Director: Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah
Cast: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Paola Nunez, Eric Dane, Ioan Gruffudd, Rhea Seehorn, Jacob Scipio, Melanie Liburd, Tasha Smith, Tiffany Haddish, Joe Pantoliano
Screenplay: Chris Bremner, Will Beall
115 mins. Rated R for strong violence, language throughout and some sexual references.

Bad Boys has been a wildly inconsistent franchise for this reviewer. The original film is fine enough, but Bad Boys 2 is easily one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen, and finally, Bad Boys for Life ended up pretty damn great. One almost doesn’t know what to expect, but I’ll admit I’ve been excited for the follow-up, which re-teams the third film’s directors, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, with stars Will Smith (Men in Black) and Martin Lawrence (The Beach Bum) for another installment of the action-comedy cop franchise. But can Adil & Bilall repeat their winning formula? Absolutely.

Age is starting to catch up to Miami police offers Mike Lowrey (Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence). While they start making positive changes for their own betterment, they have to deal with a new threat when their former captain, Conrad Howard (Joe Pantoliano, The Matrix), is implicated in a major police corruption scandal. Now, they must team up with Mike’s son, Armando (Jacob Scipio, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent), the man who murdered the captain, and the only man who knows who framed him.

The Bad Boys franchise is known for being action/comedy, so it only works if both elements are strong enough. Thankfully, Adil & Bilall reach close to the same heights they hit with Bad Boys for Life. The action is clever and well-orchestrated, with each sequence in the film given a different visual note. One sequence, aboard a failing military helicopter, involves a number of shots where the camera shoots forward from one end to the other while the various characters are striking blows all around. Another, near the film’s climax, seemingly had a camera attached to a gun, so we as audience members follow the gun rather than its user as its fired and thrown back and forth. Throughout all of these set pieces, the orchestration and choreography are never sacrificed for the sake of preserving the flair. Even the drone footage is probably the best I’ve seen in an action film, with the directors always keeping in mind the location of the characters involved.

The comedy, while starting a little hit-or-miss, actually finds its footing as the film progresses and featured a number of crowd-pleasing beats where my audience erupted with laughter. This is definitely a movie that begs for a full audience of excited franchise fans. What elevates the comedy of Ride or Die is how it mixes with Fast & Furious-style zaniness with moments of levity that come from the hearts of these long-running characters (similar to an extant to how Lethal Weapon’s characters rose above their specific film’s plots). Many of the film’s best POPS come from payoffs to previous film’s setups that weren’t even necessary but definitely welcome. The comedy doesn’t all work (seriously, let’s get Tiffany Haddish out of here), but the beats that work more than make up for the ones that don’t.

Adil & Bilall are definitely trying to push themselves with this follow-up, embracing the previous films and the inherent silliness of recent action hits while also pushing their Lowrey and Burnett into uncomfortable territory to grow them. From strange but funny Reba references to an action sequence set at an abandoned Gator amusement park, this is one funny and fun installment that merits a future for these Bad Boys.

3.5
-Kyle A. Goethe

Bad Boys: Ride or Die opens June 7th.
For my review of Michael Bay’s Bad Boys, click here.