Good Men, Good Men: BAD BOYS Mature for the Modern Blockbuster Age

This review made possible by our friends at Galaxy! For more showtimes of BAD BOYS FOR LIFE and lots more, visit the Galaxy screenings page.

Rating: 🔫🔫

I never thought I’d say this, but I actually miss Michael Bay. Bad Boys for Life eschews all the loud, vulgar Bayhem sprawl in favor of things like character development, relatively grounded action sequences, and streamlined plot with a basic sense of causality. This new ride or die outing feels more like John Wick with cold concise shootouts and clearly motivated underworld heavies. What happened to the rolling severed heads, farting corpse jokes, and speed boats crashing down freeways from the pinnacle of blockbuster excess, Bad Boys II?

The last installment began with Will Smith ripping off a klan uniform in slow motion while wielding dual pistols and ended with him making out with Gabrielle Union in front of Guantanamo Bay. Truly a triumph of boneheaded post-9/11 action fantasy, Bad Boys II spent two and a half hours reveling in grotesque blue lives matter, American exceptionalist carnage. Musclebound cops with mohawks and piercings circumvent the law to headshot drug dealers and blow up a Cuban crime kingpin’s mansion real good. In Bad Boys for Life, however, Martin Lawrence becomes fed up with his run and gun partnership with Will Smith and basically retires for a portion of the movie. Martin had a grandbaby in the 17 years since the last sequel, and he wants to spend time with his family instead of fleeing from explosions and screaming and beating down perps. Excuse me, but I paid to see Bad Boys, not Good Men! If the comedic formula ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

Still, at least Bad Boys for Life tries something different. Those who found the second installment too over the top bombastic will enjoy the more restrained and focused action hijinks. And Will Smith and Martin Lawrence retain exceptional comedic chemistry when the script allows them to work as a team. For most of the movie, though, Will Smith joins a Mission Impossible style police task force complete with Vanessa Hudgens in cornrows for some reason. Bad Boys for Life struggles to adjust to the modern era by copying other successful action picture formulas. The last time Will Smith and Martin Lawrence sang the titular theme, George W. Bush waged a war on terror. Bloated megabudget hard R adult action comedies crashed like the economy back in 2008.

Bad Boys trades in Michael Bay’s circling camera, low angles, and insane orange and teal lighting for workmanlike point and shoot setups. Sure, the action pops more delineated, and the characters pack extra heart. But I still miss the putrid almost nihilistic humor and tone-deaf nonsense spectacle that kicked off the series. In Bad Boys II, Michael Bay makes a cameo as a bucket hat clad carjacking victim who delivers a single line: “freak.” In this follow up, he returns as a man of God officiating a wedding. This role change pretty much sums up the tonal shift of the Bad Boys universe. Character over spectacle, efficiency over sprawl, stabs at seriousness over buffoonery. 

Perhaps, Bad Boys for Life rips a page from another box office behemoth, The Fast and the Furious, to focus more on family. Martin Lawrence returns to acting to show the world why he became a comedy superstar in the first place. Reruns of his sitcom still slay, his recent cameo in The Beach Bum as a dolphin tour guide remains a delirious highlight, and his delivery in Bad Boys for Life can make the stupidest one liner sing with wry everyman fatigue. It’s a real treat to see Martin and Will onscreen pistol popping and trading quips on the streets of Miami once again. But in growing up, Bad Boys loses some of the crass commercial slickness, overindulgent scope, and cartoon juvenile worldview that helped it topple theaters in the first place. I guess we can’t stay young forever.