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These days, producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simspon and director Michael Bay are well known to viewers for their catalogue of hits, particularly within the action genre. Back in 1995, however, they had barely gotten off the mark; Bad Boys united Will Smith (in his breakout performance) and Martin Lawrence as the two mismatched cops, amidst the team's energetic filmmaking, and became a mostly crowd-pleasing spectacle.

Bad Boys is enjoyable, but if you've already seen the much more over-the-top (and superior) sequel, then you'll probably think the action here is much paler in comparison. Granted, it had a much lesser budget at the time of its making, but it relies primarily on Smith's charm and verbal exchanges with Lawrence to carry the viewer's attention through until the very end.

Personally, I've never been a fan of Martin Lawrence, but, admittedly, he's quite enjoyable to watch here, mainly due to Smith knowing when to intervene with his cool-dude persona (apparently, a majority of the scenes involving the two actors were improvised). In contrast, the bad guys suck; I can't speak for everyone else, but I hardly find a soft-spoken Frenchman (Tchéky Karyo) as the main antagonist at all intimidating.

Plot wise, Detectives Mike Lowrey (Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) have to protect a murder witness (Tea Leoni) and find the evil foreigner responsible for the killing; the same guy also happens to be the one that robbed the Police Station of $100 million worth of heroin.

To make things even harder, somewhere in the middle of good-guys-get-bad-guys plot, Mike and Marcus are forced to swap identities (if you haven't seen it then I won't spoil it for you by telling you why), and this unleashes the comic potential of the film to the highest point. Things eventually come to justice in the end for the characters, though, via a frantic shoot out in the hanger (easily the best action moment), and a decent car chase to round things off.

The cinematography is frequently inventive, and makes Miami seem like a very beautiful setting (believe me, it wasn't anything like that when I visited a few years back); and you'll think the production values are typically Brucheimer if you've ever seen any of his later films (i.e. Con Air, The Rock etc.), as they favour style over suspense. Both these factors contribute to a decent amount of entertainment; as does the score, which is great for anyone who loves Hip Hop and R 'n' B (and maybe anyone who doesn't).

If you prefer the more laid-back feel of a movie then you'll no doubt enjoy this Bad Boys more so than the big-brother sequel. That's not to say Bad Boys is really a laid-back movie in the sense that you're likely to show it to your grandmother while she camps out in her smock and slippers with a nice cup of tea; there's still plenty of action scenes here that permit your time wondering about things like logic and coherence; however, they really aren't all that memorable.

(C) Andy Carrington, 2008.