Movie Review – Bad Boys: Ride Or Die
Principal Cast : Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Paola Nunez, Eric Dane, Ioan Gruffudd, Jacob Scipio, Melanie Liburd, Tasha Smith, Tiffany Haddish, Joe Pantoliano, John Salley, DJ Khaled, Dhea Seehorn, Dennis McDonald, Bianca Bethune.
Synopsis: The world’s favourite Bad Boys are back with their iconic mix of edge-of-your seat action and outrageous comedy but this time with a twist: Miami’s finest are now on the run.
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In the dull afterglow of a post-slap Oscars ceremony following which his near infallible on-and-off-screen persona took an absolute pasting, Will Smith attempts to get back on the horse again with audiences with this, the fourth instalment of the increasingly self-aware Bad Boys franchise, and the second directed by Adil and Bilal alongside 2020’s Bad Boys For Life. In a weird way, however, Bad Boys: Ride Or Die shifts its focus primarily to the home life and health issues of a positively corpulent Martin Lawrence’s Marcus Burnett, one half of the titular “bad boys” duo of which Smith’s Mike Lowrey is the gab-mouthed other. In what can only be described as a considerably restrained performance from Smith, who at times seems like he’d rather be literally anywhere else than engaging in this movie, Ride Or Die offers typically propulsive action filmmaking from this suddenly interconnected franchise, and despite a couple of truly standout moments (one of which involves redemption for a recurring character), sits comfortably in the echelon of “it’s not essential for you to see this” subgenre entries to come along in 2024.
When their late police captain Conrad Howard (Joe Pantoliano in flashbacks) is abruptly linked to drug cartels, wisecracking Miami cops Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett embark on a dangerous mission to clear his name. Together with fellow Miami PD special forces agents Kelly (Vanessa Hudgens) and Dorn (Alexander Ludwig), Mike and Marcus must recruit Mike’s imprisoned and estranged son Armando (Jacob Scipio) to help locate and stop a vengeful former US Army Ranger, James McGrath (Eric Dane), who has a mission of recrimination against anyone involved in the drug cartels that tortured him years prior.
Ride Or Die is a curious entry into the Bad Boys franchise in that it largely removes its protagonists, Mike and Marcus, from the Miami streets they’ve called home since Michael Bay’s original feature debut dropped in 1995. Although the memorable title track is absent, removing a lot of the laid-back cool that went along with the dynamic Smith/Lawrence double-act, and the film transplants the pair from the sunlit streets of Florida’s capital to the mangrove-forest landscapes of the state’s less populated regions, and borrowing liberally from The Fugitive, Ride Or Die still sails amiably along with the star duo on-song and undeniably charismatic, but the winds of change are blowing through this thing with considerably stronger gusts than they ever have been. Yes, Ride Or Die really sells the point that it’s definitely time for this film franchise to retire Marcus and Mike, their Lethal Weapon-esque antics and a reliance on a younger, more beautiful cast of ensemble characters to shoulder some of the protracted action more of a statement as to Martin Lawrence’s limited comedic appeal and Smith’s boredom with Hollywood’s tropes than a return to form for either of them. For a dude whose screen career also includes Nothing To Lose, a couple of Big Momma’s House “comedies” (and I use the term in its loosest possible meaning) and Wild Hogs it’s fair to suggest Hollywood has tried to turn this guy into a box-office draw a la his contemporaries in Eddie Murphy and more recently Kevin Hart, and completely failed. Lawrence just isn’t funny without his on-screen sparring partner in Will Smith, and given both their career turns of late I’m surprised this film actually turned out as well as it did.
It makes a strange kind of creative decision making to then force the focus of this film to center around the Martin Lawrence character, not that he’s annoying or derivative but that Lawrence’s comedy style is now about two decades older and two decades less funny. That high-pitched screeching and raspy-throat delivery mixed with Lawrence’s bug-eyed facial expressions have a limited shelf life generally, and they’re well overplayed in Ride Or Die, much to my chagrin. In a weird way the film almost sidelines Smith and his character in favour of his more diminutive partner, and elevates some of the supporting turns (in particular Jacob Scipio, as Smith’s on-screen son) at the expense of the comedy-duo dynamic we’ve had for the three previous films.
The film’s central plot is a complete nonsense – a former Miami PD Captain is posthumously accused of working with drug cartels and to clear his name from some outlandish extortion plot Marcus and Mike have to hunt down Eric Dane’s brainiac Army Ranger character? The contrivances in Ride Or Die are either sublimely preposterous or cleverly idiotic: this film makes very little sense but then I guess Bad Boys has never been the most intellectual franchise on the big screen. In keeping with what’s come before, the film boasts a plethora of returning characters and throws a couple of new ones in too – the obligatory Michael Bay cameo is cringeworthy but blessedly brief, while the addition of Ioan Gruffudd is initially intriguing but eventually tiresome – as well as plenty of sweaty, stylish testosterone-driven action. By this point with all the explosions, bullets and chase sequences I’m not really surprised by much here, and to some degree the film does lean into “going through the motions” for a lot of it. However, while it is fun to watch, and returning director duo Adil Ed Arbi and Bilall Fallah (credited on-screen as Adil and Bilall) certainly keep the momentum going with extravagant camerawork and frenetic editing, not to mention some really nice plot twists, there’s a real sense that this might just be the last gasp for everyone’s favourite “I’m too old for this shit” detectives not named Riggs and Murtaugh.
Bad Boys: Ride Or Die won’t lure in new viewers to this franchise on its own. It’s reliant on previous instalments to accentuate the established camaraderie of the title stars and navigates the burgeoning ensemble supporting roster as best it can, although the creaking age of both Smith and Lawrence trying to recreate their screaming-hollering bickering might give one a headache at this point. It’s a well made movie, certainly entertains with several shocking twists and reveals, and delivers one of the best character redemption beats of all time in its middle act, but nothing about Ride Or Die can salvage the feeling that Lawrence is well past his prime and Smith just isn’t interested in returning to this well with any vigour. For Will Smith, this paycheque will do, but you won’t see him listing Mike Lawrey as one of his better characters. The fact one of the main characters has a heart attack in the opening sequences to prompt a mini mid-life crisis is all that you need to know to recognise Bad Boys have jumped the shark. The magic has gone, lads. Time to let it go.
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