If you’re asking yourself why there’s another Bad Boys movie the simple answer is it’s a cinematic cash grab for Sony.  

However, this time around there are some added reasons why we’re getting a Bad Boys 4 nearly 30 years after the first movie. As you all know a couple of years ago Will Smith embarrassed himself on National Television after slapping Chris Rock during the Academy Awards for a joke that Rock made about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith. Will Smith’s Public Image was shattered following that incident despite winning an Oscar for Best Actor later that night.

As the 2022 incident has hung around Will for all the wrong reasons,  a new Bad Boys movie is just the distraction that will need to make people forget about that night.  Martin Lawrence on the other hand has dealt with his public persona for much different reasons.  Lawrence has been the subject of many health concerns over the last few years with those close to him all but confirming the actor had suffered multiple strokes due to his battle with hypertension.

As much as Will Smith and Martin Lawrence tried to create their narrative with the marketing for Bad Boys: Ride or Die, the elephant in the room Still Remains do we need another Bad Boys movie with two actors a couple of clicks away from 60?

Bad Boys Ride or Die takes place shortly after the events of the last film where the infamous Mike Lowry is finally tying the knot and getting married.  After finally deciding to settle down in his mid-50s,  Lowry is at the top of the world, that is until his partner Marcus has a heart attack during the wedding reception.

However, after spending a couple of weeks at the hospital,  Marcus is convinced that he is a new man who cannot die which is giving him a different look at life but he warns Mike that a difficult decision awaits.  unbeknownst to our buddy cop Duo,  the FBI is investigating their slain former police Captain ConradWho has been alleged to have embezzled money with the same drug cartel that was responsible for his death in the previous film.

Knowing that Conrad is innocent Mike and Marcus must team up to clear the name of their former captain however now they’re in a position where they have no one to trust outside of themselves.

What do you do with a franchise when it becomes clear that the only reason still exists is nothing but pure vanity?  Bad BoysRidee or Die is a film that attempts to recreate the greatest hits of the franchise but does it at a point where all of the life has already been sucked out.

The over-the-top in-your-face style of Bad Boys works perfectly fine in the first two movies. Michael Bay is no longer in the creative chair for the franchise. Things have to take a new Direction.  Their solution, however, was to add more characters to The Fray, which turns Bad Boys into an overstuffed and bloated Action comedy where the hits simply land differently than they used to.

 To no surprise, the film lives in briefs off of the chemistry between Will Smith and Martin Lawrence with their comedic timing and off-the-cuff jokes.  The problem is that the actors do not have the energy to keep this supposed gravy train moving the way they did several years ago.  Martin Lawrence,  his recent health issues have been written into the storyline with his character suffering a heart attack and needing to stay away from sweets and junk food. 

Martin comes off as noticeably slower in his scenes that are not done by a clear stunt double and you have to ask yourself at this point of his life what more he has to contribute to the franchise especially when his humor is not nearly as funny as it was several years ago.

Will Smith is the one who is driving this vehicle that he desperately needs to win himself back into the good graces of Hollywood.  Knowing that the 50-year-old Playboy gimmick is certainly wearing out its welcome,  the film tries to work around this by giving Will’s character a wife that seemingly came out of nowhere.  However, her introduction to the franchise is used for nothing more than a simple plot device that will be used at the very end of the film.

Outside of her two leads the film adds generic characters in cameos that don’t add to the story but are simply there as glorified pop culture references to a younger audience.  Vanessa Hudgens and Alexander Ludwig are back in this movie to serve virtually no purpose to the plot. Jacob Scipio is back to play the illegitimate son of Will Smith. Paola Núñez is back to make everyone forget that horrible Resident Evil Netflix show. And then the film sprinkles in a list of cameos in between such as DJ Khaled and Tiffany Haddish who are simply there to move the plot along as paper-thin as it may be. 

The film has a couple of good action sequences and a couple of funny lines but outside of that it’s not enough to justify the 2-hours Of runtime that can be simplified in this:  Martin Lawrence almost dies and becomes awakened in a new nonsense spiritual persona that runs it’s a course very early,  Will Smith is too cool for school but suffers panic attacks for reasons that were probably cut out of the film and never properly explained,  meanwhile there are a bunch of other characters along the way.

Bad Boys: Ride or Die Is a cash grab can wait for on Amazon.

2/5

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