The 1996 comedy movie Bulletproof is getting a direct-to-video sequel sequel next month which trades in Damon Wayans and Adam Sandler for new actors in the same roles. Called Bulletproof 2, the movie will be released next month on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital on Jan. 7, 2020. An official trailer for the sequel has also been released by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, and you can watch it yourself below.
Released in 1996, the original Bulletproof was directed by Ernest Dickerson using a screenplay by Joe Gayton and Lewis Colick. It starred Damon Wayans as Jack, an undercover police officer, alongside Adam Sandler as Moses, a dimwitted criminal. When Moses accidentally shoots Jack in the head upon his arrest, the officer miraculously recovers and is tasked with keeping Moses safe from harm long enough to have him testify again a drug kingpin played by James Caan. James Farentino, Jeep Swenson, and Kristen Wilson also starred.
Bulletproof 2 is directed by Don Michael Paul (Kindergarten Cop 2) and written by Rich Wilkes (xXx). Mike Elliot, Lisa Gooding, and Greg Holstein are producing. Set 25 years after the events of the original Bulletproof, the movie recasts Wayans and Sandler’s characters with Faizon Love (Friday) and Kirk Fox (Parks and Recreation). Also starring in prominent roles in the movie are horror movie legend Tony Todd (Candyman) and Cassie Clare (Death Race 4: Beyond Anarchy).
In the sequel, Jack (Faizon Love) is now working as a Special Agent with a mission to take down a powerful South African crime family. The officer begrudgingly goes undercover once again, this time taking the identity of Moses (Kirk Fox) – the man who shot him in the head a quarter-century ago who has close ties to the case. Of course, everything goes haywire when the real Moses gets unwittingly put in danger, and Jack and Moses must once again figure out how to stay alive while trying to foil the sinister plans of a high-profile criminal mastermind.
Critically, Bulletproof is not the most popular movie to come from the ’90s, as it sits with a paltry 8% rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie’s own director is not a fan of the movie either, revealing in an interview years later he wanted to “erase” the whole experience of making Bulletproof. “I’m proud of a lot of the films I’ve done, but there’s some situations that happened that in retrospect maybe I could have handled them a little differently if I had been a little smarter about it,” Dickinson said about the comedy movie.
While Dickinson and the majority of critics weren’t colored impressed by the original Bulletproof, the movie does in fact have its fans. Some would consider the classic comedy an underrated ’90s gem which didn’t get the love it deserves, with Wayans and Sandler comedically working very well together. We’ll see if Bulletproof 2 manages to win the critics over in a way that the original movie couldn’t, but I wouldn’t be the farm on it. The Bulletproof 2 trailer comes to us from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.