It has been eight years since we last saw Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett in Bad Boys, a funny and action-packed film directed by Michael Bay. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence played the parts respectively, and both coming off of a string of flops and duds, have returned to the safe haven known as "the sequel." Luckily, Bad Boys II is just what the summer doctor ordered.

Bad Boys II is an action-packed and hilarious movie with more explosions, more shooting and more arguing than ever before. Add hottie Garbrielle Union into the mix and you've easily got a success.

There are some classic action sequences in the movie, namely the car chase scene and the Cuban invasion. Michael Bay knows how to do action and delivers a lot of it; there are several very long scenes that never get tiring.

Will Smith is enjoyable as usual, but, unfortunately, Martin Lawrence is annoying as usual. Over the last couple years it has become obvious to me that I really don't like Lawrence; he whines in every movie and basically gets his character into trouble because he just won't shut up and get a life. He complains in this movie more than he does in all of his others combined, and it gets tiresome really quickly. The chemistry between Smith and Lawrence, however, is pretty good, and so he is tolerable. Nevertheless, had the screenwriter cut out a bit of the "love-hate" relationship that every buddy cop film seems to have, the movie would have been a little better.

Doing this would also have reduced the length of the movie. Bad Boys II is nearly two and a half hours long; this is very long for a summer action movie. It becomes noticeable at times, too. Every once in a while, Michael Bay sidetracks and shows yet another scene of the two guys arguing or brooding about one another; there are at least five or six very pointless scenes that chop up the pace of the movie. This movie could have easily been edited down by fifteen minutes.

However, when all is said and done, the few flaws are shrouded by the excellent action scenes. Bad Boys II is an action film; people watch it to see action. Bad Boys II serves up plenty, and easily, too.

Though it isn't a tremendously important thing, it did strike me as quite unrealistic by the amount that the two cops get away with in this movie. Sure, it's an action movie, and in most action movies cops get to shoot up plenty of people without feeling the consequences, but there is so much property damage and so forth in this movie that it is hard to believe that the two cops wouldn't get in trouble (other than being yelled at). Furthermore, though they are "bad boys," they break the law so many times that it seems as though they have no intention of actually ever prosecuting the bad guy. If he were to survive the movie, he could get off on at least a hundred technicalities.

Most unbelievable is the long sequence that takes place in Cuba. This, to me, seems like an unofficial invasion, which to anyone in Cuba, could only be taken as an official invasion. How everyone involved gets away with this is never explained (nor is how they are able to escape Cuba after killing a hundred soldiers)...

Of course, the Cuba scene is also the best action sequence out of the entire movie, so its absurdities are forgivable.

Bad Boys II is a highly enjoyable and fun action movie made for the summer months. It has a fair amount of flaws, but none are terribly important in the scheme of things. The movie lags in a few parts, but for the most part is funny and action-packed. Another sequel better be on the way...

Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.