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 From
Bad Boys to The Rock to Armageddon and Pearl
Harbor, the amped-up collaborations of producer Jerry Bruckheimer
and director Michael Bay have resulted in some of the most soullessly
slick products in the history of movies. Bad Boys II, which
reunites Martin Lawrence and Will Smith as Miami narcotics agents,
resembles a full-length promo for itself. The action, virtually
nonstop, is a series of can-you-top-this? set pieces. Early on,
during a high-speed chase, the bad guys release a bunch of cars
from the back of a truck in order to smash the pursuing Bad Boys.
Later on, there’s a similar scene involving corpses. There are also
queasy comedy bits with Lawrence undergoing a bad ecstasy trip,
or hiding in a morgue next to a voluptuous stiff. Anything for a
cheap laugh or a (not-so-cheap) cheap thrill. Lawrence and Smith
fill in the downtime with buddy-buddy badinage, but is this sort
of byplay even necessary anymore? In today’s mega–action comedy,
any kind of genuine characterization has become vestigial. (2 hrs.
24 mins.; R) — PETER RAINER
Opens July 18
• Showtimes
& tickets (movietickets.com)
Spotlight: Gabrielle Union
Sweet Jesus, the Fresh Prince has grown, thought Gabrielle
Union when she saw Bad Boys, in her dorm room at U.C.L.A.
eight years ago. Lord, if I could only meet him . . . Well,
someone was listening, because Gabrielle, now 27, plays Will Smith’s
love interest (and Martin Lawrence’s sister) in director Michael
Bay’s sequel, which finds the two narcs hunting ecstasy in
Miami. “Through the car chases and explosions, you get we’re
in love,” she says. The Omaha native began acting when, as
an L.A. casting-agency intern, she auditioned for a 2Pac video she
didn’t land: “I really wanted to be the fourth ho on
the left—it just didn’t work out.” Undaunted,
she was soon getting booked on sitcoms, which led to films like
Bring It On, and the title role in Deliver Us From Eva.
“I was just happy to pay off my student loans,” Union
says. “There’s a ceiling over black actresses, but I
have faith I’m on that Willy Wonka ride which will take me
through the roof.”
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