One Mann’s Movies review of “Bad Boys for Life” (2020).
Bob the Movie Man’s Rating:
Certification:
US: R. UK: 15.
Will Smith needs “Bad Boys for Life” to work. He seems to have been having a lacklustre period in his career. His genie from “Aladdin” got a rather lukewarm reception. And his last movie – “Gemini Man” – billed as a big summer blockbuster – failed to impress. True it wasn’t a commercial disaster (raking in at the time of writing about 150% of budget), but it’s still a film on a plane for me that, even if I’m bored, I’ll say “nah” to.
Perhaps it’s for this reason that Smith reached for an old and reliable property to dust off for another outing.
And, do you know, it’s not half bad.
Ready to break a bunch more traffic laws. “We’re not just black, we’re cops too! We’ll pull ourselves over later!”. (Source: Colombia Pictures).
Lawrence – not normally my cup of tea.
I only recently saw this one, right at the end of its UK cinema run, because frankly it appealed to me like being hit round the head with a cold fish. Martin Lawrence is an actor who just grates on me enormously. I’m sure he’s a lovely chap; kind to animals; donates to charity; etc – but I generally just don’t find him funny. Here though he has a killer line about condom use that made me chuckle.
It feels to me like he is on implausible ground here re-treading the role of aging detective Marcus Burnett. One look at Burnett lumbering along and you would think “well, he’d never pass the medical” for the on-street role he’s portrayed doing. His buddy is detective Mike Lowrey (Will Smith), who has a sordid past that is set to catch up on him.
Since we start the story in Colombia, where Isabel Aretas (Kate Del Castillo), the witchy wife of a notorious deceased drug baron, is sprung from prison by her son Armando (Jacob Scipio) in what I admit is a clever and novel way. The Aretas family is bent on revenge – – and a key target in their sites is Lowrey.
Burnett is newly a grandparent and hell-bent on retirement. But with Lowrey and his associates with a target on their backs, will there be one last chance to “Ride Together, Die Together”?
‘Ding Dong the witch is’…. looking pretty foxy actually. Kate Del Castillo tries to get one up on Will Smith. (Source: Colombia Pictures).
Not seen the first two movies? Not to worry!
There are movies, like LOTR, where if you’ve missed the first two movies in the series you will be left in serious “WTF” territory in trying to watch the third. This is not one of those movies. The story refers to events never seen prior to the first film in the series, and so is entirely self-contained.
But whether the movie is for you will depend on your tolerance for loud and brash visuals and music with the knob turned up to 12. Directors Adil and Bilall (Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah – Belgian film school buddies best known for the critically acclaimed 2015 feature “Black”) – don’t do anything by halves.
There is a scene in “Lost Series 3” in which Sawyer, Kate, and Alex have to bust young Karl out of the mysterious room 23. Karl is being tortured by having his eyes kept open while watching a collage of images continually smashed into his eyeballs. This movie feels a little like that after a while.
This is not by any means a criticism that it’s poorly done. There is some truly stunning cinematography of the Miami skyline by Belgian cinematographer Robrecht Heyvaert, including a ‘pull-back’ drone shot from a conversation on the top of a building that is (as Dave Moody from “Mark and Dave” would say) “AWESOME!!!!”. And there are more than enough “fast action – then slo-mo – then fast again” shots to keep music-video junkies happy!
The music score by Lorne Balfe is also pumping, adding a dynamism to the frantic action scenes that keeps you entertained.
Lowrie breaking bad and breaking orders. (Source: Colombia Pictures).
A story that’s both familiar but ludicrous.
The screenplay by Chris Bremner, Peter Craig and Joe Carnahan is assuredly familiar: it’s not going to win any prizes for originality. We’ve seen the cartel/revenge plotline played out in multiple movies over the years. And we’ve also seen the “buddy cops with aging partner taking retirement” angle from the “Lethal Weapon” series. This just sticks them together.
Fortunately, not the love interest. Vanessa Hudgens as Kelly. (Source: Colombia Pictures).
The cast.
Will Smith and Martin Lawrence wise-crack their way through the comedy well-enough, though for me it never reaches the heights of the pairing of Smith and Tommy Lee Jones from MiB (or indeed Mel Gibson and Danny Glover from Lethal Weapon).
Elsewhere we have Vanessa Hudgens as a cute cop, still trying to break through from “Disneyfication” into mainstream flicks. For one horrible moment, when I saw her name on the cast, I thought she might be the love interest to Smith. But no. That honour goes to Mexican beauty Paola Nuñez who, with only a 10 year age gap, becomes a less gag-worthy pairing. She plays a female leadership role (every 20’s film now needs one) as the head of a new crime division.
Also good value is Joe Pantoliano reprising his role as Captain Howard – Lowrie’s exasperated boss. Playing it by the numbers, every film like this has to have one!
#exasperatedbosses. Joe Pantoliano and Paola Nuñez. (Source: Colombia Pictures).
Plot twist ahead.
Where the plot does add some interest is in a surprising scene mid-film and a twist that I didn’t see coming. But this twist felt – in the context of the release date or the film – like a mistake (A Spoiler Section discussing this in the footnote below the trailer).
All of this happens against a backdrop bad guys being killed in ever more graphic and gory ways. An escalating bad-guy body count, while the good guys generally dodge every bullet, grenade and crashing helicopter heading their way.
An entertaining witch…. sorry… watch.
It’s that time of year when films are released to die. Where studios drop their movies that are never going to trouble the Academy. Movies that are deemed unworthy of a summer, or even late spring, release. But they should have had more faith in this one, for it’s not half bad. True, you may need a couple of paracetamols afterwards, but if your corneas and ear-drums can stand the pace, its not short on entertainment value.
Trailer:
The trailer is here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKCj3XuPG8M.
(A spoiler section is below… page down… you have been warned!)
***Spoiler section***
The similarity I’m referring to here is of course the fact that we have two Will Smith films in succession where the bad guy turns out to be related to him. Oh look! He looks into his eyes and sees his own DNA! We are not led to suffer another ‘youngification’ process (since Armando is not this time a “clone”. But really? Why would the studios try to put out two films with such similar twists within even the same year, let alone running concurrently in Smith’s filmography?
