Bad Boys for Life Movie Review

Bad Boys For Life opens with a bang. Veteran cops Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) are zooming at breakneck speed in Mike’s gleaming new Porsche. They are mouthing corny dialogue and seem to be chasing someone. Only we also see lots of police vehicles following them so we’re kind of confused. Well, it turns out they’re racing to a hospital as Marcus is going to be a grandfather. After the birth of his daughter’s child Marcus’ priorities sort of change. He’s tired of being a badass cop and wants to retire while Mike wants to continue their good cop-bad cop routine till the end of time. Things take a turn when Mike is gunned down by a masked gunman. Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano) wants Rita (Paola Núñez), Mike’s ex-girlfriend to head the special task force assigned to deal with such threats. The new team makes little headway, however and after being discharged from the hospital, Mike wants to head the investigation himself. The killer keeps targeting other law enforcement officers and members of the judiciary and things come to a head when the captain too is gunned down. This forces a change of heart in Marcus who agrees to ride down with his partner one last time to take care of unfinished business.

When the original Bad Boys came out in 1995, it marked the debut of Michael Bay. With badass heroes, fast cars, high octane action and some crazy camera angles, it set the template for all other action film franchises carrying forward the flame of the buddy movie genre. It won’t be wrong to say that Robert Cohen’s The Fast And The Furious (2001) was directly inspired by Bad Boys. The current film, directed by Belgians Adil and Billal is both a homage and a spoof of sorts of the original. 25 years have passed since then. Both the heroes aren’t in their prime anymore. Martin Lawrence in fact has stopped getting starring vehicles. His last role as a lead was in the 2011 comedy Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son. Will Smith is still considered a saleable action star does get starring roles but we all know he’s no longer a fresh prince. So Lawrence brings forth his comedic skills to the fore while the action scenes are more or less left to Smith to handle. 

Both stars have a great camaraderie going, even after all these years under the belt and that seeps through in their performances. Leaving aside all the action and the ribald one-liners, what holds your attention is the genuine affection that they have for each other which lends an emotional core to the film. They play off each other in their scenes together. Like the hilarious sequence inside a plane where Lawrence holds centre stage. He wisecracks to the hilt, embarrassing other passengers and in real life would have gotten a warning by the staff. It’s made clear that Mike is past his prime as he gets his ass kicked like every time by the villain Armando Armas (Jacob Scipio). There is much more gore, much more blood in the present film than the first two instalments. The action set pieces are imaginatively filmed -- the sequence where Smith and Lawrence are chased by the goons while riding a motorbike with a sidecar is our pick of the lot. The directors have added a surprise twist to add it all up nicely and offer closure to the bad boys while keeping open a window to keep the franchise going at the same time.

Watch the film for its huge nostalgia value. The two leads have still got it and their antics will take you back to the days of yore when buddy cop movies were the Hollywood staple...

Trailer : Bad Boys for Life