Bad Boys for Life (2020) Columbia/Action-Comedy RT: 123 minutes Rated R (strong bloody violence, language throughout, sexual references, brief drug use) Director: Adil and Bilall (Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah) Screenplay: Chris Bremner, Peter Craig and Joe Carnahan Music: Lorne Balfe Cinematography: Robrecht Heyvaert Release date: January 17, 2020 (US) Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Charles Melton, Paola Nunez, Kate del Castillo, Nicky Jam, Joe Pantoliano, Theresa Randle, Jacob Scorpio, DJ Khaled. Box Office: $204.4M (US)/$424.6M (World)
Rating: ** ½
I never in my wildest dreams thought I’d ever hear myself utter these words but you know what they say about desperate times- e.g. January at the multiplexes. Where is Michael Bay when you need him? Yes, that Michael Bay; the same one responsible for five Transformers movies. So where is he? Making a cameo as a wedding MC in Bad Boys for Life, a belated three-quel that reunites Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as a pair of hotshot Miami cops joining forces one last time to take down a cartel leader with a personal grudge.
Bay directed the first two outings and while they’re in no way, shape or form classics, they stand out due to the extreme levels of violence, noise, destruction and bedlam orchestrated by Bay. As one of the few critics willing to admit to loving Bad Boys II, I wanted more of that kind of thing in Bad Boys for Life. The replacement directors, Belgian-born duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (set to direct Beverly Hills Cop IV next), dial things back a bit. It’s almost like the movies, like its main characters, are slowing down with age. And it has aged. It’s been 17 years since the last installment and 25 years since the first one.
So what have our hero cops, Mike Lowrey (Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence), been up to lately? Well, Marcus has just become a first-time grandfather. He’s starting to seriously consider retirement. Mike, on the other hand, hasn’t changed all that much. He still wears stylish clothes and drives expensive cars. He’s nowhere near ready to put in his papers. Nobody informed the cruel hands of fate of this. A guy on a motorcycle guns him down on a crowded street. Mike may be temporarily down, but he’s nowhere near out. No way! It’s going to take more than that to get rid of the “bulletproof cop”.
In the six months it takes Mike to recover, a few others- a judge, prosecutor and forensic specialist- are killed by the same guy. Mike, now back on his feet, is determined to find out who’s behind the shootings and why. He presses on despite orders from long-suffering Captain Howard (Pantoliano, The Matrix) to stay out of it. He asks Marcus for help, but his longtime partner/best friend made a promise to God to completely swear off violence if He allowed Mike to survive so the answer is no. That leaves a team of millennial police officers called AMMO (Advanced Miami Metro Operations) led by Mike’s ex-girlfriend Rita (Nunez, TV’s The Purge), to back him up.
As for the identity of the person behind the violence, it’s no secret. It’s the wife (Castillo, The 33) of a cartel leader that Mike helped put away early on in his career. She escapes from prison with the help of her son Armando (Scipio) who she orders to kill everybody involved in the case against her family. There’s a little more to it than that; I’ll only say that it’s the stuff of a silly Mexican telenovela.
To be perfectly blunt, Bad Boys for Life is as routine as action-comedies get with all the shoot-outs, vehicle chases, comic interplay between the two stars and other assorted mayhem. The climax even takes place in a burning building during a rainstorm. In regard to Mike acting as a consultant to AMMO, it’s a case of old school vs. new school police work. The three young cops, played by Vanessa Hudgens (Spring Breakers), Alexander Ludwig (Vikings) and Charles Melton (Riverdale), are proficient in 21st century law enforcement- computers, drones and non-lethal weapons- while Mike is still a boots on the ground/break down the door/pile up the bodies type of cop.
There are several jokes about Marcus’ trying to enjoy his new life of retirement and non-violence. Only we know that neither thing will stick. Sooner or later, he’ll be pulled back in. These are plot elements we’ve seen in dozens of action-comedies. Swap out the leads for two other guys, change a few story details and you could call it Lethal Weapon 5.
Castillo’s character, a self-proclaimed bruja (a Mexican witch), is like something out of a spoof. I can see her character being used in a Last Action Hero-style satire of franchise action flicks. Scipio is okay as the vicious cartel guy. Pantoliano is still funny as the Pepto-Bismol, f-word spouting captain always angry about Mike and Marcus’ reckless ways.
I noticed something very odd about Bad Boys for Life. It openly borrows ideas from Smith’s previous live-action outing, last fall’s Gemini Man. Take the villain Armando. He rides a motorcycle, he’s clad in black and his face is concealed by his helmet. There’s also a scene where Smith’s character fights Armando on a hotel roof as they make their way to the ground. Frankly, I’m amazed. Gemini Man just came out about three months ago and somebody’s already copying it. Did they do reshoots or did the writers get an early peek at the Gemini Man script? This cannot be a coincidence.
Bad Boys for Life has some amusing moments even though it feels like Smith and Lawrence are just going through the motions most of the time. They don’t seem overly enthused about reviving their Bad Boys characters. It’s been nearly a decade since Lawrence starred in a movie; the last one was 2011’s Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son. Like his character here, he was pulled out of retirement for one last ride.
Oh, don’t hold me to the “last ride” part; a mid-credits scene promises a fourth movie. If this one hits, it’ll happen.
