It's an age-old question: Bad boys, bad boys…
"What'cha gonna do?"
"Well, maybe if you sang the song like you meant it, it would catch on."
Will Smith and Martin Lawrence have returned for a third installment of the Bad Boys franchise
and even though we haven't seen the likes of Mike Lowery and Marcus Burnett since 2003,
Bad Boys for Life has managed to earn some favorable reviews.
In case you need a refresher, here's the story so far: Smith and Lawrence play two wisecracking
Miami narcotics detectives who duke it out with numerous drug dealers and smugglers.
We first met these two crazy guys in 1995's Bad Boys, which also happened to be director
Michael Bay's very first feature film.
The movie certainly wasn't a critical darling, but it was ultimately a box office hit thanks
largely to the stars' chemistry.
When Bad Boys II came out in 2003, it rocked a much bigger budget which meant more car
chases, more explosions, more everything.
The film earned nearly twice as much as the original… but the whopping budget ultimately
kept it from being considered a commercial success.
Unfortunately, most critics thought Bad Boys II was way worse than the first installment.
But this time around, the franchise has finally won over some critics.
According to CinemaBlend's Sean O'Connell, Lawrence and Smith still have the same great
chemistry.
He writes:
"These actors just click.
The odd-couple formula isn’t groundbreaking, with Smith easily occupying the bulletproof
playboy role and Lawrence personifying the reluctant family man with one eye on retirement.
But no matter how much time has passed, the two actors [...] maintain a razor-sharp rapport
that helps Bad Boys For Life sizzle in between its explosive action sequences."
Collider's Matt Goldberg clearly agrees with that assessment and he also appreciated getting
an intimate glimpse into the lead character's personal lives:
"Bad Boys for Life... [retains] the ridiculous action of Bad Boys II while discarding the
go-for-broke mentality in favor of a story about the importance of family.
[...] And honestly?
It works!"
"...but family is the only thing that matters, so I'm not gonna let you go on a suicide mission
alone…"
Meanwhile, some critics were clearly suffering from franchise fatigue but were nevertheless
impressed with the film.
The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy writes that:
"[Bad Boys for Life] is decisively the best of the trio; it actually has a heart, or what
passes for one in a gigantic, slam-bang industrial enterprise like this.
[...] It's impressive and enjoyable to behold how easily Smith and Lawrence slide back into
these characters and actually make them more accessible and fun to be around than before."
Of course, that's not to say that every review is glowing.
Evan Dossey of Midwest Film writes:
"Incoherent and interminable, but not in the glorious way audiences have grown to love
from former franchise visionary Michael Bay, [Bad Boys For Life] is a true mid-January
studio writeoff."
And along those same lines, ReelViews' James Berardinelli dismissed the film as nothing
more than a cynical cash grab.
"There's nothing here to justify the film's existence or reward the looooooong wait of
those fans who have been expecting this movie for more than a decade.
It's more of the same: Violence-saturated eye candy used to buff Smith's ego and inflate
his bank account.
It serves its purpose: an attempt to re-start a dormant franchise to give Sony another bankable
series."
And the award for Most Vicious Review definitely goes to Slant's Jake Cole, who writes:
"[Michael] Bay doesn’t direct [...] Bad Boys for Life, leaving one to wonder what
purpose this franchise serves if not to give expression to his nationalist, racist, and
misogynistic instincts."
As if that wasn't more than enough, Cole goes on to say:
"Glib entertainments like Bad Boys for Life [play] a part in normalizing the increasing
police-state tactics and mentality of our nation’s over-armed law enforcement."
A damning assessment, to be sure… but such is life in 2020: One man's buddy film is another
man's ringing endorsement of a burgeoning police state.
At any rate, Bad Boys for Life is earning much better reviews than its predecessors,
and we'll have to wait and see how that ultimately translates at the box office.
The film opens nationwide on January 17th.
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