My first watch of 2020 is a pleasant surprise and bucks the bad January movie trend.
I got a slow start on 2020 as I've been consumed with my final semester of college, but much like Martin Lawrence and Will Smith, I'm back, baby! I am a big fan of Bad Boys and Bad Boys II (I own them both on DVD), but considering it has been 17 years since the last movie, I didn't have very high expectations for the third installment. I was wrong. This is a really fun action movie.
Will Smith and Martin Lawrence slipped back into the roles of Mike Lowrey (Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) seamlessly. They recaptured the magic and their chemistry on screen together is great. Mike was back stylin' and profilin', wanting to be a bad boy and take down criminals forever, while new grandpa Marcus was ready to turn in his badge and gun, slip on his robe, and enter retirement. But after Mike is the target of an assassination attempt, the two partners have no choice but to get back in the game and crack some heads. This time though, they have some help from a new department in the Miami PD - AMMO squad. AMMO squad is made up of the hot, new, tech savvy youth in Miami PD: Kelly (Vanessa Hudgens), Dorn (Alexander Ludwig - Vikings, The Hunger Games), Rafe (Charles Melton - Riverdale), and Mike's old love interest Rita (Paola Nunez). Being a 10 must be some type of requirement to work for this squad because everyone is ridiculously attractive. Look at that freaking picture!?! Before I get into a spoiler free review and then later into some spoilers, I just wanna say - Vanessa Hudgens has had a tough time shaking High School Musical, but I think she's actually a pretty good actress and needs to be in more mainstream stuff. Ok, lets get into a review.
Bad Boys for Life does a great job of making you actually like the characters on screen, which is something that lower tier action movies like 6 Underground (that movie stunk, idc) don't do. Of course we like the returning characters, Mike, Marcus and the Captain, but I liked everyone in AMMO squad, too. It's very funny and action packed, but also wild and sometimes ridiculous. There's no way Mike should be able to survive half the stunts he pulls, but that, in contrast to Marcus always trying to resolve things peacefully, is what makes it fun. There is a crazy awesome bike chase at the end of the second act and the final shootout is awesome. There are some really cool shots of Miami and I liked the camera work. I laughed out loud at plenty of moments, but my favorite line came right before the team was set to do a snatch and grab of a bad guy at a Miami club. AMMO, known for being more tactical than Trigger-Mike Lowrey, was equipping their guns with rubber non-lethal bullets. When AMMO director Rita informs Mike that this is to be a non lethal snatch and grab, he replies, "Oh non-lethal, did anyone inform the bad guys?" I nearly choked on a Junior Mint. Of course, things went wrong, leading into the cool bike chase. One part that took me out of the movie completely was the sudden appearance of DJ Khaled as a butcher and informant for Mike. That part was weird. And why no Gabrielle Union? She was a central figure in Bad Boys II. She couldn't have shown up for a cameo at her niece's wedding? The worst thing about Bad Boys for Life was there was no song by Nelly, P Diddy, Murphy Lee, and the rest of the St. Lunatics. Shake Ya Tailfeather from Bad Boys II is still a certified banger. Oh well, I guess we can't have everything. Overall, I really had a great time at the theater watching Bad Boys for Life. It is a fun shoot em up movie and I think worth grabbing some popcorn to go see Martin Lawrence and Will Smith together on the big screen again. Speaking of Will Smith, after the movie I was trying to remember the last time I actually saw one of his movies in theaters. I think it was Focus in 2015. He has put out a lot of stinkers but this one and Spies in Disguise are both getting great reviews. There is a big twist in Bad Boys for Life that I want to talk about so if you don't want it spoiled I would check out now. Thanks for reading and go see Bad Boys! If you don't care about spoilers or have seen the movie, keep reading! Final warning....
Ok, so before the big twist, there was one other shocking moment. Captain Howard, a returning main character just gets straight up dropped by a sniper. The sniper was the same guy that tried to kill Mike and was killing everyone connected to him and a prior bust he made as an undercover Miami cop. The young sniper was working for a witchy woman named Isabel that recently escaped prison. The sniper, named Armando, turned out to be the son of Isabel and Mike Lowrey. That's right, just like in Gemini man, Will Smith's son was trying to kill him again. It was an unexpected and kinda heavy twist for a Bad Boys movie, and I didn't love it. It didn't ruin the movie at all though and gave us a great Marcus rant to Mike about sleeping with a witch. At the end Isabel dies and Armando helps Mike save Marcus. The final scene is Mike meeting with his now incarcerated son and telling him a job may have come open for him to take some years off his sentence, setting up a 4th movie. Hopefully the 4th installment won't be another 17 years. If you want to watch Bad Boys or Bad Boys II, they are both on Netflix! Go see Bad Boys for Life and tell me what you think! Now, I'm off to binge Clone Wars and back to some school work. Be sure to like or comment and subscribe to Drive in Double! Thanks for reading!
Bad boys, bad boys, what ya gonna do?
- BH
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