Seth Rogen and his longtime writing partner, Evan Goldberg helped write part of Bad Boys 2. That film’s sequel, Bad Boys For Life, releases in theaters this week, bringing Will Smith and Martin Lawrence back to a franchise fans haven’t seen them in since 2003. One of the things which made Michael Bay’s Bad Boys and Bad Boys 2 a success was the natural charisma of both Smith and Lawrence.
Bad Boys 2 arguably uses the comedic talents of its stars better than the original Bad Boys. Moments like the exchange between Smith and Lawrence’s characters where they sing Inner Circle’s “Bad Boys” but don’t know the words, and when Marcus (Martin) shoots the machine gun in Mike’s (Smith) car by accident are some of the film’s most notable hilarious scenes. As it turns out, there may be a very specific reason for Bad Boys 2’s inflated sense of humor.
Ron Shelton and Jerry Stahl are officially credited as the screenwriters of Bad Boys 2; however, as anticipation for Bad Boys For Life provokes discussion of the franchise online, Seth Rogen has divulged some interesting information on Twitter. On Tuesday, actor Eric Vespe took to Twitter to argue that Bad Boys 2 is better than the original Bad Boys. He pointed out that Bad Boys 2 benefits from an appearance by Michael Shannon and a pair of stimulated rats, and this promoted Seth Rogen to comment on the post, “I helped rewrite bad boys 2.” Comedian Paul Scheer then demanded to hear more. Check out the entire exchange below.
The young writers received money for their work on Bad Boys 2 but no official credit. It’s unlikely anyone will challenge these claims given the fact that Apatow, Rogen, and Goldberg have all gone on to write a plethora of movies which are arguably much funnier than Bad Boys 2 and its predecessor, and judging from early reviews of Bad Boys For Life, that one as well. The original Bad Boys’ lack of jokes was supposedly a creative decision on the part of its director, Michael Bay. Using his hefty budget to hire out writers, Bay obviously had a change of heart when considering the tone of Bad Boys 2. The success of Bad Boys allowed him unlimited resources going into Bad Boys 2 and it shows. The sequel contains massive set pieces, hundreds of locations, and a lot of explosions. While spectacle has become of a trademark of Bay’s work, belly laughs have become one of Apatow, Rogen, and Goldberg’s.
Given this piece of information, it comes as no surprise that some of the film’s most memorable comedic moments come courtesy of Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen, and Evan Goldberg. Those three men have become some of the most recognizable names in comedy. Back in 2002 (when the trio was likely rewriting Bad Boys 2) Apatow and Rogen were just coming off the cancellation of Apatow’s show Undeclared, on which Rogan was a writer. In the coming years, Apatow would write and direct The 40-Year-Old-Virgin (2005), and Rogen and Goldberg would write Superbad (2007) — and the rest is history.