Bad Boys for Life
Mike and Marcus are back on the streets of Miami. The third “Bad Boys” film makes us question, however, how long that’s been. In the first film in 1995, they had been together for five years. When Mike is giving a toast at the wedding of Megan and Reggie at the beginning of this film, he’s says they’ve been together for 25 years…the exact amount of time between the first and third films. And later, when we are finding out the truth of why Mike has been targeted in this film, he says it was 24 years ago…before he and Marcus started together. Talk about some timeline issues within a franchise.
“Bad Boys for Life” is an entertaining action film, a bounce back from the insane indulgence of 2003’s “Bad Boys II,” and a return to the streamlined blend of action and character comedy that the 1995 film had. The first time we see them in this film, Mike (Will Smith) and Marcus (Martin Lawrence) are racing the streets of Miami with a police escort. Whom are they chasing? They’re actually on the way to the hospital, where Marcus’s daughter has just given birth. That’s not the only change that’s going to affect the way these two operate- the son (Jacob Scipio) of a deceased drug lord, whom was imprisoned, along with his wife (Kate del Castillo), has come to Miami for vengeance against what was done to his family. Even though his mother has told him to save Mike for last, he goes after him right away. It’s the event, along with the birth of his grandson, that finally convinces Marcus to retire, that they cannot operate the same way they have been able to before. After Mike gets healthy, though, he needs to get back in the game, and try to find the person who tried to kill him, and has killed three other people since.
Michael Bay is not back for the third one in the director’s chair (although he is onscreen as an MC at the aforementioned wedding), and that works to the film’s advantage. This time out we get Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, a Belgian pair of directors making their first American feature film, and they have a knack for action laced with character moments. They know how to get the best out of their actors, which includes a new team that will assist the bad boys in their mission (and is played by Paola Nuñez, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig and Charles Melton), and the action has an energy and flair that doesn’t go over into dull flash like “Bad Boys II,” and maintains a strong pulse. We feel weight in the action here (at least up to the conclusion, which goes into insanity with a helicopter), and we actually are intrigued by the possibility of more stories with Mike and Marcus, who prove they’re not quite too old for this shit. I’m ready to ride together, and die together, with these two by the end of this movie. I did not expect to feel that way.
