BAD BOYS FOR LIFE – A Review by Cynthia Flores
It’s hard to believe that this franchise started in 1995, over twenty-five years ago. Bad Boys For Life is the third film (without Michael Bay this time) in the series about everybody’s favorite crime-fighting duo in Miami. Of course, I’m talking about the ever-cool Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and the fast-talking Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence). In this outing, the two men are joining forces with an elite Miami P.D. team lead by Rita (Paola Nunez), Mike’s former flame, to take down the vengeful head of a drug cartel. This comes at a time when Marcus is retiring from the force to enjoy his growing family. Mike gives Marcus plenty of crap about riding into the sunset while maintaining that he’s “going to be running down criminals until I’m a hundred.” Mike without his partner is left to learn to work with high tech new policing strategies and young cops with attitudes. Mike is still old school and would rather use brute force to get the job done. After a shocking turn of events, the job gets personal this time and brings back people from Mike’s past that could end any chance of his having a future. Mike needs help and asks his friend Marcus to come back to the force and go into battle to take down the criminals in style this one last time.
Since I don’t want to write any spoilers for this fun movie, I’ll stop talking about the storyline, which is clever. However, I will tell you this, there are lots of impressive chase scenes from beginning to end. There’s more bloodshed than before and the chemistry between these two men is still on point and very funny. Also, it’s been a while since we got to enjoy that iconic swishing sound that goes with the camera slowly moving around the two leads as they’re shooting or fighting. I actually heard several people singing the iconic reggae song “Bad Boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do when they come for you!” before the movie started. So we as an audience are ready for this next chapter of action-packed fun. The only real negative thing I have to say about the film is Martin Lawrence looking off to the side quite a bit. Almost like he was having trouble with his lines at times. Even with that being said, it’s still impressive to see how easily Smith and Lawrence slide back into these characters and actually make them more fun to be around than before.
I give Bad Boys For Life a B+ rating. It’s a great way to spend a cold winter day warming yourself by the fire of all the car explosions on-screen.
Directed by: Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah
Written by: Chris Bremner, Peter Craig, Joe Carnahan, Joe Carnahan, George Gallo
Rated R
Selig Rating B+
Running Time: 2h 3min
Action / Comedy
Wide Release: January 17th
Starring: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Joe Pantoliano, Paola Nunez, Jacob Scipio, Kate del Castillo
The Selig Rating Scale:
A – Excellent movie, well worth the price.
B – Good movie
C – OK movie
D – No need to rush. Save it for a rainy day.
F – Good that I saw it on the big screen but wish I hadn’t paid for it.
