MICHAEL BAY

Bil’s rating (out of 5):   BB

USA, 2003.  Columbia Pictures Corporation, Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Films.  Story by Marianne Wibberley, Cormac Wibberley, Ron Shelton, Screenplay by Ron Shelton, Jerry Stahl, based on characters created by George Gallo.  Cinematography by Amir Mokri.  Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.  Music by Trevor Rabin.  Production Design by Dominic Watkins.  Costume Design by Carol Ramsey, Deborah Lynn Scott.  Film Editing by Roger Barton, Mark Goldblatt, Tom Muldoon.  

Everything that was good about the original has been overdone to death in this extremely long sequel, an action film that just doesn’t know when to quit. Miami cops Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are back, this time investigating another drug lord (Spanish actor Jordi Mollà playing Cuban in the same year that Spanish actor Javier Bardem played a Cuban drug lord in Collateral) who is trafficking ecstasy into the city. Their troublemaking ways of enforcing the law sets off a war between bad guys, creating a mess that only they in their loose cannon style could possibly clean up.

There is plenty of car chasing, gun violence and mouthing off, plus a weak romantic subplot that has Smith hooking up with Martin Lawrence’s undercover federal agent sister (Gabrielle Union). The sheen is gone from the first adventure, partly because it doesn’t come up with anything that wasn’t already done the first time, and mostly because, at two and a half hours, it’s a ridiculous waste of time for something with such limited entertainment value. Lawrence and Smith still enjoy their terrific chemistry, but the replacement of Tea Leoni with Union kills much of the magic.