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Bad Boys (1995 film)
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Bad Boys is a 1995 action comedy film, directed by Michael Bay, produced by Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer, producers of Top Gun and Beverly Hills Cop, and starring Martin Lawrence and Will Smith. The film also spawned a 2003 sequel, Bad Boys II.
Plot
Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) and Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) are detective sergeants in the Miami-Dade Police Department. While Lowery is from a wealthy background and enjoys a playboy-like lifestyle, the family man Burnett is married, with three kids.
One night, $100 million of seized heroin is stolen by gangsters from a secure police vault.
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Encyclopedia
Bad Boys is a 1995 action comedy film, directed by Michael Bay, produced by Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer, producers of Top Gun and Beverly Hills Cop, and starring Martin Lawrence and Will Smith. The film also spawned a 2003 sequel, Bad Boys II.
Plot
Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) and Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) are detective sergeants in the Miami-Dade Police Department. While Lowery is from a wealthy background and enjoys a playboy-like lifestyle, the family man Burnett is married, with three kids.
One night, $100 million of seized heroin is stolen by gangsters from a secure police vault. This is a major blow to Burnett and Lowery, because it was the biggest drug bust of their careers. Internal Affairs believe it was an inside job and issue an ultimatum—if they do not recover the drugs in five days, the narcotics division will be shut down. It is quickly discovered that one of the gang members was Eddie Domínguez, a former cop, who has absconded with some of the heroin. Dominguez is shot to death by his boss, French drug kingpin Fouchet (Tchéky Karyo), who also kills escort Max (Karen Alexander), one of Lowery's ex-girlfriends. The only witness to the crime is Max's friend Julie Mott (Téa Leoni).
Although she has never met him, Julie will only testify to Lowrey, but he is out of contact when she threatens to run, so Burnett is forced to impersonate him in order to get her to co-operate. In order to continue the deception Burnett moves Julie into Lowrey's apartment, which he himself has to move into, while Lowrey moves in with Burnett's family and claims to be Burnett in Julie's presence while Burnett claims to be Lowrey.
Eventually, Fouchet and his gang of criminals learn where Julie is and kidnap her. Burnett, Lowrey and two other members of the Miami P.D. organize a plan to stop the criminals from killing Julie and selling the drugs to a Colombian drug lord. A final shoot-out erupts between Burnett, Lowrey and the drug dealers. The criminals are eliminated, Julie is saved in the process and Lowrey kills Fouchet.
Production
In the film's early stages of development, Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer initially envisioned Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz in the roles. When the movie was written for Carvey and Lovitz, the original title for Bad Boys was Bulletproof Hearts.
Both Martin Lawrence and Will Smith were starring in their own hit TV shows, Martin and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air when filming this movie, which The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air references the film in an episode, which Nicky Banks tells Will that his mom and dad won't let him watch Bad Boys, which Will replies, "Oh, so whatcha gonna do?"
Improvisation
Director Michael Bay didn't like the script and often engaged Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in discussions about how the dialogue and scenes could improve. He often allowed them to improvise while the cameras were rolling. He secretly told Will to call Lawrence a bitch before the car scene. The whole "two bitches in the sea" was improvised, as was Martin's comment when Téa Leoni called him gay.
The scene in the convenience store where the clerk puts a gun to Burnett and Lowrey's heads and tells them to "Freeze, bitch!" is also improvised. They came up with "No, you freeze, bitch! Now back up, put the gun down and get me a pack of Tropical Fruit Bubbalicious, and some Skittles."
According to Michael Bay in his DVD commentary, at the end of the film when Mike (Smith) and Marcus (Lawrence) are recuperating, Mike says "I love you, man." Bay claims that Smith refused to say the line, causing the director and actor to argue back and forth over the line. Bay wanted Smith to say the line as he felt it summed up the friendship between the cops. After their argument had lasted for half of the day's shoot and much of the crew was ready to pack up, a fed up Bay told Smith to do whatever he wanted, after which Smith changed his mind and agreed to say the line.
Reaction and commercial success
The $19 million movie became a success as it grossed $65.8 million in the United States and $75 million overseas. With a total of over $141 million in ticket sales worldwide, Bad Boys generated a huge profit for producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Columbia Pictures, and it also led to more big time movies for then-newcomers Will Smith, Martin Lawrence and director Michael Bay.
Reviews from moviegoers were generally positive and many of them felt that the movie finally injected new interest and reinvigorated the buddy cop genre. Some fans of the movie even compared Bad Boys to Lethal Weapon in the sense that both films had two male leads who are at odds with each other while trying to solve cases together. Between the two, Bad Boys is viewed to be a faster movie than Lethal Weapon (which relied on intrigue and suspense).
Because of the popularities of Smith, Lawrence and Bay, Bad Boys continues to enjoy heavy playtime on
cable television networks as well as continued presence in video stores worldwide.
Soundtrack
The Bad Boys Official Soundtrack was released in March 1995 on the Sony label. The film soundtrack was primarily hip-hop and R&B influenced, with the soundtrack album reflecting said influence. Tracks are listed in order:
- Shy Guy - Diana King
- So Many Ways (Bad Boys Version) - Warren G
- Five O, Five O (Here They Come) - 69 Boyz featuring K-Mont
- Boom Boom Boom - Juster
- Me Against the World - 2Pac
- Someone to Love - Jon B. featuring Babyface
- I've Got a Little Something for You - MN8
- Never Find Someone Like You - Keith Martin
- Call the Police - Ini Kamoze
- B Side - Da Brat featuring The Notorious B.I.G.
- Work Me Slow - Xscape
- Clouds of Smoke - Call O' Da Wild featuring WaynO of the E.Bros
- Juke Joint Jezebel - KMFDM
- Bad Boys' Reply - Inner Circle featuring TEK
- Theme from Bad Boys - Mark Mancina
The album was well received by fans of the rap/R&B genres, but disappointed fans of Mark Mancina's movie score, as only one of up to fifteen tracks composed for the film by Mancina was featured on the album. Also, most of the industrial rock tracks, which featured primarily in the "Club Hell" scene, are also missing from the album. These include "Nothing" by Stabbing Westward, "Angels" by Dink, and "Sweet Little Lass" by DAG.
The original score by Mark Mancina was released in September 2007 by La-La Land Records as a limited edition of 3000 copies.
See also
Reference
External links
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