Once again under the helm of Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, Bad Boys: Ride or Die – the fourth entry into the franchise – continues the upward trend with great emotional stakes, lots of laughs, and superb action thrills as Martin Lawrence and Will Smith lean on their trademark chemistry for success.
Bad Boys: Ride or Die
Directed by Adil & Bilall (Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah)
Starring Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Paola Núñez, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Joe Pantoliano
Runtime: 1 hour, 55 minutes
Synopsis
After deceased Captain Conrad Howard (Pantoliano) is accused of corruption, detectives Mike Lowry (Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) try to clear his name, unknowingly falling into a trap that will mark them as fugitives. With the help of their team, they will try to clear their names as all of Miami’s law enforcement and gangs circle in.
“Mike, It’s Melodramatic!”
If Bad Boys II (2003) was a “cut your brain off and leave it off” type of experience, the third entry in the series, Bad Boys for Life (2020) wisely improved the character work between Mike, Marcus, and their supporting cast. Introducing Armando (portrayed by Jacob Scipio) as Mike’s secret son was a step straight out of your typical network soap opera, but it provided a grounding for Mike that we never saw before. The playboy policeman suddenly had to grow up and show compassion in a different way than the brotherly love he typically displays for Marcus. Marcus and Mike also had to come to grips with mortality: there’s a great scene where Marcus admonishes Mike for wanting vengeance and questioning his loyalty, especially when he had just spent the past few months watching Mike recover from his injuries. It was a particularly strong moment that resonated throughout the rest of the film and was likely a large reason why people held the third film in such high regard.
Ride or Die doesn’t feature quite the same impactful speech, but there are plenty of excellent moments between the trio (Marcus, Mike, and Armando) that build or utilize the energy from the previous film, whether it’s light-hearted bonding over a fire or jokes tossed at one another through a firefight. However, some of these moments are undercut by other decisions or additions to the team.
Credit: Columbia Pictures
Introduced as the late Captain Howard’s daughter, Rhea Seehorn (recently finished her role as Kim Wexler in AMC’s Better Call Saul) plays Judy Howard, a US Marshall who ends up tracking Marcus, Mike, and Armando while they are on the run. It’s here that tension between the four of them sometimes feels unearned or a tad forced. It makes sense for her character to be upset at Armando (he was responsible for killing Captain Howard in the third film), but she’s also a new character to keep track of. Had she been introduced earlier or been a legacy character, this animosity would have been more energetic, more believable with the amount of time they gave her. As it stands, she has very little time to connect with the audience to leave any lasting impression. (One fix might have been to weave her character in with the FBI lead investigating her father so she could get more moments).
Bringing back John Salley’s Fletcher was a nice touch, but it’s a bit weird how that’s handled after he exchanges information with Mike and Marcus. As one of the few legacy characters left, it seems like they could have had a bit more recognition of that fact. Even though Captain Howard had largely pulled back when they brought him into the previous film, his death was treated with a lot of weight and gravity that alludes to this film greatly.
There’s also a variable who’s who collection of other actors playing baddies or support characters that aren’t offensively bad but don’t really move the needle. If there’s another entry into this series, keeping these additions to a minimum would really serve to keep the narrative tighter and give more time to characters we actively care about. Not to bash on Fast and Furious too hard in a Bad Boys review, but there are plenty of characters in that series that I simply can’t keep track of and/or the series hasn’t done enough to make me care about them. When you already have a large crew of characters to focus on, bringing in more ancillary roles can muddle the narrative, and I worry more iterations of Bad Boys may fall into that trap, based on what I’ve seen here.
Credit: Columbia Pictures
The saving grace, even with the cast issues, is the plentiful amount of laughs to be had. Lawrence and Smith are in rare form and work well off the cast, who each tend to have a great moment with one another and with the duo that at least justifies their inclusion. The standout will likely be Reggie (Dennis Greene), as he’s all grown up and has returned from military duty. Without spoiling anything, he has a few great comedic moments with Lawrence and later has a great action scene in his own right.
The Aggressive Camera
For the cinematography nerds, I’m certain many of you are going to love the shots pulled off in this film, but others may leave you a bit perplexed.
Cinematographer Robrecht Heyvaert, with directors Adil and Balill, continues many of the excellent action scenes they developed before, utilizing more drone action, handheld camera, and floating camera tricks to create a viewpoint of a firefight that’s constantly moving without making you sick. Heyvaert’s style in both films he’s shot for Bad Boys (Life and Ride or Die) seems incredibly excited or “aggressive”. While it’s not really a shaky cam in the style of Jason Bourne, it’s nearly as active or more active than previous series director Michael Bay, which is truly saying something. There’s a true art to keeping that type of pace up without making your eye get exhausted. While you may end up enjoying what you’re watching, if done incorrectly, this pace can make even the best-executed fight choreography seem muddled or weak.
Credit: Columbia Pictures
Luckily for us, these techniques are used extremely well, the most notable being Reggie’s shootout fight in the Barnett house or Marcus and Mike fighting in the art exhibit. The camera moves really well to the established choreography, matching it beat for beat, and the editing helps sell the cutaways to moments happening elsewhere. The final fight, unfortunately, suffers the most as elements of it are so frenetic that there’s a remarkable difference in quality. When they start the fight outside, the camera seemed to work flawlessly, once they move inside however it gets a bit too claustrophobic and feels rushed. Even in that tight space, though, there’s still a memorable shot that feels like an echo to Bad Boys II and the 360° shot in the Haitian house. Here, we get a gun toss between Mike and Marcus that seamlessly switches the camera perspective between the two of them and the gun. It will make more sense when you see it, but it’s a remarkably great shot, even if it’s surrounded by a few less-than-stellar moments.
Conclusion / Recommendation
Bad Boys: Ride or Die continues the strong direction set by directing pair Adil and Bilall, building off the foundation of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence’s friendship to execute more action and laughs. Even with a few uneven spots, the ride is well worth your time during the summer season.
If you already love the Bad Boys franchise, this is an easy recommendation, and avid action fans will likely enjoy everything laid out here. Watching the previous film will help you enjoy this one more, but there’s enough context here that you could just jump in even if you missed the previous film. For the laughs and action, recommend catching this one in theaters for maximum enjoyment.
Score: 8 out of 10
- The Laughs- 8
- The humor in Bad Boys, especially these last two entries, have mirrored or matched the comedic wit of classics like Rush Hour or Lethal Weapon.
- The Emotions- 7
- While it carries the torch from the third film, too many new characters weigh down what would have otherwise been a deeply moving father-son vengeance story.
- The Thrills- 9
- Adil and Bilall know we are here for the thrills, and they deliver well in that regard, never a dull moment to be found, with very little wasted scenes or action moments.
Bonus: Shouldn’t the Titles Be Switched?
I realize Adil and Bilall likely didn’t know if they were going to get a fourth Bad Boys film (especially given the large gaps in time between entries)…but it’s going to drive me nuts forever that the third film is called “for Life” whereas that would have been a perfect title for this fourth film. I mean, look at it: Bad Boys 4 Life? Come on, this was a slam dunk no-brainer, Columbia!
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