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Bad Boys II
Sony Pictures Entertainment / Columbia Pictures

Bad Boys II reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 38 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
5.6 out of 10
based on 34 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 75 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R for strong violence and action, pervasive language, sexuality and drug content

Starring Martin Lawrence, Will Smith, Gabrielle Union, Joe Pantoliano, Theresa Randle, Tom Hillmann, and Gino Salvano

Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are back -- and oh so bad -- on the streets of Miami in Bad Boys II, reuniting them with producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay. (Sony Pictures)


GENRE(S): Suspense/Thriller  
WRITTEN BY: Ron Shelton
Jerry Stahl
Cormac Wibberley (also story)
Marianne Wibberley (also story) and George Gallo (characters)
 
DIRECTED BY: Michael Bay  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: December 9, 2003 
Video: December 9, 2003 
Theatrical: July 18, 2003 
RUNNING TIME: 146 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

75
Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Bay's movie is also a confident mega-production that feels it doesn't need to lean on its visual frills if it has Smith and Lawrence -- it's a natural-born buddy flick.
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75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Ellen A. Kim
Watching a Bruckheimer with natural comics like Smith and Lawrence makes it all go down easily. If you like this type of movie, that is.
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70
LA Weekly Scott Foundas
The bigger-than-big, rambunctious spectacle is way too much of a questionably good thing.
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70
Film Threat G. Allen Johnson
It may be the most winning, smile-inducing Hollywood action flick of the summer.
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70
The Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden
However masterful, the first-rate stunt work, effects, action cinematography and cutting (by no less than three editors) lose impact through sheer repetition.
Read Full Review
67
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Bad Boys II proves that it's possible to pack a movie with so much popcorn that it leaves the audience overdosed.
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67
Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan
Though the picture has a generic quality, it also has an ingenious amount of anything-goes that's amusing and frequently exciting. You'll laugh out loud, you'll hide your eyes -- but you'll roll them. too. Nevertheless, it's a fun, if blood- and sun-soaked, ride.
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63
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
The kind of movie that gives sequels a bad name, even though, strangely enough, it's better than the 1995 hit that spawned it.
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63
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Beyond turbocharged. It whooshes along at warp speed. And still, despite some awesomely choreographed stunts and the two stars' pedal-to-the-metal appeal, the movie seems endless.
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60
Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson
In general, Bad Boys II is Bay unleashed. This is a good thing when it comes to action sequences--fans of excessive spectacle will definitely dig the car chases that involve flying cadavers. It's a bit less of a good thing between said moments of spectacle.
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60
Film Threat Michael Dequina
But damn it if the film doesn't work as what it's supposed to be: a big, brainless blast o' boom at the box office.
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50
Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis
With a body built for action and a smile made for comedy, Smith eases through his scenes -- cool but never scary, a touch hip-hop and thoroughly audience-friendly. And unlike Lawrence, he can act. Smith's ability to put over a scene, combined with his matinee charm, goes a long way to making the film's violence palatable.
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50
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Just too much of a mediocre thing. It didn't have to be that way.
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50
Washington Post Stephen Hunter
Might be considered three action sequences and four comedy routines in search of a story.
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50
The New York Times Dana Stevens
The best moments come when Mr. Smith and Mr. Lawrence are permitted to pause from their action-hero duties and run their funny, unpredictable mouths.
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50
Wall Street Journal Collin Levey
Like our two loose cannons with badges, the movie misses its target at least as often as it hits it.
50
Village Voice Jon Caramanica
Martin Lawrence's Marcus is the Costello to Smith's Abbott.
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40
New York Magazine Peter Rainer
Resembles a full-length promo for itself. The action, virtually nonstop, is a series of can-you-top-this? set pieces.
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40
Variety Todd McCarthy
As overblown as it is overlong, Bad Boys II is an enervating case of more is less.
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40
Washington Post Desson Thomson
Just like "Bad Boys," only louder, longer and the stars get paid more.
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40
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
The movie’s length forces our suspension of disbelief for at least an hour more than is comfortable and pushes mindlessness to a dangerous longevity.
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38
New York Daily News Jami Bernard
If you think you're tough enough, go ahead and sit through the endurance test that is Bad Boys 2, a brutal, 2 1/2-hour display of production overkill.
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38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Smith and Lawrence enjoyed some amusing chemistry in the '95 original, but their molecules sure aren't jibing here. It's a full hour into this behemoth before there's anything resembling a belly laugh.
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38
Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
The apotheosis of adolescent junk. Every sequence spews or splats carnage-filled effects. It's over-the-top, but not pleasurably so -- it's calculatedly over-the-top. The only way to get off on it is to revel in its prodigal waste of materiel.
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38
USA Today Mike Clark
Appallingly mean-spirited.
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30
The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Bad Boys II is the rare case in which escapism involves leaving the theater.
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30
Salon.com Charles Taylor
Another Jerry Bruckheimer-Michael Bay demonstration of spectacle -- noise, stunts, the aforementioned incoherent editing -- taking precedence over story and character... by far the most brutal American picture released this summer.
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25
Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
The vilest film of the season.
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25
New York Post Lou Lumenick
It's basically the longest (a butt-numbing 21/2 hours), the most expensive (a reportedly obscene $150 million), most vulgar and by far the stupidest episode of "Miami Vice" ever.
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25
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The movie is so choppy in its nervous editing that a lot of the time we're simply watching senseless kinetic action.
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20
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
There's at least one ending too many, Union regularly vanishes for long stretches of the movie, and director Michael Bay's unmitigated pandering to viewers who whoop with glee whenever someone gets it between the eyes is genuinely distasteful.
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12
ReelViews James Berardinelli
The only thing as bad as bad comedy is bad action. Bad Boys II has plenty of both.
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0
Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
This putrid action flick crawls along for two and a half hours before expiring in a septic field of bad one-liners, halfhearted catchphrases, obliterated cars, vicious slow-motion bullet penetration, graphic corpse mutilations played for laughs, and shamefully hollow bonding scenes between its two dyspeptic megastars.
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0
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Bad Boys II has everything. Everything loud, dumb, violent, sexist, racist, misogynistic and homophobic that producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay can think of puking up onscreen.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 5.6 (out of 10) based on 75 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Kewlkat gave it an8:
The year is 2007, and I've yet to find a movie that gets my blood pumping faster than this one. Sure, It could have came up to BREATH for a couple of minutes, but really, when I'm going to the movies to see an ACTION/COMEDY, that's exactly what I want to see. NOT characters onsceen rambling about nothing just to justify a plot, and to be honest, the lack of one in this movie probably made it better.

Kevin M. gave it a10:
This movie is hard. Will Smith and Martin did there thing in this movie. Martin was funny as always and Will just set it off with his good drivin. Can't believe that was actually him who was dodging those cars.

David S. gave it a1:
Product placement filled nonsense from Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckhiemer. Unintelligent, uninspired, derivative trash. Bottom line: THis movie was intended as som kind of action movie come comedy/buddy movie. In the end, it is mere nonsense. There are better movies of this type available.

Anson G. gave it a0:
Yuck, this movie was totally overrated. It was awful and horrible film. Bad plot, boring, disgusting, better dont watch this.

Tonydannie gave it a0:
One of the worse movies of all time. For the people who hated Matrix Reloaded. I tell you this. Bad Boys 2 makes Matrix Reloaded look LIke Godfather Prt. 2. How Many Carchases can you have in one movie?? And what is so special about Martin's sister?. Lets chase after her again and again and again. More car chases.. Yay!!!. I spit on this film...no wait.. i take that back..this is not a film. This is snuff!!!

[Anonymous] gave it a7:
A little better than the first, actually. The script hasn't improved, but some jokes do work (ecstasy and video store, especially). First car chase is fantastic, and the following action scenes are good, too, and if you're sick of acerbic blather from foreign jerks like Cuba, the last sequence is a good way to burn off your spite.

Jack gave it a0:
Awful, gory, gratuitous, disgusting, and not even funny -- shameful in all.

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