When their late police captain gets linked to drug cartels, wisecracking Miami cops Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett embark on a dangerous mission to clear his name.
Director: Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah
Cast: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Paola Núñez, Jacob Scipio, Eric Dane, Joe Pantoliano,
Release Date: June 5, 2024
Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Crime, Thriller
Rated R for strong violence, language throughout and some sexual references
Runtime: 1h 55m
Review:
Will Smith and Martin Lawrence fourth go around in the Bad Boys franchise brings all the buddy cop banter and kinetic action sequences you've come to expect albeit with a noticeable sense of diminishing returns. Directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah return after reviving the franchise with 2020's Bad Boys For Life with them continuing to do their best Michael Bay impressions throughout the film. The film's action sequences are hyperkinetically edited which manages to make for some strong moments highlighted by a helicopter crash and the finale set in an abandoned alligator theme park. The film hits its energetic peaks during these moments even as those sequences play loose with logic and physics that'll require some disengagement from common sense. The action is fun on its own, but the main draw of this series has always been Will Smith and Martin Lawrence's chemistry together that has carried the previous films even during some of the weaker points. They still work off each fairly well, but the script doesn't give them enough solid material to work with leaving most of it feel a bit forced until they find their stride in the final act. There's more natural comedic energy in that final act which is sorely missing from the earlier acts. At the very least there's a tangible effort to give these two characters an arch by giving Lawrence's Marcus Burnett a near death revelation and Smith's Mike Lowrey a battle with panic attacks. Lawrence's Burnett is written and played much more cartoonish this go around, almost to a distracting level, leaving Smith to try and balance it all out as the straight man. The supporting cast is made up of familiar faces from the franchise and new comers with nobody asked to do much more than look cool, confused, menacingly or nefarious. Rhea Seehorn and Eric Dane in particular are given thankless one note roles as a Tommy Lee John's light US Marshall and villainous mastermind. Jacob Scipio fares slightly better due to his natural on screen charisma as Lowrey's son from the previous film even though the accidental reconciliation angle is hardly original. It’s one of the many aspects of the film that would have worked better if a bit more care had been given to the script, as is Bad Boys: Ride or Die is an enjoyable but easily forgettable entry in the franchise.
C
