Bad Boys II opened in theaters on July 18, 2003, reuniting Will Smith and Martin Lawrence with director Michael Bay from their surprise hit original film.
“Bad Boys II” opened up at No. 1 in the box office, grossing $66.5 million on 3,186 screens and knocking “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” starring Johnny Depp out of the top spot. Both of the week’s top two grossing films were produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. “Bad Boys II” would surrender the top spot the following week to “Spy Kids 3: Game Over” starring Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino.
Martin Lawrence And Will Smith Repeat
“Bad Boys II” would finish No. 10 for 2003 at at $138.6 million while the top grossing film of the year was Disney’s “Finding Nemo” at $339.7 million. “Bad Boys II” grossed $273 million worldwide.
In the film’s early stages of the development of the original “Bad Boys,” producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer discussed Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz in the lead roles under the working title of “Bulletproof Hearts.” The roles eventually went to Lawrence and Smith while they were starring in their own hit TV shows “Martin” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”
“Bad Boys” opened in April 1995 and grossed $141 million worldwide, the year prior to Smith hitting it huge with “Independence Day” over July 4th weekend in 1996 en route to a worldwide gross of $817 million.
“Sony didn’t believe in the movie, because two Black actors don’t sell overseas,” Bay said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly while promoting 2022’s “Ambulance.” “They had no faith in it. I was watching James Cameron’s “True Lies” and I’m like, Oh, my God, this guy has so much money. I have only $9 million. And they shut me down, literally. They shut the power off. That’s how rude they were on this movie. Luckily I had 500 days of film set experience doing videos, commercials, working with some of the most famous athletes in the world, and that’s where you really truly know how to deal with a–holes.”
“Bad Boys” was Bay’s his first feature-length directorial effort. He would follow-up with Bruckheimer on “The Rock” (1996) starring Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage, “Armageddon” (1998) starring Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck, and “Pearl Harbor”(2001) along with Affleck and starring Josh Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale before returning to Miami for “Bad Boys II.”
“Bad Boys II” picks up eight years after the events of the first film with Miami PD narcotics detectives Mike Lowrey (Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) investigating the flow of ecstasy into Miami. The detectives and life-long friends are a part of Miami Police’s Tactical Narcotics Team (TNT) and while Burnett is reevaluating whether he wants to continue his partnership with Lowrey, Lowrey is secretly dating Burnett’s sister Syd (Gabrielle Union).
Unbeknownst to both of the detectives, Syd is working undercover for the DEA laundering money to the Russian Mafia who are operating in Miami as the main distributors of ecstasy for Cuban drug lord Johnny Tapia (Jordi Mollà).
This sets the stage for one of cinema’s all time great car chase scenes between involving Lowery’s Ferrari 550, a stolen 18-wheeler car carrier driven by the Haitians Zoe Pounders gang and the Miami PD throughout the streets of Miami.
TNT’s Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano) authorizes a raid on both Tapia’s residence and his mortuary (Tapia is using cadavers and coffins to smuggle drugs and money) in collaboration with the DEA with the majority of Tapia’s drug supply and money are confiscated in the raid. Tapia takes Syd as hostage down to Cuba and uses her as a bargaining tool in an attempt to get his money back from the Miami PD. Lowrey and Burnett put together a covert operation to rescue Syd with help agents from the DEA and TNT.
The third entry in the series “Bad Boys for Life” would not be released until January 17, 2020, but it would go on to be the No. 1 movie of the year with a gross of $206.3 million in no small part due to the COVID 19 shutdown of many of the nation’s cinemas.
Prior to “Bad Boys for Life,” there was the 2019 spinoff series “L.A.’s Finest” headlined by Gabrielle Union reprising her role as Syd Burnett alongside Jessica Alba, who portrayed Syd’s partner Nancy McKenna. Duane Martin and Ernie Hudson also starred in the Sony Pictures Television production that was in the works at NBC before the network passed on the pilot and was subsequently picked up as the first original television series produced by Spectrum as the debut of its Spectrum Originals banner of exclusive programming.
The first season was successful and was picked up for a second season. In 2020, FOX acquired the broadcast rights and aired the series in the fall beginning on Sept. 21st.
“L.A.’s Finest” gained an additional level of popularity when it aired on Netflix beginning in Jan. 2021.
BAD BOYS II (Rated R)
Scale of 1-10: 8
