Bad Boys for Life is the third film in the series, super charged with violence and a weak script, but it is saved by Martin Lawrence! The first movie, Bad Boys (1995), and Bad Boys II (2003) were directed by Michael Bay, I have not seen them. It is directed by Adil and Bilall who also directed the Belgian crime film Gangsta (2018). The film was a number of writers with story by Peter Craig and Joe Carnahan. Craig is co-writing the screenplay to the upcoming Top Gun: Maverick. Carnahan is a director and he also wrote the screenplay for the remake of Death Wish (2018). The screenplay has Craig, Carnahan, and Chris Bremmer. The next Bad Boys film is said to have a screenplay by Bremmer. The franchise has had a new roster of writers on each film. The writers have forged a movie that was audience pleasing, it brought in domestically $427.8 million dollars, making it the the top box office film at this point of the year.
The movies opens with some Latin music as we get a shot of the ocean and then the streets of Miami. On a bridge is a racing blue Porsche as we see police sirens in what looks like a pursuit. Inside the Porsche, Marcus Burnett, Martin Lawrence shouts at Mike Lowrey, his partner. Lawrence was in comedy movie, The Beach Bum (2019), we see that Marcus is more set for a slower pace, but he should be used to the fast pace of his partner after years of working together. Mike played by Will Smith just shrugs off Marcus’ panic. Smith is producer of the movie and also starred in Gemini Man (2019). He plays the wild card, but his character is inconsisent, he is shown on newscasts as “Bulletproof Mike”, and then unrecognizable by criminals! Mike notes to Marcus that he should wear his glasses. I would imagine that good vision would be needed for a police officer with a fire arm, but let’s not worry about logic.
Mike detours on a beach and then finally slides his car to a street. We get a hint of the Inner Circle “Bad Boys” song before Marcus scrapes the car door into a fire hydrant. This is what saves the movie, Lawrence is able to make the most of light moments. They race into a building and find that Marcus’ wife, Megan (Bianca Bethune) has a new baby. This set up and twist is used throughout the movie. The baby is given to Marcus by his wife, Theresa (Theresa Randle). She is one of the few returning actors for the franchise, but this is really a cameo part. Theresa is so worried over her husband she doesn’t call him or check up on him when he is on the case.. Then, there is Reggie (Dennis Greene) who seems to be a soldier dressed in his uniform, but he seems to be back in civilian life so the uniform may be just a gag. Also, there is no connection with Reggie to Megan besides that he is standing there. Megan asks if Uncle Mike wants to hold the baby. This is a key moment, Mike is the carefree adult who doesn’t want anything to do with children, his character would be better with some of Marcus’ traits.
This moves to night at the Santa Maria Ixcotl Prison in Mexico. We get the laundry room of a women’s prison, a female security guard yells at a prisoner (Kate del Castillo) standing still and mumbling. Del Castillo was in the crime series, La Reina del Sur and has a bit of infamy with her relationship to the drug lord “El Chapo” Guzmán. The prisoner pulls out a knife to stab the guard and the other prisoners crowd in to beat the guard. The riot sends an alarm to the other security guards. A bloody guard is taken away. An ambulance races in the night. Of course, this is an obvious Hannibal Lector situation. The ambulance drivers see a molotov cocktail striking the windshield, as a prison guard finds the body of the woman guard in a washing machine. The drivers are shot and the “patient” uses her knife on the paramedics. The paradmedic survivor is shot by a gunman (Jacob Scipio) who greets his mother. Scipio is in the action movie, The Outpost. This is a vicious introduction of the two characters and considering that we find that the prisoner had spent years in the prison, why not break out earlier?
In the day, we get Mexico City, we see the prisoner now cleaned up and in a black dress, she is Isabel Aretas. There with her son, Armando, whom she tells about his father. She smashes a jar of his ashes to reveal a flash drive. The drive contains the coordinates to find the millions of dollars that the father has hidden. They want to recover it and get revenge for their family. This revenge is so driving that Armandao patiently waits six months to fulfill his revenge. Armando looks at his computer going through pictures of judges and other people before finally Detective Mike Lowrey! Isabel says to kill him last. Night, back in Miami at a bar, is a celebration of Marcus’ new grandchild. Leading the cheer is Captain Howard played by Joe Pantoliano. The veteran actor continues his part in the Bad Boys films and was in the drama From the Vine (2019). He isn’t the confrontational police captain, more in awe of Mike as an officer, but Pantoliano does much with his small part. Marcus notes that it has been 25 years partnering with Mike. Miami Harbor, criminals are cutting into a case dropping the bundles of cash. One of the gang members is “Zway-lo” (Nicky Jam) is there watching Armando. He was previously in the aciton film XXX: Return of Xander Cage (2017.
Armando kills the leader and convinces “Zway-lo” to work for him. At the bar, Marcus says to Mike that he wants to retire. They are joined by Rita Secada (Paolo Núñez). The actress was Esme Carmona in The Purge (2019) series. Her character is running AMMO (Advanced Miami Munitions Operations), a high tech part of the police department, she is apparently an ex-girlfriend of Mike and Marcus says that Mike should get back together with her. Mike and Marcus go out to the street to compete in a race with the captain witnessing. Mike runs out in front and a black motorcyclist fires three shots into him. Mike is in the hospital as we get the AMMO team work on the case, Kelly (Vanessa Hudgens), Dom (Alexander Ludwig), and Rafe (Charles Melton). Hudgens was in the comedy movie, A Knight before Christmas (2019) which she starred in and executive produced, Ludwig was in teh war film, Midway (2019), and Melton was in the teen drama, The Sun Is Also a Star (2019). Mike recovers and the wounds are still recovering except when they are not when Mike gets into a rooftop fight. The film needed script development that would have made Mike into a more interesting character. Bad Boys for Life is a good action movie, really saved by Martin Lawrence!
Three Porsches out of Five!
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