Bad Boys: Ride or Die - Film Review

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In his comeback movie after slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars, Will Smith buddies up for a fourth time with Martin Lawrence in Bad Boys: Ride or Die. Stuffed with all the violent mayhem and loopy humour consistent with this comedy/bromance/action franchise, this instalment was directed by Belgian pair Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (as was 2020's Bad Boys For Life) and features a nonsensical storyline, absurd and extended fight scenes, as well as a batshit-crazy subplot involving Martin Lawrence's character having a near-death experience which leads him to have deranged spiritual visions, many of which he articulates to his partner, sometimes during gunfights.



But before all of that, Will Smith's Mike and Martin Lawrence's Marcus are back out fighting crime on Miami's mean streets, cracking wise all the way. Cue fast pans of the Miami skyline. Cue Mike driving Formula One-style in his Porsche along beachfront boulevards as the camera swoops manically about all over the place. Then Marcus gets out of the car and cue guns being pointed and the body count starts.

Next Mike is getting married (to a character who isn't fully formed enough to call one-dimensional) and Marcus suffers a heart attack at the ceremony (where the visions start). Marcus survives. Luckily too as the film's main event becomes apparent soon after when Mike and Marcus' former boss, Captain Howard (who was killed in Bad Boys For Life), is accused of having been a dirty cop, in cahoots with drug cartels.

Mike and Marcus don't take kindly to slander of their beloved former boss. And of course, the old captain wasn't bent. The whole thing is a set-up by a gangster called McGrath (played by Eric Dane), who operates his illegal empire from a ridiculous-looking Batcave-like headquarters in an abandoned amusement park in the Florida wilderness.

Directors Adil and Bilall keep the pace faster than frenetic throughout Bad Boys Ride or Die, with cameras never still and cuts so brisk you often have no idea what's going on. And although never a franchise known for its subtlety, the blood-splattering violence here is cranked up to the max.

Diehard fans of the franchise will probably find all they want, especially as the jokes now are increasingly self-referential. A lot of the other gags fall flat fast though. And some plot points are beyond laughable, such as the sidebar of Mike (now that he's married) experiencing panic attacks (just now he's experiencing panic attacks? not in the first three films?). But the film's breathless pace also means that the lights in the cinema come up quickly enough. And you won't remember much after that.

Bad Boys: Ride or Die is in cinemas June 6.

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