Zanobard Reviews

A curious lack of a main theme sadly restrains Bad Boys II from being as standout as its Mark Mancina-composed predecessor, but the sequel’s frenetic, proto-Transformers action style by Trevor Rabin and team is pretty damned entertaining all the same. One does wonder though how much more interesting it could have been had the Bad Boys theme fully returned.

The story of the score for Bad Boys II is an interesting one, that’s for sure. While the first film was scored by Mark Mancina and heavily featured his iconically catchy main theme, the second was instead composed by Trevor Rabin – alongside a handful of other Remote Control Productions (RCP) composers, including Steve Jablonsky and Harry Gregson-Williams – with only a couple of cues contributed by Mancina, who left the project early due to creative disagreements with director Michael Bay. His catchy main theme also sadly left with him, with only a few fragmented appearances remaining in the final score. That’s not to say Rabin and co’s Bad Boys II isn’t good though, because it certainly is – as we’ll soon discover once we dive in – but it is different in style, and as mentioned it unfortunately does suffer from a lack of the incredible Bad Boys theme (though happily that gets eventually rectified by Lorne Balfe, who reprised Mancina’s theme fully with third movie Bad Boys For Life). But anyway – the score for Bad Boys II actually and unfortunately went unreleased for a long time, with the film coming and going in 2003 with no sign of an album. Thankfully now La-La Land Records have once again come in to save the day, giving the sequel soundtrack a much desired release, expansion and indeed remastering here to the point where Rabin and crew’s action orchestral style sounds absolutely phenomenal.

So let’s not beat around the bushes any further, and dive right in! Bad Boys II begins with “Xtreme Machine” (composed by Paul Linford), and immediately that change in style I mentioned is noticeably apparent. Intensely frenetic electronic beats pound alongside a similarly metal-sounding electric guitar thundering dramatically, with the imposing ensemble overall sounding like the most early 2000s piece of action music ever (in a good way). The positively furious instrumentation then slows somewhat just before the three minute mark, with aggressive percussion now taking centre stage alongside increasingly loud electronic surges before simply fading to a close at just past four minutes. All-in, this opening cue is a very different action vibe for a Bad Boys sequel, and the lack of.. well any theme is also noticeable. There’s a lot of style, and it sounds great, but it’s hard to really say ‘oh yeah, this is so Bad Boys’. But moving on; “Swamp – KKK” simmers somewhat with eerie electronic and percussive ambience for much of its runtime – think Hans Zimmer’s Black Hawk Down in tone – until explosive strings and drums-focused action kicks off towards the end, building to a crashing crescendo finish. The short “Tapia” then echoes warily with solemn string plucks, introducing a moody sound of sorts for the film’s titular villain which also continues into the similarly short and rather atmospheric “Money Counting”.

The score’s first major action setpiece arrives with “Syd Getaway – Muscle Car”; thudding electronic beats build in both volume and intensity for the first minute, with deafeningly angry percussion and brass then overtaking for several minutes of increasingly in-your-face action flair. It’s like a whirlwind, this electronic action style, and yet despite it’s rather messy, unkempt appearance you can’t help but enjoy it. It’s got RCP-isms all over it, and you can hear so much of that late ’90s/early 2000s action sound that features across most of their scores of that era. “Shootout” then continues where the prior cue leaves off with frantic electronics and pounding drums, as well as a surprise – though very short – cameo of Mancina’s Bad Boys theme before “Causeway” turns the tone darker and murkier for a much tenser action cue. This one’s intriguing actually as Steve Jablonsky takes the compositional reins, and there are certain electronics that echo imposingly throughout which sound exactly like the action sound he’d go on to utilise for Transformers in 2007. Like how Zimmer’s Gladiator sounds like Pirates Of The Caribbean years before it came out, you can really hear the beginning of an action style here. One of the few purely Mancina cues is then up next with “Syd And Mike”, and quietly melancholic synth takes centre stage for a love theme of sorts (and another seconds-long cameo of the Bad Boys theme).

Tapia’s moody motif returns in the short “Tapia Pissed Off” on eerily echoing synth, before the tone then turns downright sinister at the start of “Haitian Shootout” as cold electronics simmer uneasily. A ticking clock in the form of tense percussion then overtakes at the two minute mark with wary vocals fading in and out until the four minute track fades to a close. Serene string plucks then tinker unnervingly with Tapia’s theme in the first half of “Tapia Conversation – Escape Tapia’s”, before some increasingly worrisome percussion and electronics build to crescendo in the second. Some intriguingly rather Top Gun-y, Faltermeyer-esque action beats are then hinted at in the atmospheric “Stilt House”, before the music gets quiet and sneaky in the synth and percussion-focused “Boat Dock – Follow The Cubans”. The subsequent and dramatically fast-paced “Cuban – Van Chase” then thunders tensely with crashes of drums and bursts of determined, very 2000s-sounding electronics throughout its runtime, with “Train Fight” straight after reprising the echoingly ominous vocals from earlier – and I think they also go on to feature in Zimmer’s Black Hawk Down – alongside an emphatic electric guitar and pounding drums. After a brief solemn strings interlude in “Bad Boys For Life”, some properly spy-like electronics occupy the ambient “Escape Mortuary” together with apprehensive swathes of synth.

With the album nearing its end, the serene string twangs of Tapia’s theme echo through “Syd’s Cover Is Blown”, interplaying every so often with bursts of dramatic electric guitar, vocal and percussion-led action. After a more determined tone starts to rise on dramatic synth and drums through “Tapia Has Syd”, the mammoth action setpiece of the score arrives in the nine minute and standout “Tapia Attack”. This is where everything comes together action-wise for Bad Boys II, as the lengthy track acts basically as a suite of all the major frenetic highlights of the score; aggressive electronics, pulsing synth, crashes of drums and enthusiastic bursts of electric guitar are all loudly and indeed entertainingly prominent throughout, with another brief cameo of the Bad Boys theme and a tremendous crescendo finish at the end cementing this sublimely 2000s-styled action cue as the best of the bunch here really. The subsequent “Cuba Chase” then wraps up the action with tense surges of electric guitar and deafening drums, with an eeriely atmospheric feel spreading in “Guantanamo” afterward before the score then ends on an absolutely delightful treat; “Theme From Bad Boys (Bad Boys II Demo Version)”, by Mark Mancina. Exactly as the title suggests, this cue is very much a ‘what could have been’, showcasing a darker and more serious take on Mancina’s catchy theme that the composer crafted before leaving the project, and it paints an intriguing tonal picture while also aptly closing the soundtrack.

Overall, Trevor Rabin (and team)’s score for Bad Boys II makes for an intriguing listen. Its standout feature is the compositional blend of electronics and orchestra utilised all across the album, with the resulting and impeccably early 2000s-sounding action style in particular making for some tremendously entertaining and indeed frenetically adrenaline-fueled setpieces (the nine minute “Tapia Attack” being the best of the bunch there). Just the sound of Bad Boys II really is so interesting, as its essentially a collection of Remote Control Productions action styles that either recently featured in dramatic film – i.e. Zimmer’s Black Hawk Down – or would go on to – like Jablonsky’s echoing pulses in “Causeway” which later appear in Transformers – so if you do enjoy that ferociously electronics-infused RCP action sound from the late ’90s/early 2000s as I do, you’re likely going to love this. That said while I do enjoy said style, Bad Boys II does leave me wanting for themes, as bar a recurringly eerie motif for villain Tapia… there aren’t any. It’s an odd choice compositionally and a real shame as not only does the score feel a bit directionless without a main theme, but other than a couple of very brief cameos it also loses Mark Mancina’s impeccable Bad Boys theme, which is basically a crime. Especially since the sound of the orchestra and the sheer style on display throughout the driving action music here is really cool, so with the Bad Boys theme in centre stage? It would’ve been absolutely iconic.

A bit of a thematically missed opportunity I think, but oh well. At least the action is great!

Score: 7/10

Standout Cues: Tapia Attack, Theme From Bad Boys (Bad Boys II Demo Version)

Buy the 2-CD expansion for Trevor Rabin’s Bad Boys II here, by La-La Land Records.

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