Bad Boys for Life (2020)

Director: Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah

Cast: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence*, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig

Have I Seen it Before: I mean, it’s only been out for a minute and a half, so naturally this would be the first time I’ve watched it. As I’ve written during many of these reviews, it isn’t exactly like the film is exploring brand new territory in any way, shape or form.

Did I Like It: And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I wrote in my review for the original Bad Boys (1995) that the only thing necessary for a buddy cop movie to work is a visual sense that pointedly discourages any deeper thought, and a chemistry between the leads. Time may have passed, but Smith and Lawrence are still able to milk the laughs out of their interactions together, and that would be enough to recommend the film.

Interesting that Michael Bay did not return for this film, as he’s spent the last decade and a half mashing action figures together. One would assume that the budget wouldn’t allow for him and Smith to occupy the same set at the same time, but just as Bumblbee (2018) proved that a franchise can not only survive, but thrive without him, Belgian filmmakers El Arbi and Fallah prove equal to the type of action movie Bay appears to have stopped making**.

So, everything is fine, right?

Well, it’s such a weird thing to get bothered by, but it’s a complaint about the nuts and bolts of filmmaking. The big bad of the film, Isabel Aretas (Kate del Castillo) spends the entirety of the film pulling them from Mexico City, where she opens the film by escaping from prison. Every single time the film cuts back to her witchy doings, we get a title, we’re reminded that the scene is taking place in Mexico City. When Marcus (Lawrence) and Mike (Smith) gear up to take the bad guys down, it tells us once more that they have arrived in Mexico City. Unless the Bruja is leapfrogging from Mexico City to Addis Ababa all the way to Toad Suck, Arkansas, I don’t need to be reminded three or four times that part of the movie takes place in Mexico City. I’m not wild that the audience of the film can’t be trusted to remember such basic information, especially when it isn’t so integral to the plot.

Okay, so maybe the action didn’t manage to discourage deeper thoughts from me. It’s still reasonably fun. If you’ve seen the others, you know what you’re getting into.

*Anyone want to take any bets as to whether or not the delay between Bad Boys II (2003) and this film was largely a negotiation to get Smith billing above Lawrence?

**Maybe 6 Underground (2019) is a return to form for him. I don’t know, I haven’t brought myself to watch it.

Bad Boys II (2003)

Director: Michael Bay

Cast: Martin Lawrence (absolutely mystified that he kept top billing going into the sequel; will this keep up with Bad Boys For Life? [2020]?), Will Smith, Gabrielle Union, Jordi Mollà

Have I Seen It Before?: I have a vague memory of watching the first fifteen minutes of it on DVD at some point, but being bored by it. Is that even possible?

Did I like it?: A little less than the original Bad Boys (1995), and I’m left a little uncertain as to how to quantify that difference. Michael Bay is in fine form, eschewing the complete void of human interest that has become his later career. He really should just make clones of Lethal Weapon (1987) and leave the robots to… Well, no one, now that I think about it. 

Smith and Lawrence continue to effortlessly offer the one non-negotiable element for buddy cop movies: chemistry. Each are plenty charming on their own (although one may have more of a continuous record at the box office) but together their so imminently watchable that it isn’t a completely ridiculous notion that the two will come back together for a third film next year.

The movie is shamelessly what it is, for better or worse. So why doesn’t this one work as well as the previous film? Am I just wrong? A possibility. The film reached several worst-of lists in the year of its release. However, it does have a cultural reach that eclipses the original, although that may be more related to its being lionized in Hot Fuzz (2007).

It’s more difficult to quantify something so subjective at first blush, but if I had to pick one element that sinks or swims plenty of movies. The score here is produced by a different composer, and I really prefer the score in the first movie. It might be reductive to be down on a movie for one single element, but just try to watch films like Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999), or better yet, Halloween (1978) without the music. Both films become equally unwatchable, which is simply unfathomable given how both of those movies turned out. Music counts, folks.

Bad Boys (1995)

Director: Michael Bay

Cast: Martin Lawrence, Will Smith (last time he gets second billing, me thinks), Téa Leoni, Joe Pantoliano

Have I Seen it Before: I was a child of the 1990s and had cable, so I saw some version of this movie, to be sure.

Did I Like It: What’s not to like? How hard is it to make a buddy cop movie work?

That question may be unfair. The entire genre is dependent on chemistry between the two leads. If it works, you’ve got the next Lethal Weapon (1987). If you get it wrong, suddenly you’re saddled with another Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992)*. In what must be unnerving for those who make movie in the genre, that chemistry is largely ephemeral, and can be waylaid by any number of factors and good casting alone may not be enough to save matters.

Luckily, the chemistry between Lawrence and Smith is nearly perfect in its calibration. When the two are sharing a frame and just talking, the film’s charms are undeniable. One can’t be certain if they’re improvising during these sequences, but it feels breezy in a way that seldom can be achieved outside of improvisation. They’re easily funny, which is starkly obvious when it appears that either of the stars deliver one-liners supplied by one of the four credited screenwriters.

This movie even comes from a time before Michael Bay went into autopilot mode while mashing action figures together, and while his style may be a bit too arch for some, it does feel at home in the Miami sun amid endless explosions.

*I’ll be willing to admit that one had some other problems, not the least of which appear to be that the entire rationale for its existence appears to be as a prank Arnold Schwarzenegger played on Stallone. Look it up!