Director: Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah
Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Duration: 124 minutes
Bad Boys For Life (VOD) – Movie Review
It has been 17 years since we last saw ‘Bad Boys’ Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett in action. The sequel of the series wasn’t quite as loved as the original, but fans of the first movie still enjoyed this second part. As it is the current trend in Hollywood to bring out sequels to older movies, or completely rebooting franchises, it’s not that odd to see another Bad Boys release in 2020. This time the Belgian director duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah take over the helm from Michael Bay to create something new for the franchise.
The movie’s plot is actually quite simple. We get to see the two famous detectives in action once again as they speed to what first seems yet another crime scene. It actually becomes rather clear that detective Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and detective Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) are going to the hospital, as Marcus is becoming a grandfather. His daughter just gave birth, and this happy event also causes Marcus to think about his retirement.
In Mexico, we see a jailbreak of the notorious Isabel Aretas (Kate del Castillo), who is now the head of a crime family as her husband passed away. Her son, Armando (Jacob Scipio), has helped her, and is arranging things in America for her revenge. They are going after all the men who made sure she was locked up in prison, including Mike Lowrey. It seems that Mike is a bit more special than the rest, as Isabel specifically instructs Armando to kill him last. Her son doesn’t listen however, and guns him down in the middle of a crowded area. Mike survives, but months pass, all while other law enforcers, judges and lawyers having to do with the cartel’s case are being murdered.
The flow is quite predictable for a movie such as this, even though the first half of the movie is quite uneventful, safe for Mike being gunned down. You’ll notice a bit of an imbalance when it comes to information and action, as it seems that the second half of the movie nearly has all the action sequences crammed in. Other than that, the movie proves to be somewhat predictable and you can smell the end coming from a mile away.
We all know that the success of the Bad Boys movies relies solely on the acting performances of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, and they once again succeed in putting down a commendable performance. Will Smith seemingly doesn’t age as fast as normal human beings, and thus he looks in great shape for this movie, while Martin Lawrence didn’t age just as majestically as Will. He still performs believably and with a lot of humor, the signs of aging have caught up to him, making him somewhat less of an action hero. Once again, we stress his performance is done right, he just doesn’t look like the proper figure to do these movies anymore. Other acting performances include stars such as Vanessa Hudgens and Alexander Ludwig. Vanessa plays a rather badass agent, which is not her typical appearance in movies, but she does so splendidly. Ludwig, known for playing Bjorn Lothbrok in the Vikings universe, plays a fairly timid character compared to his ongoing role in the aforementioned series. He also handles his new role with grace and a lot of poise.
As we only had the VOD format of the movie available, we can’t discuss the special features that can be found on the physical copy. We hope to do a follow-up in the future of the physical copies we have recently reviewed in their VOD versions. That being said, the movie doesn’t need that many extras, as the content of the film speaks for itself. We reckon there will be a few making-of sequences, but other items wouldn’t add that much value.
Conclusion
Bad Boys For Life is a decent sequel to the series, albeit a bit too late, and a bit less charming than its first two parts. The movie is a bit dull in its first half, only to blast you with action for the complete second half. While this movie is certainly a fun trip down memory lane, once again proving that Hollywood can only create sequels or reboots, it feels underwhelming and it’s somewhat odd that the movie got such a good reception. We reckon nostalgia was certainly a part of the initial reaction, but when getting over the created hype for the movie, we found a fairly stale action movie that could have been a lot more. Still decent to watch when you love the series, but it will not knock anything out the park. Those who still can’t get enough, even after part three, it’s clear that the ending of the movie hints at a fourth installment of the series. Perhaps we’ll see a Bad Boys Geriatric movie after all.
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