‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’- Film Review | A New Favorite from the Buddy Cop Franchise?

With the Bad Boys franchise, I never had a strong attachment to the 1995 original, especially its 2003 sequel (I don’t understand why people like them), since they’re better action comedies that know what’s happening. But when it came time for Bad Boys for Life, it was a complete surprise, offering a fresh perspective that brought the energy I needed. This unexpected change of pace for the franchise’s trajectory likely intrigued fans and newcomers alike. It’s not the greatest, but it has better action and makes audiences care more about these characters. It was the highest-grossing movie of 2020 since the pandemic shut down theaters months later. Four years later, it was time for Will Smith and Martin Lawerence to team up again with directing duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah with Bad Boys: Ride or Die (a missed opportunity to not call it “For Life”). Not that non-fans were asking for another film, but it’s one I hope will be a decent time at the movies. And I got just that in getting that good dose of action, comedy, and usual banter, even though this doesn’t always stay as fresh as the last one.

What’s the Story: Things couldn’t be better for Miami detectives Mike Lowery (Will Smith) and Marcus Barnett (Martin Lawerence), with Marcus still a proud grandfather and Mike no longer a bachelor as he marries his physical therapist, Christine (Melanie Liburd). Still, those moments of peace get interrupted when the duo’s late Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano) is posthumously accused of getting involved with drug cartels inside the Miami Police Department set up by a mysterious figure (Eric Dane) trying to make sure he covers his tracks and that Mike and Marcus won’t catch up. Now, they try to clear their captain’s name because they know he has been set up, which leads to them becoming fugitives, along with Mike’s estranged son Armando (Jacob Scipio), and being pursued by the law and criminal gangs.

Nobody enters a Bad Boys movie expecting a masterpiece, which shows most should set their standards low if they think they’re amazing. Something about it doesn’t reach those emotional stakes found previously, but what you’ve seen before gives fans that crazy blockbuster that knows what it is. For the fourth time, and it should come as no surprise, the dynamic between Smith and Lawerence is what we all expected to be the film’s selling point, and it gets better. It demonstrates that they’re a memorable buddy cop pair who still have each other’s backs nearly 30 years later.

Yet what I appreciate about these recent sequels than what Michael Bay did is how it attempt to be a bit more mature than focusing on the big explosions and loud chases. We see Mike and Marcus getting older and their lives becoming more dangerous. This unexpectedly flips the script in how we usually view these characters. Mike suddenly has panic attacks whenever the action goes down since he blames himself for Captain Howard’s death in the last one while dealing with bringing someone new to his life. Meanwhile, Marcus is recovering from a near-death experience in the beginning, and he now believes he’s invincible and becomes more out there than his partner. That aspect wasn’t explored enough, but it allows Lawerence to show he still got it.

Both performances are solid, with Smith delivering the same charisma he brings to his characters. Honestly, this is the biggest movie he’s been a part of after his controversial Oscars slap that partially damaged his career, and I didn’t think of it while in the theater. Maybe it’s because most of us have been over it for the past year, and those who are still fans will see this, including me.

Adil & Bilall made themselves known as being better directors than Bay even when taking his style and putting their spin on it, and the action here is about on par with the last one. Ridiculous? For sure, with its decent amount of drone shots. But it is safe to say it continues to be entertaining as it implements pretty cool locations for the set pieces to change things up from the climatic abandoned amusement park and a neon-lit art gallery and unique first-person shots that I thought looked gimmicky from the trailer but made them stand out in a more grounded sense. Both this and the third movie prove they know how to handle action creatively, which now makes me mad their unreleased Batgirl movie is shelved. I think two sequences, in particular, are some of the series’ best, one of which involved Dennis Green’s Reggie and Marcus’s son-in-law, which I completely loved because they came out of nowhere, and everyone will talk about it after it’s over.

Ride or Die doesn’t have the best story compared to the last one. You’re more focused on what’s going on with Mike and Marcus on this corruption, trusting no one who doesn’t believe them. It’s more of a predictable plot that annoyed me more by how cliché it tends to be in the situations they find themselves in, especially when our characters are running from the law that we’ve already seen on other sequels by now. Finding interest in the new characters doesn’t get better from a wasted Rhea Seehorn as Captain Howard’s U.S. Marshal daughter or Eric Dane as the villain, who is brilliant but mostly relegated to being forgettable and generic. The appearance of just one actor made it easy to know that a particular reveal wouldn’t be shocking to anybody. Even the comedic element kind of falls short. There were several brief chuckles throughout, and the final scene was rather enjoyable. But most of the laughs were from Lawerence and did not come across as hilarious, veering toward Bay humor.

Bad Boys: Ride or Die will delight long-time franchise fans. While it may not be as re-watchable as its predecessor and does not strive to revolutionize what came before, the fourth installment keeps things interesting with its action and the on-point chemistry between Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. Nothing about it is screaming out the perfect summer blockbuster, but knowing this will be a love-it-or-hate-it experience for moviegoers, there might be enough to get us a fifth and possibly final entry soon.

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