Moviegoers will probably have no trouble accepting Miami as the stage for a major drug bust. But the methods of narcotics cops Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Bennett (Martin Lawrence), the "heroes" of Michael Bay's
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Anne Navarro (Catholic News Service) says it "visually assaults the audience with its senseless, slow-motion gunplay and explosions. With careening shots and whiplash cuts, Bay throws out one action sequence after another until they are a blur on screen. The film stretches on and on as the body count rises and the strained plot resembles a patchwork of incoherent scenes stapled together."
Loren Eaton (Focus on the Family) adds, "The movie relishes heartless violence, leers at perverse sexuality, and delights in relentless obscenity."
Movieguide's critic says the movie "is overflowing with the usual action violence, but it adds a dimension of brutality to it with bodies used merely as props for the mayhem. The movie also contains extreme sexual content and some nudity." The writer objects not only to the film's excesses, but also to "references to Buddhism, the New Age, voodoo, and homosexuality. Furthermore, references to Jesus Christ are used for comical effect."
Mainstream critics are similarly incensed. Charles Taylor (Salon) rants, "Necrophilia, explosions, destroyed motor vehicles, gratuitous T&A, and Martin Lawrence and Will Smith doing their lame Abbott-and-Costello act. What's not to hate?"
Mike Clark (USA Today) calls it "appallingly mean-spirited."
Chris Vognar (Dallas Morning News) says, "