directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilail Fallah
written by Chris Bremner, Will Beall and George Gallo
In his first film that he actually shot after having slapped Chris Rock in the face at the 2022 Oscars, Will Smith revisits one of the characters who helped propel him to stardom, that of Miami detective Mike Lowry. As before, he is paired with comedian Martin Lawrence as fellow detective Marcus Burnett, as the Bad Boys hit the big screen once more.
The film opens with Mike getting married to his girlfriend Christine (Melanie Liburd) and with Marcus getting a heart attack during the reception. It was harrowing enough experience, but soon the partners have an altogether different problem: it seems that their beloved, deceased Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano, who appears in a series of recorded video messages) who was murdered in the last film by Mike's estranged son Armando (Jacob Scipio) at the behest of the drug cartel, is being framed by shady types headed by ex-Army Ranger James McGrath (Eric Dane) who fought against the cartel until he was captured and tortured. McGrath's operation has friends in very high places, so high that maybe not even Mike's boss Captain Rita Secada (Paula Nunez) and her new boyfriend, District Attorney Adam Lockwood (Ioan Gruffud) can help them. Mike and Marcus find themselves in a race against time to clear the captain's name, and soon it's clear they are in way over their heads.
Ever since the first of these films came out in 1995, back when co-producer Don Simpson was actually still alive, it should be clear that none of them was ever intended to be high art. The first one, made on a shoestring budget of USD19 million, was a solid piece of entertainment, deftly mixing action and comedy. The second movie, made on a much bigger budget, unfortunately suffered from a bloated running time and some ridiculous over-the-top action set pieces. It was so off-putting that I didn't even catch the third movie, Bad Boys 4 Life, in theaters. After catching and enjoying it on Netflix, though, I was convinced that it was worth giving this franchise another shot in theaters, Will Smith's antics notwithstanding, and I'm glad I did.
The filmmakers don't reinvent the wheel; as before, the film is anchored on the banter between Mike and Marcus, and the writers quite cannily age the characters along with actors, which makes them all the more relatable as much of the audience has grown old along with them. The plot is paper-thin, of course, and a lot of the writing is just flat out silly, but that's really not what I came to see.
On that note, the movie delivers exceptionally well on the action front, and it's worth pointing out that Belgian directors Adil and Bilail (as they are billed in the film's credits) have a really good eye for this sort of stuff. The action was pretty excellently choreographed and shot, and in a day and age when action sequences have been redefined by the likes of John Wick films, this was no mean feat. There is a flat-out brilliant use of drone shots in the climactic action set piece at the end of the film which is almost worth the price of admission by itself. Speaking of John Wick there is a surprising bit of action from a rather unexpected character late in the film, which involves a home invasion. It was interesting to see some John Wickesque ass kicking played for laughs, but darned if it doesn't work like a charm.
All told, this was a genuinely fun movie, one whose existence was arguably well-justified. I honestly don't know if they could keep this up with future installments but in the unlikely event that Sony ends this franchise here, well, they'll do so on a high note.
8/10
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