the trailers were also fantastic. Good to see TCM and Once Upon A Time In Mexico. Hooo am I excited.

markums2k · July 18, 2003, 07:55:32 AM

You know, I wasn't gonna see it, but now I am. Thanks, Ghostboy! The long runtime is a strength in my mind. I like to get lots of bang for my buck, even if it makes my head hurt. There's lots of 80 minute movies that make my head hurt too.

And seeing as I actually own the Pearl Harbor 4-disc DVD set...

I suppose it was only inevitable that I eventually see the new Bad Boys. Bad Boys. Whatcha gonna do?

cinemanarchist · July 18, 2003, 05:51:37 PM

Just got back and I don't know how I feel about this film. I was fucking loving it at first then it was like the first few minutes were just replaying over and over. It almost got amusing because Smith and Laurence just kind of ran out of shit to say during the countless car chases and started to repeat themselves. I will say that films like this make me appreciate filmmakers like PTA even more. It is so damn hard to create a film that is great to look at, and that has some sort of emotional resonance. I know this is a buddy cop film, but if you want me to enjoy two and a half hours, there better be something to fucking care about...not just explosions. Interested to hear how everyone else reacts...and man that tcm trailer is nuts...I want to know who cut that because you can almost guarantee that it's going to be ten times better than the actual film.

modage · July 18, 2003, 08:24:37 PM

i'm preparing to be bludgeoned. i am going to go see this and lxg on wednesday to see what i think.

jokerspath · July 21, 2003, 10:19:09 AM

I suprised myself by seeing this. Holy shit, it was violent.

Was anybody else a bit overwhelmed with some of the violence in this? Not that I'm complaining...

aw

TheVoiceOfNick · July 23, 2003, 10:17:39 AM

I got back from seeing this last night, and I had to do a little write up on it... yes its EXTREMELY VIOLENT... yes its EXTREMELY GORY... it has some of the best car chases i've seen in a long time... they must have destroyed 50 cars in the movie, but to make the movie i bet it was 5 times that many cars... i think this movie has more rounds fired in it than any other movie i've ever seen.

There were a lot of shots that seemed Fincher-esque... the scene with the gunfight through the doors was mentioned... there were many others that were very long... like going through entire passage ways, walls, pipes, whatever... I really enjoyed that because I love these shots.

My only complaint is that it seemed very episodic, and there were like 5 climaxes where they could have ended the movie easily, but decided to do another climax... each climax building more than the previous one. Other than that, I thought it was a great action/adventure movie... don't go into this expecting PDL, and you'll be sure to love it.

Nick

pete · July 23, 2003, 10:54:23 AM

to watch a great gun fight all in one shot check out that 2 minutes and 42 seconds tracking shot in hard boiled--well it's actually 2 shots with a dissolve thrown in there, but you can't tell.

modage · July 23, 2003, 07:48:57 PM

some things i appreciate about this movie...

-bay is one of the few directors who still likes to blow shit up. LOTS OF SHIT. in an age when everyone is concerned about the budget, and being practical. bay is one of the few directors who will still wreck as much stuff as possible. when everyone else is pussing out and using CGI, this is something i can really appreciate.

-this movie was violent. really violent. and come to think of it, i can hardly remember i saw this kind of stuff in the theatre. but in the 80s, it was all about showing the bad guy get one in the head. because it was cool. another thing everyone has been pussing out about. SHOWING US the damage. what happened to movies like robocop? total recall? paul verhoven ultraviolence? actually most action movies in the 80s had that kind of stuff. segall, van damme, stallone, schwarzenegger. this is the stuff i grew up on. and i kind of miss it.

-i think that the movie can be best represented by one of the last scenes of the druglord getting killed. he doesnt JUST get shot in the head. he get shot in the head in slow motion as his body falls on a landmine and blows off the entire top half of his body. in most movies, the bullet would suffice. but not in a bay flick. he's going all out, and giving us our moneys worth. if this sounds cool to you, than this is your movie. the whole production is brimming with this kind of excess.

Ravi · July 23, 2003, 08:47:40 PM

You are kind of making me want to see it, themodernage02. And I hate you for it.

Cecil · July 23, 2003, 08:59:08 PM

you should go see it

Pubrick · July 24, 2003, 12:13:45 AM

Quote from: themodernage02-i think that the movie can be best represented by one of the last scenes of the druglord getting killed. he doesnt JUST get shot in the head. he get shot in the head in slow motion as his body falls on a landmine and blows off the entire top half of his body. in most movies, the bullet would suffice. but not in a bay flick. he's going all out, and giving us our moneys worth. if this sounds cool to you, than this is your movie. the whole production is brimming with this kind of excess.

hahah, i liked the first one.. and i guess now i can get over the absence of a hot white chick in this one.

©brad · July 24, 2003, 09:21:47 AM

yikes. read ebert's review.

Bad Boys II: The Return Of Michael Bay

Cecil