Sunday, June 09, 2024

Film: Bad Boys: Ride or Die

 

GENRE: Action Comedy
RATING: R for strong violence and language
RUNTIME: 1 hour and 55 minutes
PLATFORM: Movie Theatre
STARRING: Will Smith (Men in Black, I Am Legend, I Robot, King Richard)
Martin Lawrence (Nothing to Lose, Big Momma’s House, National Security)
DIRECTORS: Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah (Bad Boys for Life)
WRITERS: Chris Bremner (Bad Boys for Life, The Man from Toronto);
Will Beall (Aquaman, Justice League)
PLOT: Mike and Marcus find themselves wanted men when they stick up for their dead boss.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I have enjoyed the franchise thus far.

STORY STUFF: All I expect from a Bad Boys film is fun comradery between Smith and Lawrence, a bunch of cool gunplay, Miami scenery, a Michael Bay rising arc shot and the horrible singing of the theme song; this film checks all those boxes. The storyline is pretty far-fetched with a number of incredibly questionable choices but it was still a fun ride for the most part. My biggest complaint was that they should use the sniper to do the sniping instead of the guy having panic attacks. Oh, and one of the bad guys is so obvious from the start they could have saved a whole lot of time just shooting him right away.

ACTING STUFF: Smith and Lawrence are fun to watch even as they are getting older and little chunkier. Reggie (Dennis Greene who has only acted in the last two Bad Boys films) gets to shine this time around! You might want to rewatch the third film so you can also be reacquainted with people like Keppy, Dorn, Rita and Amando. I loved Rhea Seehorn in Better Call Saul but she has a pretty thankless role in this film. Not a fan of the cliché main bad guy either.      

ARTISTIC STUFF: I found that the directors wanted to have a lot of fun with the camera at times. There are first-person-shooter stuff, near death experience stuff, and strange angles to help keep us focused during all the gunplay. The soundtrack is pretty good. I especially liked the Run DMC sample during one of the shoot outs.

VERDICT: Four stars out of five
SEE IT IF: You’ve seen the other ones.
UPCOMING REVIEW:  Inside Out 2

No comments: