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The action borders on sickening All ages admitted
You expect morality and decency to go out the window in a big, dumb cop spectacle; you don't figure on the filmmakers reveling in barbarity
PG-13 â€â€? Special parental guidance strongly suggested for children under 13
Yet Bay and Bruckheimer seem intent only on stacking bodies higher than the Miami skyline The sole moment of reflection over the movie's murderous mayhem comes in the throwaway line, "Thank God no cops died," which follows a calamitous highway chase that in reality would have filled the city's funeral parlors and emergency rooms to overflowing
"Bad Boys II," released by Sony's Columbia Pictures, is rated R for strong violence and action, pervasive language, sexuality and drug content
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Motion Picture Association of America rating definitions:
G â€â€? General audiences
As a feeble concession to character development, the filmmakers toss in a romance between Mike and Syd that they hide from Marcus, who's considering dissolving his partnership with Mike
Screenwriters Ron Shelton and Jerry Stahl, from a story by Shelton and Marianne and Cormac Wibberley, have fashioned the barest of plots about Miami cops and federal agents trying to bring down a ring of Cuban and Russian mobsters smuggling Ecstasy into Florida in floating coffins
Bay and Bruckheimer make up for lost time by padding the sequel to an excruciating 2 1/2-hour tempest of outlandish gunplay, explosions and car wrecks, punctuated by the occasional corpse falling from a mortuary vehicle and getting beheaded by rushing traffic Some material may be inappropriate for young children We're happy to oblige them, not only for the damage "Bad Boys II" has done to our eardrums, but also because they've made a truly abominable movie
There's really nothing to distinguish good guys from bad boys, beyond the fact that the villains speak in outrageous accents while Smith and Lawrence get to crack wise while blowing things up or blowing people away
It took the filmmakers eight years to follow up on the 1995 buddy-cop flick "Bad Boys," a solid but unspectacular box-office success that established TV stars Smith and Lawrence on the big screen
No matter how smart-alecky and charismatic, any characters who could have this much fun savaging the world with bullets, bombs and cars are not worth anyone's time or money At the Movies: 'Bad Boys II'
Jul 15, 2:21 PM EST
Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay know they're going to get lousy reviews
Joe Pantoliano returns as the partners' police captain in a role so daft it comes off as awkward ad-libbing Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian One star out of four Running time: 147 minutes
NC-17 â€â€? No one under 17 admitted
Producer Bruckheimer and director Bay have sunk to a new low for irresponsible, inhuman violence, dragging Will Smith and Martin Lawrence along for a ghastly, deafening display of bloodshed The difference is, Stormare can act, while Molla is laughably over-the-top
PG â€â€? Parental guidance suggested
On the case again are trash-talking narcotics detectives Mike Lowrey (Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence), along with newcomer Syd Burnett (Gabrielle Union), Marcus' DEA agent sister
R â€â€? Restricted
As they ooh and aah at Bay and Bruckheimer's fireworks, even the most die-hard action fans simply have to shift uncomfortably over the atrocities they're watching; if not, American society is doomed
The main villains â€â€? Peter Stormare as a Russian mob boss and Jordi Molla as a Cuban druglord â€â€? are ethnic caricatures Some material may not be suitable for children |