LOGLINE: Detectives Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) become fugitives from the law when they are forced to bend the rules in their investigation into corruption in the Miami PD and their former captain’s (Joe Pantoliano) alleged involvement with the Romanian Mafia. “You’re my bad boys,” says Capt. Conrad Howard on a video. “Now clear my name.”
CAST: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Paola Núñez, Eric Dane, Ioan Gruffudd, Rhea Seehorn, Jacob Scipio, Melanie Liburd, Tasha Smith, Tiffany Haddish, Joe Pantoliano. Directed by Adil & Bilall
REVIEW: A classic odd couple, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, maintain the chemistry that has fueled this franchise for almost three decades, and “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” is all the better for it. They’ve slowed somewhat, but their breathless back-and-forth, usually while they’re under fire from all directions, is as sharp, and funny as ever.
That’s the good news.
The bad news is that much of the movie feels like an exercise in nostalgia. The directorial style, courtesy of Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, pays homage to the frenetic style of original director Michael Bay. To reinforce their debt to the franchise’s former director, they even give Bay a quick cameo.
There’s nothing much fresh about “Bad Boys: Ride or Die.” Old characters are brought back (sometimes from the dead), the only thing more generic than the villain feels is the dialogue (eg: “You’re playing a game and don’t know the rules.”) and with the exception of a hungry, giant alligator, the peril is same old.
Cudos, however, to whoever came up with the idea of Smith taking a (Oscar) slap (or three) to the face in a scene that suggests he’s open to atonement for his mistreatment of Chris Rock.
“Bad Boys: Ride or Die” delivers what you expect from the franchise, which is a crowd-pleasing mix of action and comedy. The story may be implausible but the chemistry that drives it is completely tangible.
Almost seventeen years after “Bad Boys II” Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) and Mike Lowrey (Will Smith), are longer in the tooth but still ready for some over-the-top action in a one-last-job movie. “I’ve never trusted anybody but you,” says Lowery says to Burnett in “Bad Boys for Life.” “I’m asking you, man. Bad Boys, one last time?”
Once “bad boys for life,” the team of Burnett and Lowrey is coming apart at the seams. Middle age and career aspirations have sent the once inseparable team in opposite directions. Burnett, now a grandfather, is one the edge of retirement—”Mike, we got more time behind us than in front,” he says.—while Lowery is still hungry for the adrenaline rush that comes with police work. “I’m going to be running down criminals till I’m a hundred,” he says.
Their lives have led them in different directions but when Armando Armas Tapia (Jacob Scipio), a drug kingpin and son of a man Burnett and Lowery took down years ago, resurfaces looking for vengeance, the two cops put the band back together. “Family is the only thing that matters,” Burnett says to Lowery. “I’m not letting you go on this suicide mission alone.”
“Bad Boys for Life” doesn’t feel so much like a sequel or a reboot as it does a tribute to the Michael Bay films of the o-so-many-years-ago. The patented “Bad Boys” high style feels like nostalgia for the 1990s when movie violence came with dark humor and buddy cop charisma. The story of a vengeful drug dealer is about as deep as a lunch try but directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, who have clearly worshiped at the altar of Bay, understand that the success or failure of a “Bad Boys” movie isn’t about the story but the sparks generated by Smith and Lawrence. The pair, now aged 51 and 54 respectively, fall back into their roles effortlessly, having some fun with their middle-aged selves. “Bad boys ain’t really boys anymore.”
One effectively staged scene compares and contrasts the partners and their stages of life. It’s a funny sequence that intercuts Lowery putting on his Ray Bans with a flourish while Burnett struggles to get his reading glasses on his face, etc. It’s a nice light show-me-don’t-tell-me scene that sets up the dynamic between the two.
The wild action scenes that follow tend toward orgiastic videogame style shootouts, particularly the climatic battle, but succeed because the CGI is kept to a minimum and the gunshots are punctuated by Lawrence’s quips.
“Bad Boys for Life” keeps the camera in constant motion, filling the screen with equal parts over-the-top violence and humour, breathing new life into a franchise that was declared dead when George W. Bush was still president.
