GPM: Bad Boys

Ok, let's just get this out of the way. I am fully prepared for the ribbing I am undoubtedly about to receive from my colleagues and loyalest of readers for this choice. I make no pretensions that "Bad Boys" is a good movie. I easily feel the guiltiest while watching this movie over any of the other postings I've done for this feature. Michael Bay is one of the most overrated mainstream directors of the last decade, and his other work ranges from the trite to the downright offensively bad (*cough* Transformers 2 *cough*), and his storyboard for "The Great Gatsby" is the stuff of legend. But after all that, I'll be damned if I don't enjoy the hell out of "Bad Boys".

I think "Bad Boys" strikes such a chord for me because it feels like a classic action movie from the 80's a la "Lethal Weapon" (another personal favorite). Everything from the stock foreign villain to the mid-shootout quips brings me back to the days of hair metal and...well...bad hair. Even the wailing electric guitar that finds its way into the "Bad Boys" soundtrack towards the end of the film seems taken straight from that era (probably because it was, as Michael Bay has no original ideas). Mostly, though, I am an unashamed fan of Will Smith. I can even bring myself to enjoy a Martin Lawrence performance every now and then, and his interplay with Smith in this movie is pretty great.

Well, there you have it. A Michael Bay movie on a guilty pleasure list. Guess that's why they call it a "guilty" pleasure. But hey, sometimes you just need a mindless, blow-up-everything-on-screen kind of movie to brighten your day. And "Bad Boys" has that in spades.