Over 30 years ago, a relatively unknown commercial director helmed his first full-length film, featuring two sitcom actors hoping to make the leap to movie stardom. The result was 1995 blockbuster Bad Boys, which catapulted director Michael Bay (Transformers, The Rock, Armageddon) and actors Will Smith (Men in Black, King Richard) and Martin Lawrence (Big Momma’s House) and to Hollywood’s A-list. By the time they got around to a sequel in 2003’s Bad Boys II all three men were proven box office draws, and the result was a glorified showreel for Michael Bay’s signature “Bayhem” – big, loud, and hilariously crass, it was the perfect summer movie.

17 years later, the third entry, 2020’s Bad Boys For Life, reunited the actors, while acclaimed Belgian crime directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (the duo behind Gangsta and the unreleased Batgirl film) took over for Michael Bay. Endlessly kinetic and entertaining, the surprisingly emotional third film was well received, but unfortunately premiered right before the Covid lockdown. Now, in a post-pandemic, post-Oscars-slap world, Smith, Lawrence, and directors El Arbi and Fallah are gunning for redemption with Bad Boys: Ride or Die.

The story

Detectives Mike Lowry (Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) continue to lead the Miami Police Department’s AMMO (Advanced Miami Metro Operations) tactical team. The duo may be older, but they’re as reckless and irreverent as ever. When evidence emerges of their deceased commanding officer’s (Joe Pantoliano, The Matrix) alleged collusions with drug cartels, the so-called Bad Boys will need to figure out who they can trust in their search for the truth. But when a five-million-dollar bounty is placed on their heads, they’ll have to run and gun their way through Miami’s worst to clear their names.

The magic is back

This series has always been a throwback to the heyday of buddy cop comedies, recalling the likes of 48 Hours and Lethal Weapon, while placing its own unique stamp on the formula. Admittedly, some of the humor hasn’t aged well (seeing two police officers unholster their firearms for the flimsiest of reasons is sure to trigger some audiences), the main draw has always been the chemistry between Smith and Lawrence. No matter how relentlessly ludicrous (and well-shot) the circumstances in these movies, we can always count on the bickering buddy cops to bring the laughs.

From Mike’s exasperation at Marcus’s disrespecting his Porsche and their terrible luck at convenience stores, to the duo’s inability to remember the words to their own theme song, the Bad Boys are back, speeding through sun-drenched Miami streets and bickering like a married couple.

Now aged 55 and 59, respectively, Smith and Lawrence’s transition from upstarts to rock stars to nostalgic callbacks through these films has been remarkably organic. Much like Tom Cruise stepping back into the cockpit as Maverick, or Michael Keaton suiting up as Batman, for audiences of a certain age, watching Smith and Lawrence bicker is like catching up with old friends.

From boys to (old) men

The screenplay remembers to acknowledge that time has passed, with perennial bachelor Mike finally settling down to tie the knot, and Marcus having half-baked epiphanies after a near-death experience. While Mike’s storyline is a nice bit of character progression, Marcus’s arc plays like an unamusing cross between his accidental ingestion of Ecstasy from Part II and his desire to retire in For Life, coming across as forced and unfunny. The material (and the characters) fares much better when it sets with the hero cops in unfamiliar situations, such as recasting them as fugitives when they’re framed for breaking Lowry’s illegitimate son out of prison. 

There’s continuity now (?!)

If you’d told this writer in 2003 that the Bad Boys movies would go on to start an ongoing storyline in their third decade and not have it be a complete disaster, he would have laughed in your face, but here we are, and it’s…not entirely bad. Yes, the previous movie’s soap opera twist of Mike Lowry having a hitherto unknown son by a Mexican drug lord’s wife is still stupid beyond belief, but seeing as this is a series where heavily armed cops invade foreign countries without consequence, it’s best to just go with it.

Building on a plotline introduced in the series’ first-ever post-credits scene, Armando (Jacob Scipio Expend4bles) now fights on the side of the angels in a Fast and Furious-like face turn, despite having literally killed Captain Howard last time around. While the bulk of the plot centers on the Mexican cartel’s quest for revenge, Howard’s daughter Judy (Better Call Saul’s incomparable Rhea Seehorn) –now a U.S. Marshal– is likewise out for payback from the man who shot her father.

Returning characters

It’s always fun to see returning characters in any long-running series, and Bad Boys is no different. Aside from Marcus’s family (albeit with Tasha Smith replacing Theresa Randle as his wife), we’ve got Captain Howard in a pre-taped video, DJ Khaled’s hapless criminal from the last movie, and even an appearance from put-upon hacker Fletcher (John Salley, formerly of the NBA), who was missing from the third installment. By far, it’s Marcus’s son-in-law Reggie who makes the biggest impact, featuring in one of the film’s most unabashedly entertaining sequences.

Also returning are two of the AMMO agents introduced in For Life, in the forms of Kelly (Vanessa Hudgens, High School Musical) Dorn (Alexander Ludwig, The Hunger Games). Here, the duo’s loyalty to Mike and Marcus is unquestionable, the duo helps out with the detective work, while getting in a couple of memorable action beats in the bullet-heavy finale.

Action, action, everywhere

Speaking of the finale, trying to match the action highs (and excesses) of Bad Boys II would have been a big ask of any director, and so it goes that directors El Arbi and Fallah break free of their adherence (in Bad Boys for Life) to the Michael Bay aesthetic here, delivering their own take on the genre. The result is exhilaratingly iconic, as drones, handheld cameras, and gimbals are used to take the viewer into the mayhem like never before. At the same time, Smith and Lawrence’s characters dish out enough banter and bullets to keep us entertained, while distracting us the unlikelihood of anyone escaping such violence (relatively) unscathed.

The villains are (still) boring

Aside from Jordi Mollà’s (Riddick) unhinged Johnny Tapia in Bad Boys II, the bad guys in these films have been mostly disposable. Sure, For Life tried to do something different with Kate del Castillo’s (TV’s The 33) La Bruha, but we all knew there was no way her character had actual black magic powers. This time around, Eric Dane (TV’s Grey’s Anatomy, Euphoria) takes on the role of big bad, exuding about as much menace as a discarded pack of gum. 

Granted, there’s a secondary villain that you’ll see coming a mile away, but the biggest surprise with that guy is his (virtually unrecognizable) actor’s superhero past. In any case, nobody watches these films for the villains, and as far as warm bodies for the heroes to arrest and/or dispatch in amusing ways go, the ones we get here are perfectly serviceable while remaining entirely forgettable.

The bottom line

Bad Boys: Ride or Die is a sequel that’s better than it has any right to be; as opposed to the plethora of legacy sequels we’ve been inundated with as of late, this is a continuation in the truest sense, following our heroes into old age, without diminishing them of their agency or incorporating any sort of “passing of the torch” moments. When the film ends, the titular “Boys” are a little worse for wear, but clearly ready to be pressed back into service, should this entry do well at the box office.

Given that the film cleared $56 million at the U.S. box office on its opening weekend, odds are in the filmmakers favor that the next sequel will be around sooner than later. If that movie is anywhere near as fast, frenetic, and funny as Bad Boys: Ride or Die, put us down for a ticket.

Whatcha gonna do? 

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