Written by Ben Murchison
With 17 years since the last Bad Boys film, there are plenty of members of the latest sequel’s current target demographic that weren’t even born the last time Detectives Mike Lowery (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) graced theaters to solve cases for the Miami PD. However, after Bad Boys for Life, there is going to be a whole new built-in audience that will be Bad Boys (fans) for life.
If you liked the prior Michael Bay-directed installments, Bad Boys and Bad Boys II, then there is no reason why you won’t be on board for this one as well. It not only stands up to the nostalgic legacy of the other films, but in some ways, it even surpasses them. It’s still flashy in the best way—which should be a given with a story set in a location like Miami. As much as the second film ramped things up after the original’s grittier, ’90s action movie feel, this third installment somehow keeps pace (which is no easy task considering over-the-top is how most people describe Michael Bay’s style). It has an eclectic score, nifty technology, and fun cameos sprinkled throughout. Plus, Mike has a gaudy new Porsche and an even more lavish condo to make everyone vibe with the film from the beginning. There are plenty of predictable callback shots that scream, “doesn’t this look cool?” but it does, so it works.
Taking over the directing chair, or chairs rather, from Bay are Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, who blend their fresh style into the Jerry Bruckheimer production. Without a doubt, there are objects in every scene that simply exist to be blown up or shot up in order to create a backdrop of fire, chaos, and color to overload your senses. What they don’t do though, is make you feel lost in any of the shootouts and car chases. The film blends slow-motion, with longer tracking shots and avoids too many quick cuts, which plague a lot of action movies. It still has a lot of odd quips in the middle of the life or death situations, because that’s the tone that these movies go for, but sometimes the delivery from Smith and especially from Lawrence make them work even when they are outrageously ill-timed.
Often when a film tries to return to characters this much later, they can feel like a parody of themselves, but Smith and Lawrence still have the same chemistry and the slower first half of the movie leans on that. Luckily, it doesn’t rely solely on a “getting old” schtick, even though that’s a theme since the film begins with Marcus retiring after the birth of his first grand baby. It has jokes about grey hair, glasses and getting slower, but the aging theme is not utilized nearly as often as the movie title is quoted. The choice to have Mike and Marcus moving in different directions provides a hilarious montage of their respective days, but at a certain point, you do just want to see Marcus flip a switch again, and that takes a bit too long.
What the film does really well is blend in a lot of young new players into the cast, giving you just enough to care about them but not so much that they steal any of the limelight away from the two stars. Most of those fresh faces are members of an elite new team of the Miami PD called AMMO. Lowery is forced by Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano, who is as annoyed and great as ever) to team up with them and track Armando (Jacob Scipio), an assassin eliminating targets somehow tied to Lowery.
They quickly prove their worth—none more than AMMO leader Rita (Paola Nunez), who just so happens to also be a former flame of Mike’s and a force from minute one. Kelly (Vanessa Hudgens, who has been excellent in recent action films like Polar) is the first to step up by providing Lowery solid backup during a surveillance mission gone wrong. Rafe (Charles Melton) gets to trade fun barbs with Mike and fill the void left by Marcus, who is busy annoying his wife (Theresa Randle) at home. Dorn (Alexander Ludwig) gets the most backstory and it allows Ludwig to play against type and be the computer expert of the group rather than the muscle that you would expect.
For the first time, they are up against a villain that poses a legitimate physical threat even when guns are down. Armando is taking orders from his mother Isabel (Kate del Castillo), who appears to be straight out of a telenovela, and he has layers to him even if his actions make you hate him. However, it’s a bit ridiculous that nobody is able to connect the dots sooner as to their motivations, or get a news report from Mexico, but that would have been too simple, apparently. Otherwise, the film takes genuine risks, and provides heavy moments for Smith and Lawrence to shine. Still, while some of the risks push the story forward, others feel more forced and are to the detriment of the movie as a whole. One major plot point almost gives the ending an incomplete feeling, but you are able to look past it because you still had fun, and while you might question if it was necessary, the filmmakers still execute their vision well.
Ultimately, the comedic talents of Smith and Lawrence spliced with the big, stylized action sequences synonymous with the series keep Bad Boys for Life positively grounded even when the plot starts to float away from them a bit. There is enough of what you already love, coupled with a fresh new direction and a maturity you would expect from this duo. With the early success of this film, you should expect to see a follow-up movie in the works, and hopefully they take their time to get it right like they did with this one.
