'Bad Boys For Life' A Review

Bad Boys For Life is an action comedy movie, a sequel to 1995's Bad Boys and 2003's Bad Boys 2. While Miami detective Marcus Burnett(Martin Lawrence) becomes a grandfather and contemplates retirement his long time partner Mike Lowrey(Will Smith) is determined to defy his age and stay in the game. The movie opens with the prison escape of a drug cartel Matriarch Isabel Aretas(Kate del Castillo) who through her son launches a campaign of revenge against the various government officials that took down her deceased husband, the list includes Bad Boy Mike Lowrey.

There is no small amount of satisfaction seeing Smith and Lawrence onscreen not to mention onscreen together and the additions of Castillo as well as the various AMMO recruits who assist the titular Bad Boys but the convoluted almost soap-operatic plot strains credulity without providing the necessary accompanying spectacle.

Without Michael Bay at the helm practical effects are subsumed by digital, the bizarre dance of machismo and homoerotisism is removed, and clearly much of the production is rote rather than inspired. Not to say Bay is some kind of reliable auteur but at the very least he has a perspective and with this reheated franchise fare which has become ever more popular but ever more unsuccessful someone with something to say or prove or even with a clearer vision would have easily elevated this potentially exciting but ultimately disappointing bit of necromancy.

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