Michael Bay has certainly come a long way since his explosive directorial debut at the helm of a buddy cop movie starring a Fresh Prince and a relatively unknown stand-up comedian.

As Bad Boys went on to become the top grossing film of 1995, Bay was well on his way to becoming one of the youngest directors to reach the $1 billion mark with box office smashes The Rock, Armageddon and Pearl Harbor.

Given his credentials, Bad Boys II might have suffered from understandably high expectations but this is treated as less of an obstacle and more of a challenge.

Every scene is bigger, badder and better than before and the two leads slip straight back into the characters that made the first film after a remarkable eight-year absence.

Miami-based narcotics detectives Mike Lowrey (Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) are pretty much the same, promotions withstanding, but the Russian bad-guys have been ousted by a psychotic Cuban called Johnny Tapia.

Everyone still wants to be like Mike, who drives a silver Ferrari and wears Armani suits, while married-with-kids Marcus seems even more bitter and twisted than usual as he goes through a midlife crisis.

Their already dysfunctional partnership takes a shaky turn when Marcus' beautiful sister Syd (Union), an undercover Drugs Enforcement agent, makes a play for player Mike.

But the best friends have to overcome their differences when Syd's cover is blown and it's up to them to rescue her and take down drugs kingpin Tapia.

The action here is what makes the movie. Smith and Lawrence's witty comebacks and petty quarrels are still funny though they'll never be as fresh.

But that doesn't matter when what we came to see were gunfights and car chases - there's no way you'll be let down on this front. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Top Gun, Crimson Tide) knows what he's doing and does it well.

Dominic Bloch