![]() ![]() While it is a good thing Bad Boys for Life wants to grow beyond the parameters Bay started with, its middling action set pieces, bloated plot twists, and climaxes that veer into “video game final boss” territory is a betrayal to those goals. But the missing element that made those shots magical in years past is, unfortunately, Michael Bay. (And that’s good! Maybe if they ever work with Megan Fox, they won’t treat her like shit.) To its detriment, Bad Boys of Life attempts to pay homage to Bay’s “Bayhem,” complete with mimicking several shots from the first two films. ![]() But Arbi and Fallah, despite their best attempts, are not Michael Bay. If it booms like Michael Bay and visually parallaxes like Michael Bay, then it probably is a Michael Bay movie. But it does not, and consequently, the “for Life” part in the film’s title seems seriously in doubt.Ī (forgettable) new team assembles in 'Bad Boys for Life'. If Bad Boys for Life is serious about renewing itself into the next generation, it should have been in these characters. However unique these “kids” are, they’re simply not memorable enough together to earn our affection. That the movie also doesn’t make full use of its “new generation” characters - the tech-savvy AMMO squad that, again, wastes an overqualified Hudgens - to help Marcus and Mike grow is equally appalling. That neither Mike nor Marcus really come to grips with their age after the film’s first 20 minutes keeps Bad Boys for Life from being the movie it wants to be. Despite its clear intentions to challenge the reckless machismo of its protagonists - the movie has an awful lot in common with other pop culture, like 2017’s Logan, a film that dismissed the hyper-violence of Wolverine or the 2018 game God of War that showed a monster’s insufficient efforts to become a father. But just because the movie wants to be a smart action movie, doesn’t mean it is one. That’s a smart starting place for Bad Boys for Life. To paraphrase Marcus, the “Bad Boys” have more years behind them than in of them, and one of them just can’t deal. (This is important when you know Bay himself acknowledged the primary demographic of his audience: teenage boys.) The film wisely bets its chips on the tension inherent to getting old and refusing to accept it. To its credit, Bad Boys for Life tries to do something equally ambitious with a story about middle-age mortality. In the past decade, action movies matured by leaps and bounds, whether through novel world-building, the superhuman-izing of the gunslinger, or both. It is a lunkheaded movie without a heart, blistering and noisy without any of the infectious attitude that characterized its equally problematic predecessors.Įven if Bad Boys for Life didn’t do harmful things like put down therapy for men, it’s still just a dumb movie with a clunky script and daytime soap opera performances in a time when other action movies have never been sharper or smarter. With a lousy plot that lacks gravitational suspense, drama, and action set pieces that are just a notch above adequate, Bad Boys for Life fails to match up to the standards of modern action cinema. Martin Lawrence and Will Smith return as Marcus Burnett and "Mike" Lowrey in 'Bad Boys for Life'. Where Mike still strolls into Miami’s back kitchens in suits to interrogate sources, Marcus is sleeping in front of the TV and watching telenovelas.īut when the son of a South American drug lord seeks revenge for his father and puts Mike in the hospital, the “Bad Boys” embark on one last ride - with a new, young squad dubbed “AMMO” stepping in to cramp their style.Īlong with Smith and Lawrence are Paola Núñez as a fellow cop Kate del Castillo and Jacob Scipio as the mother/son villains whose plot twist hinges on incomprehensible offscreen drama Alexander Ludwig, Charles Melton, and a criminally underused Vanessa Hudgens as the millennial AMMO squad and Joe Pantoliano, reprising his overly panicked Captain Howard, who looks to be one jump scare away from a heart attack. While Mike still wants to party and serve justice like usual, Marcus has settled into early retirement. Set 17 years after 2003’s Bad Boys II, Miami’s finest, Marcus (Lawrence) and Mike (Smith), come to grips with middle age. Will Smith in 'Bad Boys for Life' Columbia Pictures ![]()
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