Bad Boys: Ride or Die
The boys are getting a mite creaky, but the fourth iteration of the franchise known for guns, explosions and racial quips falls into the surprisingly-not-awful category.
I had little taste for the prospect of “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” the fourth iteration of the franchise known for guns, explosions and racial quips, after the last one four years ago seemed to be coughing out its last gasp. Honestly, I didn’t even want to go see it, but nobody else around the ol’ website bunker was able or willing to review it, so I saddled up.
Color me surprised. It falls into the surprisingly-not-awful category, and even contains nuggets of genuinely entertaining moments.
Yes, it’s just more of the same shtick with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as Miami detectives with little regard for following the law themselves. The boys are looking a mite creaky, their sniping at each other no longer having quite the same bite, and it’s pretty obvious when they swap in their stunt doubles for the action scenes.
Heck, Lawrence seems to have lost at least two gears off his top speed, often seeming to stare around in a daze and speaking his lines at a very deliberate pace, as if someone was holding up a cue card with his dialogue spelled out Fo-NET-i-kal-ee.
Perhaps playing off that, the main event setting off this story (screenplay by Chris Bremner and Will Beall) is Lawrence’s character, Marcus Burnett, having a heart attack and passing, albeit briefly, into the afterlife. This happens in the middle of confirmed bachelor Mike Lowrey (Smith) finally getting hitched, to newcomer Christine (Melanie Liburd).
Marcus spends the rest of the movie in a trippy zen space, bantering with Mike about them having been reincarnated many times, but always connected as soul mates. In one iteration, he insists, Mike was a donkey who he owned and mistreated.
They also resurrect the spirit, at least, of their former captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano), killed off in the last movie but seen in frequent flashbacks. It seems the drug cartels are attempting to pin a lot of bad stuff onto the captain, so Mike and Marcus make it their personal mission to clear his name.
Of course, they get embroiled in all the nasty stuff themselves including corrupt elements within the local establishment, and eventually find themselves on the run from the LEOs, including Howard’s daughter, Judy (Rhea Seehorn), a bigwig U.S. Marshal.
Several supporting characters from the last movie also get carried over, including Vanessa Hudgens and Alexander Ludwig as tech-savvy cops on the boys’ side; Mike’s former girlfriend, Rita (Paola Núñez), now his boss, who’s canoodling with the U.S. Attorney, Lockwood (Ioan Gruffudd), currently the favorite in the mayoral race; and Jacob Scipio as Armando, Mike’s estranged son, who actually was the one who killed Captain Howard but now gets the father-son bonding redemptive path treatment.
Directing team Adil & Bilall, who also helmed the last movie, understand what works in these movies and stick to it: lots of snappy patter and hijinks, separated by big action set-pieces, and a few moments of dark terror before the sunny side reasserts itself.
A chase on one of the Miami highway bridges is a high point, with Marcus too old and inform to run so he rides on the hood of some passerby vehicle in pursuit of the baddies. There’s also a shootout inside an electronic art club run by another familiar face, Fletcher (John Salley). A running joke is Marcus is convinced that because he came back from the dead he’s now invincible, and keeps throwing himself into deadly scenarios, which Mike has to testily bail him out of.
The heavy is big blond white dude — because of course — a sneering ex-military type named McGrath, played by Eric Dane. There’s a vague backstory about him being captured by the cartel and turned, and now he takes special pleasure in threatening the loved ones of his enemies.
(Cue incoming peril to Christine and Marcus’ extended family of wife, kids and grandkids.)
The pacing gets pretty wobbly in the middle and the movie could easily be 15 minutes shorter. But I have to admit I was not bored, and even laughed at some of the quips and wowed by a few of the shoot-em-ups.
Is it enough to recommend? Not quite, but as unnecessary popcorn sequels go, you could do worse. I just hope they don’t keep doing this so long the ‘boys’ hit Social Security age, but what you gonna do?