Bad Boys for Life Movie Review

Bad Boys for Life (2020)

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Written by: Peter Craig and Joe Carnahan (story by), Chris Bremner and Peter Craig and Joe Carnahan (screenplay by), George Gallo (based on characters created by)
Directed by: Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah
Starring: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens, Paola Nuñez, Kate del Castillo, Joe Pantoliano
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
Miami detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett must face off against a mother-and-son pair of drug lords who wreak vengeful havoc on their city.

Verdict
It's an action movie sequel that we don't need. There is a lot in this movie, characters, sub-plots, comedy, slow-motion shots, and explosions. There isn't much story, and Bad Boys never had much in story, but this one didn't quite achieve the balance between action, comedy, and character development. I appreciate that it doesn't hide the fact the main characters are much older, but while the comedy is simple it doesn't always land. The action offers nothing new. The core should be Smith and Lawrence having fun. There just isn't enough of that with the various sub-plots that complicate the movie.
Skip it.

Review
Did Bad Boys II need a sequel? My answer will almost always be 'No, a seventeen year old movie doesn't need a sequel.' The two original films are action movies with fast cars, big explosions, and for people with short attention spans. There's nothing wrong with that. 

Smith and Lawrence are in this movie because they were in the previous films. If you were starting this movie from scratch you'd pick two top actors, not two guys who used to be a big box office draw. With that said, if they weren't in it I wouldn't even have watched.

Martin Lawrence and Will Smith play Marcus Burnett and Mike Lowrey.

In the very first scene Mike and Marcus (Smith and Lawrence) are in a fast car chasing a suspect. There are numerous slow motion drifts, banter, and jokes. This movie hits you fast with exactly what it's about, and we even get a joke about Marcus needing glasses. I like that the movie addresses their age instead of playing up how young and strong they are. This really embraces jokes about them being older. The jokes are rather predictable, but I really enjoyed the comedy when it landed. Lawrence is the driving force for the comedy with Smith playing serious.

Mike gets shot early in the movie, and while it plays up the drama of whether he'll make it there's no tension. I knew the movie wasn't going to kill Will Smith fifteen minutes in. There are a number of ways to push the plot forward and that one is cheap drama.

Marcus's daughter gets married to Reggie. That's the same actor that was taking her on a date in Bad Boys II.

If you don't have one horizontal shooting scene is it still a Bad Boys movie?

I suppose this isn't a Bad Boys  movie unless someone is shooting horizontally while flying through the air. This franchise is ridiculous and I like that, but what I ant to see is the back and forth between Marcus and Mike. This splits them up for a few minutes and while it creates a nice juxtaposition as we see them in a typical day it's a lot of time to invest for a simple joke.

The problem with sequels is that they try to do the novel thing the first movie did again. This movie tries to layer the story with them being older, Marcus being a grandfather, and Mike dealing with his commitment issues, but I'm here for action and comedy. If the character development was more than just tacked on it might work better. It really seems like character development was added after the fact. The comedy is hit or miss. While it's simple there were a few really funny parts. Marcus has a few good lines while Mike is just a bit too serious.

Marcus has a come to Jesus subplot that just doesn't work. The whole thing seems to be a setup for a joke. The movie works hard to set up some of these jokes when it doesn't need to. It's there to generate conflict in a movie that should be explosions.

The problem with the subplots is that they only feed into the characters and don't push the plot. Because of that it makes the movie feel bloated. This could easily stand to shed fifteen to twenty minutes. The bad guys are boring, wanting to create a criminal empire and get revenge for no real good reason. The movie tries to pull a rabbit out of hat and save that plot line, but it didn't work for me.