Bad Boys: Ride or Die review
The first 45 minutes of Bad Boys: Ride or Die is rough. There’s an abundance of forced comedy and a bullet-hole ridden plot to suggest that the fourth time wasn’t the charm.
Chalk it up to the lack of a 10-year gap between the third installment, Bad Boys for Life and Ride or Die. Maybe Bad Boy films need a minimum of eight years to simmer and marinate for the cop concoction to really sizzle?
Eventually the magnetic chemistry between Will Smith and Martin Lawrence wins out and Ride or Die becomes another worthwhile entry in the series.
Some of the initial trouble is due to the fact that despite the title, it’s time for the boys to grow up. Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) has gradually mellowed out over the years settling into life as a husband, father and grandfather. For Smith’s Mike Lowrey? Why settle down when there’s so much fun to be had?
That worked just fine for the series, which began in 1995, but it’s time for Mike to realize he’s not a 20-something anymore. Especially with Mike recently learning he has an adult son, Armanda Aretas (Jacob Scipio). True, Aretas might be a murdering drug dealer, but Mike wasn’t around to steer him towards upholding the family tradition of being a cop.
The film kicks off with Mike marrying Christine (Melanie Liburd, This Is Us) — a signal of Mike’s newfound maturity. It also leads to Marcus experiencing a life-altering event. Convinced he’s unable to die, Marcus has a more carefree, less reserved even reckless new lease on life. There’s a little awkwardness as Tasha Smith replaces Theresa Randle, who’s played the role of Marcus’ wife, Theresa, for the previous three films. Ironically, Mike is starting to consider all of the things he has to lose creating some hesitancy and reluctance to act as impulsively in dangerous situations.
Switching the dynamic between Mike and Marcus was a savvy decision from screenwriters Chris Bremner and Will Beall. The early execution? Less so as Marcus is even more dramatically over the top sharing his visions of previous lives he and Mike spent together. Lawrence and Smith try and make it work, but these segments are lame.
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Ride or Die improves when the focus shifts to the latest threat. A scandal erupts implicating a major drug cartel and Capt. Howard (Joe Pantoliano), Marcus and Mike’s old boss who got gunned down in For Life. Determined to clear their supervisor’s name, the duo start tracking down leads. Howard’s daughter, (Rhea Seehorn), should be teaming with them, but she can’t trust Mike since Armando was the one who pulled the trigger.
Eric Dane (Euphoria) is the new big bad, an ex-soldier with dozens of highly trained goons, ready to ensure the frame job of Howard stays intact. The true culprit can’t afford to get their actions exposed. As Mike and Marcus investigate further, their list of allies shrinks to Armando, their fellow officers Kelly (Vanessa Hudgens) and Dorn (Alexander Ludwig), Howard’s successor Capt. Rita (Paola Nuñez) and her partner, the mayoral favorite Lockwood (Ioan Gruffudd).
Bad Boys for Life directors Adil & Bilall return bringing the high-intensity action sequences that made their previous installment so much fun. Under Michael Bay’s direction, the Bad Boys franchise had impressive action shootouts that stayed within the framework of reality. Adil & Bilall go bigger and bigger treating the action like a (somewhat) grounded video game.
This approach leads to action scenes that are never dull. Impressively, Adil & Bilall manage to keep the chaotic shootouts from getting too disorienting allowing viewers to have focal points to take in all the action.
The action, explosions, unexpected cameos and inspired shootout backdrops wouldn’t have nearly the same impact if Smith and Lawrence couldn’t keep Ride or Die rolling even through the rough patches. While the early jokes stumble, they set up some huge laughs later on. Their on-screen dynamic might not be as animated and zany as it was back in 1995, but there’s enough spark left that this doesn’t need to be the last ride.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Photo Credit: Sony