About the film (courtesy of Columbia Pictures):
The Bad Boys Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) are back together for one last ride in the highly anticipated Bad Boys for Life.
It’s been almost 17 years since we last saw Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) together on the big screen cracking jokes, heads and cases. A franchise that started all the way back in 1995 has finally broken cover again with Bad Boys for Life. Along with Smith and Lawrence, Joe Pantoliano reprises his role as Captain Howard, aka the unlucky boss that has to navigate around their shenanigans in order to allow their brilliance to shine through. Theresa Randle and Bianca Bethune are back as well as wife and daughter, respectively to Marcus.
New players to the game are a former acquaintance of Detective Lowrey, Rita (Paola Nuñez) who heads up a special task force simply called AMMO (Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Charles Melton) along with a new mother-son team (Kate del Castillo, Jacob Scipio) who change the direction of the franchise forever. Bringing in a couple of musical icons such as DJ Khaled and Nicky Jam always helps to bring a little unexpected and nontraditional fun.
Who’s out is director Michael Bay, a fixture for the first two films. In his place are Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah aka Adil and Bilall to pick up where Bay left off, all the way down his signature camera style and angles. The plot itself is decent, although mostly predictable. The chemistry between the film’s main stars and some of the supporting cast is the reason that people will want to go out to see Bad Boys for Life. There’s enough fun banter to made the third offering NOT dreadful. That being said, there’s a reason Sony and Columbia Pictures opted to release this in the middle of January rather than around a major holiday.
I know that the Lethal Weapon franchise got away with “older cop” narrative. With what Mike and Marcus are going through in Bad Boys for Life, their paths are pretty similar. If, and this is a big IF, this latest chapter realizes a profitable return on its investment, you will probably see another future film. The question then becomes how are they going to market Smith and Lawrence being the silver foxes (Grecian Formula 16 not withstanding) that they are?
Enjoy the action, crude comments a flashy effects. And since you’re there you might as well stay in your seats to see what the credits will bring. Bad Boys for Life. This is a pure popcorn flick that audiences shouldn’t expect to be completely polished and perfect. Take it for what it is and enjoy your two hour outing. You can see it and forget in theaters now.
