Bad Boys is a great action comedy from producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer. It features Will Smith (in his breakout performance) and Martin Lawrence, an unlikely pair who quite simply are the best movie duo I've seen since Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker in Rush Hour. The film features incredible action sequences (i.e. the Ether truck chase scene featuring massive explosions and pervasive gun fights) which all lead up to the film's action-packed climax which could only be done in a Jerry Bruckheimer film. The film also stars Tea Leoni (who is pretty good in playing the damsel in distress), Joe Pantoliano (whom we all know as Ralphie on The Sopranos, as a police captain) and Tcheky Karyo as the villain. (He was also the French officer opposite Mel Gibson in 2000's The Patriot) The movie features comedic one-liners from Smith and Lawrence as well as a few by Leoni. It also features a few sex jokes and just plain "disses". However, the characters are so underdeveloped that all we are left with is action and comedy. This formula is also seen in the recent summer blockbuster Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, in which we could care less about the characters and just look for the action. However, Simpson and Bruckheimer's Bad Boys succeeds where T3 does not. By the end of the movie, we care about the heroes because they are fun to watch. In T3, the great Ah-nuld is just a figurehead for a movie romped with action-packed sequences and jaw-dropping stunts. This is one of only three good Michael Bay films (right next to Pearl Harbor and The Rock) and should seen by any action movie fan.
