Bad Boys for Life is the long-in-development third installment of the film series that catapulted Martin Lawrence and Will Smith from sitcoms into movie stardom twenty-five years ago. The duo is back respectively as Detectives Marcus Burnett and Mike Lowrey. The cast also includes Paola Nuñez, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Charles Melton, Kate Del Castillo, Jacob Scipio and reggaetón star Nicky Jam, along with mainstays Joe Pantoliano as Captain Howard and Theresa Randle as Theresa Burnett. Directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (2015’s Black, FX’s Snowfall) take the reins from the inimitable Michael Bay while uber-producer Jerry Bruckheimer returns (his longtime partner-in-arms Don Simpson receives a posthumous credit).
The bad boys are still on the Miami beat as Burnett becomes a proud grandfather and Lowrey refuses to bow to the sands of time. However, their partnership is put to the test when the wife of a brutal druglord (Del Castillo) escapes prison and vows revenge for her family, setting her sights on Lowrey who incarcerated them both. Once key figures from that case are murdered, Burnett and Lowrey must regroup with the elite team AMMO, ran by Lowrey’s would-be lover Rita (Nuñez), and find the criminal mastermind before it’s too late.
Bad Boys was built as a star vehicle for Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, with a clothesline plot that let the two TV comedians shine and maximize their innate charisma. It’s a template that works as long as Smith and Lawrence maintain their wattage, which has seen peaks and valleys in the seventeen years (!) following the release of Bad Boys II. After a protracted, torturous stint in development hell, Bad Boys for Life finally sees the light of day. All things considered, the dual leads are in surprisingly good comedic form, with an ensemble cast that’s game to have fun and blow up everything in sight.
The script, co-written by Joe Carnahan (Smokin’ Aces, Narc, The Grey) who was originally slated to direct, admits the passage of time and forces the aged detectives to come to terms with their bygone youth and inescapable veteran status. This thematic emphasis allows Smith and Lawrence to bring a surprising amount of dramatic heft to some of their scenes, and they promise an emotionally mature version of Bad Boys early on. Regrettably, that doesn’t last long and the film retreats to chaos and noise, underutilizing the talents of these two titans and merely hinting at their growth as actors.
The first Bad Boys is synonymous with director Michael Bay’s style, with that film being his directorial debut as well as the launchpad for Smith and Lawrence’s film careers and Bruckheimer & Simpson’s return to greatness following a five-year hiatus after 1990’s Days of Thunder. In that regard, the Bad Boys franchise holds a totemic value to all the key creatives involved. The real question is can a Michael Bay movie be made without Michael Bay?
The director’s signature aesthetic is known for combining commercial glamour, unrestrained hedonism and bombast verging on recklessness. It was a formula for box-office success and the late 90s/early aughts were chock-filled with imitators. Even Bruckheimer himself has tasked other directors with approximating Bay’s style (Dominic Sena’s Gone in 60 Seconds, Simon West’s Con Air, David McNally’s Coyote Ugly) but never as directly or as closely than in Bad Boys for Life, the first sequel to a Michael Bay film not directed by Bay himself.
Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (professionally known as Adil & Bilall) come the closest so far to understanding Bay’s dynamism, his color palate and naughty-lad energy, and why that mixture works. Bay put his instincts as a commercial and music video director to extensive use early on in his film career, and Adil & Bilall had to reverse-engineer it. The threequel honors signature shots from Bay’s first two Bad Boys films, such as the circle dolly shot or the Miami sign fly-over, but it doesn’t quite match the slick sheen and over-saturated gloss of Bad Boys I & II. Specifically, it’s missing the anti-social/anti-humanist bent that made parts of Bad Boys II so unexpectedly devious.
For all its faults, Bad Boys II contained some of the best action ever committed to celluloid, and any sequel would have found it hard to measure up. This third entry has some genuine teeth; Adil & Bilall knew they were making a Bad Boys film and they deliver. Although Bad Boys for Life is lower-octane than its direct predecessor, it’s the most narratively-focused of the trilogy, concentrating more on character and legacy, and less on improvised cringeworthy shenanigans. In true fashion, the third act is action-packed and overlong, staying far past its welcome until the inexhaustible charisma of the two leads is exhausted.
Nevertheless, fans of the franchise will be pleased by this burst of action nostalgia, with fun cameos and even the return of Mark Mancina’s thunderously hip theme reinterpreted by composer Lorne Balfe. Bad Boys for Life is one of the few examples of a successful distillation of Michael Bay’s style and a more coherent film than either of the previous Bad Boys. It’s a solidly entertaining piece of action comedy that avoids missteps while shunning reinvention, potentially providing a much-needed win for Smith, Lawrence and Bruckheimer.
Rating: 3.5/5 stars ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ½
ABOUT SONY PICTURES AND COLUMBIA PICTURES’ “BAD BOYS FOR LIFE”
The Bad Boys Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) are back together for one last ride in the highly anticipated Bad Boys for Life.
The new installment centers on the Miami PD and its elite AMMO team’s attempt to take down Armando Armas (Scipio), head of a drug cartel. Armando is a cold-blooded killer with a vicious, taunting nature. He is committed to the work of the cartel and is dispatched by his mother to kill Mike (Smith). Nuñez will take on the role of Rita, the tough and funny criminal psychologist who is the newly appointed head of AMMO and Mike’s former girlfriend – the one who got away.
DIRECTED BY
Adil & Bilall
PRODUCED BY
Jerry Bruckheimer, Will Smith, Doug Belgrad
SCREENPLAY
Chris Bremner and Peter Craig and Joe Carnahan
STORY BY
Peter Craig and Joe Carnahan
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
Chad Oman, Barry Waldman, Mike Stenson, James Lassiter
CAST
Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Charles Melton, Paola Nunez, Kate Del Castillo, Nicky Jam, and Joe Pantoliano
Hashtag: #BadBoysForLife
Website: https://www.badboysforlife.movie
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/BadBoys
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/BadBoys/
