Bad Boys For Life: Reboot of Buddy Cop Dramedy Series All Filler, No Thriller

By Thom Ernst

Rating: B-

It’s clear from the opening sequence of Bad Boys For Life that we’re in for a ride; it’s not a great ride, but in all probability, it’ll be a profitable one. That’s likely enough for Michael Bay, whose working blueprint has always been, why be good when bad is just a lucrative?

The film begins with Detective Mike Lowery (Will Smith) tearing up the streets of Miami in a shiny new Porsche, running through lights, busting across intersections, and narrowly skirting past oncoming traffic. Pedestrians scurry to safety, buses swerve to get out of the way. In the Porsche is Lowry’s partner, Detective Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence), on the verge of spewing up his morning dose of coffee and donuts all over the leather upholstery.

And in case you don’t recognize this as comedy, Burnett confirms the hilarity by howling through a litany of exaggerated expletives like Whoa! and Slow down! And the audience responds. Every hairpin turn and near head-on collision is met with uproarious laughter. Why shouldn’t it be? It’s a standard as old the Keystone Cops.

Maybe this routine does seem fresh to an audience who might not remember when Will Smith was a Fresh Prince or when Martin Lawrence shocked an SNL audience with the most offensive opening monologue in the show’s history. That Bad Boys For Life offers nothing much in the way of anything truly inventive should hardly matter to any viewer who is content to be getting what they’ve come to expect.

It’s not as if the original films, Bad Boys (1995) and its uninspired sequel with the equally uninspired title, Bad Boys II (2003), blazed new ground. And to filmmakers who cherish business savvy over creative integrity, it makes no sense to mess with a format that worked reasonably well twice before—sure, not critically but commercially.

Bad Boys For Life is not so much a reboot of a franchise as it is a franchise that has mysteriously resurfaced. It’s been 17 years since the last outing for Lowry and Burnett. There’s not a lot to distinguish between the Lowry and Burnett of then from the Lowry and Burnett of now. They are older, but they are just as bad as ever. (Though, were they ever really bad? Now Harvey Keitel in Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant from 1992… that cop was a bad dude. Smith and Lawrence are puppies by comparison. But I suppose Mischievous Boys just doesn’t carry the same oomph).

Smith’s Lowry still comes across as the free-spirited playboy, and Lawrence’s Burnett still looks, from certain angles, like a character sketch from a Mad magazine movie parody. There are a few comedic references to age facilitated mostly through the quips of younger team members. In many cases, these are the film's most genuinely funny moments.

Bay directed the first two Bad Boys but now hands over the reins to the relatively new filmmaking team of Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. Not that there’s any less evidence of Bay in Bad Boys For Life than there was in in the previous films: There is the time-lapse aerial view of the city at night scenes, the protagonist casually working out scene, the female cops who are as badass as their male counterparts but look unexpectedly hot when going uncover in chic Miami nightclubs scene.

There are scenes of explosions, gangland killings, car chases, and more explosions. Still, the film strives to be more than just a mesh of Bay-inspired blow-ups and easy to reach jokes. There is an attempt at a revenge story. Unfortunately, whatever strength this storyline might have is wasted on what amounts to a hurried montage.

The fascinating thing about Bad Boys is that it’s now officially a franchise. Bad Boy For Life is not the end. A Bad Boys 4 is already in the making. Which means whatever boardroom bean counters okayed this film had already agreed to the next. It’s still untitled, but if they are open for suggestions, may I submit, Bad Boys 4 the After Life?

Bad Boys For Life. Directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. Starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. Opens wide January 17.