I’m not going to lie, I’ve been "ride or die" with “bulletproof” Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus “quality time” Burnett (Martin Lawrence) for 25 years now, so it’s fair to say that my opinion might not be unbiased.
But, happily, I can report that “Bad Boys for Life,” the 17-years-in-the-making threequel is exactly what you hoped for and expected.
Lowrey and Burnett, the two hotshot Miami detectives from 1995’s “Bad Boys” and 2003’s “Bad Boys II,” are older but not necessarily wiser when we reconnect with them at the start of their latest adventure.
Bad Boys for Life
3.5 out of 5 stars
Rated: R
Run Time: 123 minutes
Directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah
Starring Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Joe Pantoliano, Paola Nuñez, Kate del Castillo, Jacob Scipio
Opens Friday, January 17
Lowrey is still the ladies man, and Burnett is still the committed husband, whose daughter is giving birth to his first grandson when they roar up to the hospital. But way down in Mexico, trouble is brewing as Isabel Aretas (Kate del Castillo), a self-proclaimed “bruja,” or witch, butchers her way out of prison and sets her son, Armando (Jacob Scipio), on a murderous revenge spree with Lowrey as the prime target.
What’s interesting about “Bad Boys for Life” is twofold: It’s a much more somber, at times, rumination on aging and the effect that can have on the hero’s mentality, and this dominates the first hour of the film as Burnett decides to retire after Lowrey is gunned down on South Beach. Spoiler alert, he survives.
But what is most unexpected is how long it takes the returning cast, including Joe Pantoliano as Captain Howard, to settle back into their familiar groove.
While Smith looks and sounds like his old character’s self, Lawrence seems to struggle the most recapturing his spark, which makes sense given it has been nine years since he top-lined a major event film.
Trust me, as a fan, I was worried. And, for a brief period, it felt possible that “Bad Boys for Life” might sputter out, a la “Beverly Hills Cop III,” and other threequels that arrived as little more than a cash grab, having lost that magic that made the earlier films so much fun.
Thankfully, everybody shakes off the rust at about the hour mark and the final 63 minutes is vintage “Bad Boys,” with jokes and bullets flying in equal measure.
It takes a brutal and sudden slaying to get Burnett back into cop mode, but once he and Lowrey team up with the newly formed AMMO division, which is led by Lowrey’s old flame, Rita (Paola Nuñez), and a trio of young guns, including a surprisingly game Vanessa Hudgens in badass mode, everything clicks.
Lawrence, in particular, truly shines in the second half of the film, peppering his old partner with a slew of put downs that had the preview audience howling.
“It’s like an angry white man’s basement in here,” Burnett says when he jumps into the sidecar of a motorcycle that Lowrey steals to give chase to a bad guy and discovers a trove of weapons, including a Gatling gun.
“Mike, you fucked a married witch?” he yells at Lowrey later, after they figure out who is behind the violent assaults, and Lowrey confesses to having had an affair with Isabel while he was undercover. “How you fuck a witch without a condom?”
It’s hard to imagine many films matching the full-throttle action orgasm that was the climactic set piece in “Bad Boys II,” when Lowrey and Burnett sped down a mountain in Mexico smashing through a bazillion shanties while being chased by a vicious cartel.
But “Bad Boys for Life” delivers a superior setting for its final firefight, which also takes place in Mexico, this time in a huge, abandoned hotel property, and the near 30-minute blitzkrieg is bruising, breathtaking, and surprisingly emotional.
I wouldn’t weep for the end of this franchise just yet, however.
There’s a clear message contained in one of two short scenes included in the closing credits that, true to their mantra, as long as they’re breathing, these bad boys aren’t going away any time soon.
Contact John W. Allman at Blood Violence and Babes.com, on Facebook @BloodViolenceBabes or on Twitter @BVB_reviews.
