I wouldn’t call myself a fan of the Bad Boys series. I only saw the first one relatively recently and I’m not sure I’ve seen the second in its entirety. They are basically Michael Bay movies in every sense of that term, and I’m not really a Michael Bay fan. I more or less feel like if I’ve seen one, I’ve probably seen them all.
But then, for some reason, we got a third installment with Bad Boys for Life. I suspect it’s because Will Smith needs a hit and Martin Lawrence needs work. Nevertheless, here we are.
Actually, I had an interesting experience with Bad Boys for Life. Really late in the movie, with what was obviously the last ten minutes or so as the explosions were going off, the screen went blank. There were projector problems in my screening, but given the nature of what was happening, a more artsy movie might have suggested one or more of the characters had been knocked out. So, there was a slight pause in the packed theater I was in as everyone stopped to wonder what was going on. Eventually, we got both the end of the movie and a free pass which doesn’t do me much good with my A-List pass at the AMC. So, my folks get another one at some point. You know, that’s the third time I’ve had issues at the local AMC in the past six months or so. I don’t think that’s AMC’s problem, but I never had that many issues before I started going there regularly.
But what about the actual movie? Well, we open with Miami Narcotics detectives Mike (Will Smith) and Marcus (Martin Lawrence) in what looks like a high speed chase. It isn’t. Marcus’s daughter is giving birth to his first grandchild, and Marcus is feeling his age. Mike, on the other hand, is going the opposite way. He wants to hold onto his youth despite the fact he’s been a cop for over a quarter of a century. But Mike’s past is coming back to haunt him as a vengeful woman sics her son on Mike for reasons that only gradually come out.
Marcus, meanwhile, just wants to retire and enjoy the rest of his life. Mike may go it alone, but he does have an in with a group of cops calls AMMO run by an old flame of his played by Paola Nunez. This bunch, perhaps being set up as protagonists in future films in the series, use more tech-based methods to run down criminals and, of the three besides the Mike’s ex, are a fairly bland bunch. Only the group’s big guy (Vikings‘ Alexander Ludwig), who mostly just does their tech work, has what might be a minor character arc. He may actually have a bit of a personality. The other two, including one played by Vanessa Hudgens, don’t really stand out.
Now, much of what made this movie any different from other Bad Boys movies is Michael Bay didn’t direct it. Bay does have a cameo in one scene, but that’s about it. And though directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah do copy some of Bay’s signature moves, no one can quite copy Bay’s style. That’s actually something I would prefer. It means the humor isn’t completely juvenile and the female characters aren’t there to just look sexy and shoot straight. Plus, quite frankly, the emotional core of this movie–yes, it has one–doesn’t seem like something that could have come from Bay.
As for the rest, the action scenes mostly work aside from a few moments in a motorcycle chase, and if Martin Lawrence’s comedy style is your thing, you may get a bit of a laugh out of it. I didn’t laugh at much of anything aside from the sudden blackout, but a lot of the people in the screening with me enjoyed it.
All in all, Bad Boys for Life is a rather average action movie with some so-so comedy. It wasn’t a great movie or anything, but it wasn’t quite as bad as most January releases I’ve seen, particularly given the long gap in time between movies. It could have been far, far worse.
Grade: C
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