The fourth entry into the iconic Will Smith and Martin Lawrence buddy cop comedy series, Bad Boys, slaps hard. Filmed in the shadow of the notorious Oscars incident, the event is explicitly and implicitly referenced throughout. Bad Boys: Ride or Die is a fable which examines the choices that be made when you arrive at a fork in the road: climb back up to redemption or spiral down further.
As with every decades spanning franchise, each new entry should be viewed with scepticism: do they anything new to say, or is it just another cash grab? Bad Boys: Ride or Die offers a refreshing new take on the beloved series by introducing metaphysical and spiritual components. It begins with Martin Lawrence’s Detective Lieutenant Marcus Burnett dying on the dance-floor at the wedding of partner, Mike Lowry (Will Smith). In a Black Panther-esque visit to the ancestral plain, Marcus is told by Captain Conrad Howard, who was murdered by Lowry’s bastard son in the last film, that it’s not his time to die. He wakes in the hospital bed remembering the messages, and the foresight, gleaned from the visit to the great beyond, and shares these consistently with Mike and anyone who will listen. It sounds like a risky departure, but it really works.
Films like Bad Boys often live or die on their villains. On this outing, the big bad is Eric Dane’s psychopathic James McGrath; a character who broke bad following a trauma. Jacob Scipio, Mike’s son and one villain from the third instalment, returns, imprisoned, but with an opportunity for repentance. Scipio is fantastic; an action star of the future. The dichotomy between the two characters and their journeys is fantastic but Dane, who is most known from his time on Charmed and Grey’s Anatomy, is potentially too understated.
Like all the Bad Boys films, the set piece action pieces are mind boggling; the final shoot out features innovative camera techniques: drone fly-overs and first-person shooter camera shots. The chemistry between Smith and Lawrence is as fantastic as ever; you could tell how much the friendship meant to the actors during a difficult time. Plenty of “I’m too old for this shit” gags are present, as Lawrence struggles with maintaining a healthy diet in a world filled with Skittles and hot dogs.
Bad Boys 4 is so good that we will likely be getting Bad Boys films for life.
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