Review: Bad Boys For Life
Bad Boys 3 always felt like one of those pipe dreams like Beetlejuice 2 or a good Duke Nukem Forever, something that you hear about every now and again but never actually happens. Hell even when the film was released I was still sceptical that it was real, let alone that it be any good, what with the 17 year gap since the last one and the fact that the only thing of note that Martin Lawrence has done recently was Big Momma’s House 3 nine fucking years ago.
And yet, despite everything, Bad Boys For Life was released earlier this year, made quite a bit of money and was apparently quite good. So since I’ve now revisited the last two I figured I’d see how this one stacks up and if it manages to fall onto the good side of long awaited sequels.
Spoiler alert, it kinda does.
17 years since Bad Boys 2 and the Miami PD Partners of Marcus Burnett and Mike Lowry have gotten old, Marcus has just had his first grandchild born and looking to retire soon while Mike is losing footraces to his older, chubbier partner. It’s during a playful challenge between the partners in which Mike is shot by a mysterious biker and falls into a coma for six months.
While Mike is in the coma, the biker kills more people involved with law enforcement, a judge, a forensic investigator, a DEA Agent. The biker is a man called Armando, son of Isabel Aretas who took over her husband’s cartel after his death in prison, she blames Mike for her husband’s death and wants everyone involved with his arrest killed in vengeance, using her son as her weapon.
Once up and healing, Mike wastes no time turning vigilante and looking for the biker, taking a very reluctant Marcus along for the ride with him, but only on the condition they team up with new tactical squad AMMO, led by Mike’s ex-fling Rita. With old dogs and new tricks, the Bad Boys face off against ruthless killers, coked-out lunatics and worst of all... failing eyesight.
The story here is actually pretty good, now with Mike directly in the firing line it adds a sense of urgency whilst also giving a more personal touch to the whole thing, it follows the same path as the last film with Mike and Marcus following each little clue to the next set-piece but the added weight of their age and the connection to the case gives it a little more flavour. I wasn’t completely sold in the first half with Marcus’ retirement keeping the two apart for a little longer than I wanted, but after quite a shocking moment that reunites them I was fully on board from there on out.
One thing to note, I was already spoiled about the twist – damn internet – and I wasn’t 100% sure about it on paper, but to the film’s credit they actually pull it off quite well.
A lot of old faces turn up here, including fucking Reggie of all people for a couple scenes, as well as a Michael Bay cameo, but in all seriousness it was nice to see some of the old guard again, most notably Joey Pants as Captain Howard who is still too tightly wound and furious at everything but time has given him some wisdom that he’s willing to talk to Mike about.
There were also a few new members to the franchise as well, I would’ve liked to have seen a little bit more of Isabel, she had a nice first scene of her prison escape but she’s pretty much background noise after that, but for what its worth her son Armando fills the role of main villain quite well, he’s talented, dangerous, ruthless but not without his own morals, such as his refusal to hurt innocents. It’s not a tough battle but he’s arguably the best villain of the trilogy, if only for how effective he is at killing.
Also joining the team were the members of AMMO, a new high-tech unit of the Miami PD with enough toys and gadgets to put Batman to shame. Aside from Rita none of the team got a lot to do but they were all well characterised in the little time they had, tech-guy Dorn was a brick shithouse pacifist who made a point of staying away from violence, Rafe was a cocky shithead who teased Mike and Marcus about their age but his charisma helped them out when it needed to, and Kelly – played by Vanessa Hudgens who I kept forgetting was in this film – had the confidence to essentially be second in command and get shit done. They were a good team and if we do get Bad Boys 4 – which we’ll see about 2053 if they keep up this time frame – I hope they return, most of all Rita who makes a solid impact in her first appearance, her history with Mike is touched upon but never felt forced, adding a friendly yet flirty dynamic between them that worked a lot better than Syd. At the same time, Rita as her own character was pretty solid, she was the head of a major unit and carried herself as such, happy to joke around with her team but willing to pull rank on anyone if necessary, even the great Mike Lowry.
Despite the time between sequels, it was nice to see Smith and Lawrence fall right back into their characters, since Mike was so tightly connected to the storyline he got a lot more to work with but this allowed Lawrence to add some levity to the film when it was needed. Marcus’ big thing this time around, aside from now being a grandfather, is that he’s trying to live a quiet, peaceful life, even making a deal with God to turn pacifist if Mike is allowed to live through his shooting. It’s nothing new for Marcus who’s always wanted to settle down with his wife and kids – though I did chuckle at him and his wife still not having sex after 25 years – but the addition of God and the fact that morality has very suddenly and violently entered his thoughts it made sense why he’s be pushing to end things now. While both guys got their ages ripped into Marcus got a fair brunt of the jokes including a running gag about needing glasses but Lawrence rolled with it and played into the fact that Marcus REALLy should’ve retired by now and I appreciate that.
Far and away though, this is Smith’s film, with the attempt of his life being the focal point for what comes next, the invincible Mike Lowry is reminded that he’s only human and that drives him forward for better or worse. It’s an emotional core to the film but it’s a hard emotion to follow and I appreciate the film for balancing that level of rage with a humorous overtone, it’s not perfect but Smith’s performance helps sell it, you can see shades of the old Mike in there with how he acts and how he dresses but Smith has this seething fury underneath it all that threatens to put him right back into the shit if he’s not careful. It’s refreshing not only to see a different side of Mike after Smith’s playfulness of the last two films, but also to see Smith given a character he can chew on, Mike is older but not wiser and it’s the lesson he learns through the film that make him that much more interesting this time around.
With Michael Bay relegated to cameo performance, the directing duties this time around falls to Belgian pair Adil and Bilall in their Hollywood debut, and honestly I want to see more of what these two have. They manage to understand what made the first two films work and brought it into the modern age exceedingly well, it’s still a funny franchise with most of the jokes here revolving around how old Mike and Marcus are now but oddly enough, it never felt like they were treading the same ground because of how many different ways they found to make the joke, Marcus not being able to shoot anything, the misunderstanding of new technology and the pining for the good old days of getting shit done yourself. Adding onto that the very real sense of morality that both Mike and Marcus have to face and it’s a theme that never outstays its welcome, in fact the film is better for having included it as well as they did.
Action wise there’s nothing to the level of the Freeway car chase at the start of Bad Boys 2 but there’s a few that come close, although admittedly I wasn’t initially sold, there’s a few decent action scenes within the first half; a short fistfight between Mike and Armando, a gunfight in a car garage with quite a violent ending, good stuff but nothing that stood out. But then the film pulled out a trump card, a small chase scene with Mike and Marcus chasing down a suspect on a bike seemed to be over quite quickly, leading to a gross but funny scene with Marcus and a head-wound, but then it turned into a gunfight between gangsters and AMMO which then turned into another chase scene, this time Mike and Marcus on a bike and side-car with a fucking minigun, which then turned again into a fight with a helicopter. It’s that level of escalation that made me love the freeway chase last time and it’s shown here again with slow-motion explosions and dangerous driving, and I haven’t even touched upon the finale which manages to pack a LOT of destruction into quite a small environment and I liked a lot of what they did, some iffy CGI fire sure but when you’re watching people take out stone pillars with their bodied and shooting through the floor with a very cool camera spin you learn to ignore that all and just enjoy what you’re given.
As I said at the start, I was sceptical of Bad Boys For Life going in, it had been too long, Smith didn’t have the same draw he used to, Lawrence is almost irrelevant and it’s directed by a pair I’ve never heard of. But colour me surprised, not only was it a solid return for the franchise, but it might actually be the best one, the story is fun but personal, giving an emotional core that’s been missing from previous entries, Smith and Lawrence still have amazing chemistry together with Smith especially giving his best performance as Mike Lowry to date and duo Adil and Bilall take the reins well, making the film funny, exciting and just a little bit insane whilst adding their own flavour of maturity to reflect the age of the characters. It’s rare for a 20 year old sequel to work, rarer still for it to be the best of the lot, but call this one Fury Road because that’s exactly what it is.
7.5/10