When the first “Bad Boys” came out, I wasn’t really that interested in seeing it. I wanted to see “A Goofy Movie” a whole lot more than the latest shoot-’em-up in my freshman year in high school. But a year later, I came to experience the magic that made “Bad Boys” such a fantastic piece of popcorn in the 90s.

Eight years later, and the salivating mouths, eyes and ears wait no more. The cast and some of the crew returns to blow us all away in the two-and-a-half hour opus, “Bad Boys II.”

Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) and Mike Lowrey (Smith) have just about reached the end of the line in their relationship together as partners against crime and buddies off-duty. Marcus is putting in his papers for a transfer to a less-dangerous position and Mike has found the right, yet wrong, woman for his long-term affections: Marcus’ sister Syd (Gabrielle Union of “Deliver Us from Eva”).

At work, M & M have to stop the biggest underground drug-boss takeover in Miami to date. It’s gonna be another long week as Marcus and Mike try to take them down without trying to take each other down first.

The plot seems simple enough, but between the cocky banter and lengthy action scenes, well, it’s the between that will kill ya. The movie isn’t as lightning-fast or quick paced as the first film, thanks to the flawed hands of Marianne and Cormac Wibberley (responsible for the awful “I Spy” of last year, but somehow managed the fun fest of “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle”). With the talent onscreen and the skilled hands behind the camera, you’d expect better.

Upon closer inspection, the silent killer is really in the score composer: Trevor Rabin. He’s cool and all, having done the music for other Bruckheimer flicks like “Con Air,” “Gone in 60 Seconds” and “Remember the Titans.” But they should have stuck with the original man: Mark Mancina. If Bay and Bruckheimer was thoughtful enough to use the “Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Films” intro credit sequence (as an homage to Simpson and Bruckheimer being responsible for the original), the very least they could have done was bring back the original score composer. He filled the gaps and background where it counted most, starting the film off with a bang and juicing the action sequences up all the more.

Alas, everything else is right on the money. Smith and Lawrence are worth whatever fortunes they got paid to team up again. More dialogue with Theresa Randle as Lawrence’s on-screen wife would have been a nice treat, but Union as Smith’s on-screen love interest is testament to her increasing potential as an entertainer.

The symphonies of violence are nothing to balk at. That is, until the concluding scenes in Cuba; by that point, so much gunning and killing has happened that the sequence is practically a parody of the essence of “Bad Boys” and dare I say, “Mission: Impossible 2.” Kinda makes you wonder how that got in there.

I digress. Bay utilizes computer graphics to emphasize some extreme bullet-ballet, to awe-inducing and knee-slapping effect. Not that that kind of thing should be merited with an award, but it’s nifty nevertheless. The trouble the production went through to film the elaborate car chase on the MacArthur causeway in Miami certainly looks worth all the pain and money; it’s a marvel to see to be believed.

After all the bullets have pierced or sunk into their targets and bodies have flown the requisite 50 feet or so, most of us paid our $6-10 just to see Smith and Lawrence do what they do best together: rag on each other with reckless abandon, but come to love each other in the end. I guess that’s what real bad boys do.