At the start of the millennium, it took a while for action movies outside of the Fast and Furious franchise to get off the ground. With some exceptions, great action movies were resurrected by 2 diametrically opposite groups: young Indonesians and old actors resurrected. Bad Boys for Life has the old actors for sure, but I was dubious about the good action movie part of the equation without Michael Bay. However, by trading Bay for Adil and Bilall, we lose the Bad Boys insanity but gain a better put together story that’s compelling even when things aren’t blowing up.
“Bulletproof” Mike (Will Smith) and Marcus (Martin Lawrence) are still at it all these years later in Miami, chasing down bad guys with fearlessness (well, at least on Mike’s part) and more than a little recklessness. Mike loves the rush, but Marcus, with the birth of his grandson, decides it’s time for him to retire and live a life of peace. Mike is pissed at Marcus, but an assassin named Armando (Jacob Scipio) and his mother Isabel Aretas (Kate del Castillo) just got out of prison, and have a score to settle with many people, among them “Bulletproof” Mike, who’s name will be put to the test by the dangerous pair.
Compared to the other Bad Boys movies, For Life is much more mature about its storytelling. Now the old guys in the mix, Mike and Marcus both have to come to terms with their pasts and figure out how they want to go forward in the future. Marcus can read the tea leaves; plus familial responsibilities and recent cases force him to look in the mirror and reevaluate his priorities in a responsible way. Mike the gunslinger fully lives by his mantra, only move forward, never back. However, Bad Boys for Life shows how this stifles his growth and maturity. Martin Lawrence isn’t exactly known for his dramatic work, but he’s quite good when he and Will Smith hash it out over his retirement, clearly leaving an impact on Mike, who then starts to reflect and grow, especially with the clever storytelling involving the Aretas’s.
But don’t worry fans of the previous films, the movie never veers too heavily into self- serious mode, and maintains that buddy action essence essential to the Bad Boys’s success. The first 20 minutes assures us that, with Mike galavanting in his awesome car to intercept bad guys with Marcus whining and bitching all the way through telling him to slow down. Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, and Charles Melton inject some new blood into the story, taking Marcus’s place opposite Mike while Marcus is retired. The old man vs. the new hot kids is funny enough, with standard police ribbing taking place. The action sequences don’t have more explosions per minute than a bay movie, but there’s more than a few excellent punctuation marks on them, and there’s definitely more surprising violence, helping put the viewer on the edge of their seat in a nervous fun way. The third act doesn’t quite balance the light/serious tone as well as earlier in the film because of Marcus’s excessive wisecracking. That being said, one of the best undercuts of a serious monologue takes place near the end of the movie, that had the audience and me dying of laughter.
A lot of critics are calling Bad Boys for Life a throwback to 90s action movies. What they mean by that is the storytelling is taken seriously enough that the action set pieces aren’t hollow like in a Transformers movie. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence have always been fun foils, and their charisma with solid direction make Bad Boys for Life a really fun ride. If this is the last of Mike and Marcus’s Miami missions, many millions will merrily move onward. D.J. KHALED!! Sorry, he’s in the movie and alliteration like that needs a stamp on the end.