Bad Boys (1995)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Filmographies-Cast Theatrical Trailer Featurette-Making Of Music Video-2 (Shy Guy, So Many Ways) DVD Teaser Trailer-#2 Dolby Digital Trailer-City
Rating
Year Of Production	1995
Running Time	114:02
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (64:04)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Michael Bay
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Martin Lawrence Will Smith Tea Leoni Tcheky Karyo Theresa Randle Joe Pantoliano
Case	Brackley-Trans-No Lip
RPI	$36.95	Music	Mark Mancina

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English German French Dutch Spanish Italian Portuguese Arabic Czech Danish Finnish Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Norwegian Polish Swedish Turkish	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    From the legendary production team of Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, whose pedigree in this sort of film is unexcelled (start with "Top Gun", "Beverley Hills Cop" and keep on listing) , and directed by Michael Bay ("The Rock" and "Armageddon"), this is one high octane ride with fair doses of comedy thrown in for good measure. This whole thing works really well because no one takes it seriously, especially Tea Leoni who is superb as the scared witness. The whole story is pretty preposterous, but that never stopped a good, fun film, and it surprises that this did so comparatively poorly at the box office. Whilst many would probably miss it, check out the cameo of John Spider Salley as Fletcher; if I am not mistaken, John Salley was one of the original "Bad Boys", the name the Detroit Pistons gave themselves in the era when they won two NBA championships.

Video

    The video transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced.

    In general, the transfer is very sharp; indeed perhaps a little too sharp as it looks like edge enhancement was used here. Shadow detail was in general very good, although given the recent vintage of the film some of the back lit scenes I would have expected to be better than they are. That is probably being very picky though, and reflects upon the original film rather than the mastering of the disc.

    Colours are in general very well rendered, within the context of the film. The colours during the earlier part of the film are very yellow in an attempt to create the mood of early morning which works well. At times the vibrancy of the colour is exceptional. Indeed, some of the sunrise/sunset shots are especially vibrant, really capturing the feel of Miami.

    There were no MPEG artefacts seen and video artefacts were restricted to some very minor aliasing which probably would not be noticed unless you were looking for it. Some may argue that the opening night time motion pan of Miami is poorly done, but I believe that this is an inherent problem with the film, and not a mastering problem. Film artefacts were apparent especially early in the film, but these were very minor and in no way detracted from the film.

    The disc is an RSDL disc, with the layer change at 64:04. Whilst it is quite noticeable, and is a little disruptive to the film, I would rather this than having to get up and turn the disc over.

Audio

    There are six soundtracks on the DVD. The default track is English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded, whilst the rest are all Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks: English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. I listened to both the default English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack and the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand at all times in both soundtracks.

    There did not seem to be any audio sync problems at all with the transfers.

    The music score by Mark Mancina was pretty much unremarkable and a stock effort in my view. Action sequences were accompanied by the obligatory, aggressive music and overall the soundtrack did little to enhance the film.

    The surround channels were well used and the overall sound picture created was very well balanced with some great detail; the ringing of the beeper during one scene for instance is very clear out of the rear speakers. Overall you were nicely put into the action.

    The subwoofer was heavily used during the action sequences, and in my view this was far too aggressive in the 5.1 soundtrack. However, if you love to annoy the neighbours, crank this one up a few notches!

Menu

Theatrical Trailer

Featurette - Making Of

Music videos - "Shy Guy" by Diana King and "So Many Way's" by Warren G.

Filmographies

• Pan & Scan version

• Featurette - the making of
• Music videos
• Filmographies

    A very good quality video transfer, well up to the usual standards of Columbia TriStar.

    A very good quality audio transfer that aids the film no end.

    A decent if not especially spectacular collection of extras that adds much to the overall pleasure of the disc.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall