Michael Bay is the living, breathing definition of cinematic excess, with almost his entire filmography taking a kitchen sink approach to both its narrative subtlety and explosive action sequences. Despite being in the game for almost 30 years, though, nothing encapsulates his bespoke approach better than Bad Boys II.
At 147 minutes it dramatically overstays its welcome by at least half an hour, there’s a body count so high it beggars belief, enough pyrotechnic set pieces to fill at least three smaller movies, dialogue and banter that’s questionable at the best of times, and the encroaching sense that maybe there’s such a thing as too many shootouts, car chases, and bullet-riddled carnage for a solitary feature.
That being said, genre junkies have a very soft spot for Bad Boys II, which is understandable when it ticks far too many boxes in terms of wall-to-wall chaos. It’s the ultimate example of Bayhem that remains the apex of its originator’s distinctive style a full 20 years on from release, even if it did accidentally almost kill the franchise.
For the longest time – despite Will Smith and Martin Lawrence repeatedly telling us otherwise – a third installment never came all that close to escaping development hell. Call it a coincidence, but when it did, the first chapter not directed by Bay scored the best reviews and biggest box office of the trilogy.
Bad Boys II remains ideal “turn off your brain” viewing, to be fair, and that reputation evidently isn’t going anywhere after FlixPatrol named it as one of the most-watched titles on Prime Video, Rakuten, and Starz heading into the weekend.