The “Bad Boys” film with the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score is the second film in the franchise. With a critic score of 24%, “Bad Boys 2” was a critical misfire when it debuted in 2003, eight years after the original. Audiences were a bit kinder to Bay’s second “Bad Boys” effort, giving it a decent 78% audience score on the platform. Critics notably took issue with the film’s lack of substance, deeming it a typical, soulless action film.
Veteran film critic Roger Ebert absolutely despised the release, giving it just one star, primarily because of how mean-spirited and cruel it was. “There was once a time when a hero would sacrifice his own life rather than injure innocent bystanders. No longer. The heroes of ‘Bad Boys II’ are egotistical monsters, concerned only with their power, their one-liners, their weapons, their cars, their desires,” he wrote.
Surprisingly, the second lowest-rated “Bad Boys” film on Rotten Tomatoes is the first film. The film, which served as Bay’s theatrical debut, has a 44% critic score and the same 78% audience score as its sequel. Most critics found the first “Bad Boys” to be a competent and average action film that was elevated due to striking performances. “Billed as ‘an action comedy with attitude,’ it isn’t exactly the freshest thing on the block — with some minor changes it could have been a ‘Lethal Weapon installment’ — but the pairing of Martin Lawrence and Will Smith generates a winning comic chemistry,” wrote The Hollywood Reporter’s Michael Rechtshaffen in 1995.
