Bad Boys for Life (2020)

Starring: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Joe Pantoliano, Paola Núñez, Vanessa Hudgens, Theresa Randle, DJ Khaled, Nicky Jam, and Michael Bay
Grade: A-

Despite us being 17 years removed from the second film, Bad Boys for Life was worth the wait.

Summary

In Miami, Florida, Detective Lieutenants Mike Lowrey (Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) are back at it again, driving through the streets as quickly as possible to get to the hospital for the birth of Marcus’s grandson. After greeting his wife Theresa (Randle) and his daughter, who ended up having the kid with Reggie (Dennis Greene) from Bad Boys II, Marcus holds the baby in his arms and weeps. Mike is having none of it and leaves the room.

At the Santa Maria Ixcotel Prison in Mexico, Isabel Aretas (Kate del Castillo) kills a guard and switches clothes with her. When the ambulance shows up, Isabel is taken away, and the dead body of the guard is only discovered soon after in the washing machine. In the ambulance, Isabel’s son Armando (Jacob Scipio) shoots the two guys in the front, and Isabel kills another EMT in the back. One guy tries to leave, but Armando shoots him too. At the same time, Armando sets fire to the ambulance with a Molotov cocktail and the two escape. In Mexico City, Isabel tells Armando that he’s ready to restore honor to their family, giving him coordinates for millions of dollars his deceased father left. With this, Isabel excitedly talks about getting revenge on those people who destroyed their family. There’s a list of people she wants hunted down and Armando is ready. One of the people on this list is Mike Lowrey, with Isabel saying he needs to die last.

Back in Miami, Marcus has a party at a bar to celebrate his grandson and twenty-five years of working with Mike. Captain Conrad Howard (Joe Pantoliano) even does a speech, along with Mike and Marcus. At the Miami Harbor, Armando recovers his money with the help of powerful gangster Taglin (Massi Furlan). When Taglin tries to “renegotiate terms” by absolutely screwing Armando and keeping a majority of the money for him and his crew, Armando kills Taglin and all of his main cohorts. He then offers a job to everyone left standing, and they accept out of fear. Back at the bar, Marcus talks to Mike about finally retiring because he wants to see his grandson grow up, but Mike doesn’t want to hear it. They are approached by Mike’s ex-girlfriend Lt. Rita Secada (Paola Núñez) who wants to see pictures of Marcus’s grandson. Mike congratulates Rita because Howard asked her to head up AMMO (Advanced Miami Metro Operations), a small team trained in new tactics and investigative methods. Once she leaves, Marcus gives Mike shit for managing to screw up that relationship. They further discuss Mike’s relationship problems and how he’s only been in love once, but then get off track, with Marcus arguing he beat Mike in the race to the hospital. This results in a foot race between the two outside of the bar, officiated by Howard. The bet is if Marcus wins, they turn in their papers and retire. If Mike wins, the retirement talk stops, and they ride this thing until the wheels fall off.

They have the race, and Mike seems to be soundly ahead. Before the race concludes however, a disguised Armando drives by on a motorcycle and shoots Mike down.

Mike is rushed to the hospital and as Marcus waits, he prays to God, swearing he will not bring violence into this world anymore if Mike is saved. At AMMO Headquarters, the members of the team tell Howard what they have on the case so far. As ballistics expert Kelly (Hudgens) talks about the bullets used, Howard and Rita both mention how this is personal for the both of them, so they want to make this mission a priority. Isabel calls Armando from Mexico City and angrily asks why he didn’t wait to kill Mike last like she said, but Armando argues that Mike was the only threat on the list. The vengeful Isabel tells Armando she wanted Mike to see the others die first. She tells him to just finish the job and to never disobey her again. With this in mind, Armando goes down the list killing retired DA Rodrigo Vargas, forensic investigator for the DEA Dr. Jack Weber, and Judge Leon Sorenson. AMMO realizes the same shooter has been involved in all of this because the same blacked out bike was seen at the scene of each crime.

Six months later, everyone is at the wedding for Megan and Reggie, including an alive and wheelchair bound Mike. At the reception, Mike gets out of his wheelchair to make a speech. There, he tells the two his and Marcus’s mantra that has kept them through the toughest times in their lives:

“We ride together, we die together. Bad boys for life.”

Later at the reception, Mike asks Howard to let him investigate his own case, but Howard insists AMMO has it. Mike then suggests he and Marcus be put on the Vargas case because it ties into it, but Howard tells him Marcus technically retired. Privately, Mike goes to Marcus, and they have a heated argument over the subject, with Mike pleading with Marcus to help him on this one final case because he wants revenge badly. Marcus, knowing his pledge and trying to convince Mike this is his karma, refuses. That night, Armando looks at old headlines of his father Benito and how he was a major cartel leader in Mexico, along with Isabel. Afterwards, Isabel calls and tells him Mike is still alive, so he knows his job is back on track. Armando then uploads a POV video of himself when he shot Mike and it’s shared everywhere, making the news. Meanwhile, Mike’s workout is interrupted by Rita who pleads with him to let AMMO handle the case and for him to take a step back, especially because he’s not fully healed.

We know Mike though. He’s not going to listen.

Marcus enjoys his retirement but at the same time we see him accidentally breaking the ceiling fan and Theresa yelling at him, we see Mike going out by himself to find Manny the Butcher (DJ Khaled). Immediately upon entering the kitchen, Manny starts talking, prompting Mike to handcuff and attack him until he admits the guy who sold the bullets was Booker Grassie (Rory Markham). Mike goes straight back to Howard to tell him about Booker Grassie and how he’s the only arms dealer in Miami who’s been customizing for the P90 Herstal (the gun used on Mike). Mike gives Howard an ultimatum: Either he’s brought in to help on the case, or he goes full vigilante.

An angry Howard agrees to let Mike in as a consultant with AMMO on the case. Even so, it’s still Rita’s show. Though Mike doesn’t want to work with Rita and vice versa, they agree under Howard’s orders. Rita talks about how they think Grassie is about to have another sale after picking up some chatter, though she accuses Howard of giving up information to Mike since he already knows who Booker Grassie is. Howard admits Mike is the one that told him. Mike meets the AMMO crew of Kelly, the muscular tech guy Dorn (Alexander Ludwig), and Rafe (Charles Melton). Rafe tries to antagonize Mike from the start by calling him old and stuff. Mike, Rita, and the rest of AMMO get into their surveillance van and drive off, with Mike’s approach of cop procedures already clashing with how AMMO approaches things. Mike suggests a raid, but Rita is insistent on only doing surveillance, despite Grassie being in the area. The two aren’t getting along from the jump. Once they send a drone into the sale to observe what’s going on, Mike notices there is no money in the bag of the person buying and thinks something bad is going to happen, so he jumps out of the van with his gun and vest to infiltrate. An angered Rita sends Kelly after him to help, with Rita demanding Mike not engage until the rest of the team is in position. A shootout happens and Mike and Kelly kill on sight until Mike reaches Grassie. He tries to get him to safety to interrogate, but an explosion and a few missteps or two results in Grassie being impaled on a forklift. He dies before he’s able to give up any information as the rest of AMMO moves in.

Elsewhere, Marcus gets a call from Carver Remy (Ivo Nandi), a former informant. He tells Marcus that the guy who killed Mike is trying to kill him too. He wants protective custody. After getting reamed by Howard at the crime scene and almost getting into a fight with Rafe, Mike finally accepts a call from Marcus, who’s contact name in his phone is currently “quitter”. Marcus picks Mike up in a van, and they go to meet Carver. Since it’s on the way, they drop off Marcus’s grandson at the spa, and Theresa is not happy.

It doesn’t help that Marcus forgot to give her the baby wipes.

They pull up to the place Carver is at but before they can go inside, Carver is tossed off the roof and onto Marcus’s van. Marcus calls it in as Mike goes in to find the killer. Mike fights Armando and even gets a look at his face after flipping up the visor on his helmet. Regardless, Armando is able to fight off Mike and Marcus and escapes. Later, Armando calls Isabel, and she tells him that Mike needs to suffer before he dies to make up for Mike killing her husband, Benito. Later, Mike meets with Howard at his daughter’s basketball game, and it becomes a rather important conversation putting things in perspective regarding Mike’s direction in life. After the game, he invites Mike over for dinner but is shot and killed by Armando from a distance with a sniper rifle. Following the funeral of Howard, a distraught Mike admits Marcus was right, and he shouldn’t have gone out there because he would get someone killed. Despite this, Marcus can’t let Howard die in vain. It’s time for one last mission, and Marcus joins Mike and the rest of AMMO in a quest to find the people responsible for all of this.

My Thoughts:

If you’re a fan of the Bad Boys franchise and you grew up rewatching the first two over and over again, this is a very welcomed third entry in the series. Though neither the comedy nor the action is as outrageous as the last two Michael Bay helmed films, it strangely fits. Obviously, you never want to deviate from the formula that’s guaranteed to work, but something is different about Bad Boys for Life. It’s matured. The franchise has matured, and the characters have matured, with the film’s action and story progressing logically due to the actors and characters aging significantly since the last time we saw them. Though we still have some movie magic and action we’d expect our heroes to get into, the action is much more realistic (for the most part) this time around.

For example, though Mike Lowrey is older, he’s still in shape. Plus, he’s still Mike Lowrey. He’s still a badass. He’s just a step slower. It felt as if this screenplay took this idea to heart, honoring the character while also aging him logically. On the other hand, I still can’t help but feel that Michael Bay would’ve made the chase sequence on the highway and the ending in the mansion in Mexico a hundred times better.

Regardless, the positive is that they didn’t turn this movie into a full-on ego trip for Will Smith like you’d expect them to.

Take notes Vin Diesel, this is how you make an action movie when you get older. If xXx: Return of Xander Cage wanted to be taken seriously, this is the way they should’ve done it.

*Side note, Nicky Jam played a gangster in both films. There’s more of a connection between these two films than you’d think.*

You know how in the Fast and Furious movies, Vin Diesel and his crew of forty and fifty-year-olds act like they’re still in their primes and can do all these crazy stunts without question? Well, in Bad Boys for Life, Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett know they are getting older. Marcus is okay with it and is at peace with just being with his family, realistically progressing his character arc we saw in the first Bad Boys and heightened in Bad Boys II. He knows family is all that matters. This is the exact opposite of Mike who has no family, or even a long-term girlfriend.

Where they take the Mike Lowrey character is where things get interesting. Before, he was the coolest guy in the room, could get any woman he wanted, and wasn’t afraid of any stunt or shootout in front of him. Now, for the first time in his life, he’s facing “Father Time” and has a hard time accepting it. He still clings to the past, thinking and refusing to admit he isn’t the same badass he was twenty years ago. He still dresses like the Mike Lowrey we know and love, and he still looks great for his age, but he has taken a step back. We all go through it, but he doesn’t see what everyone else sees, or at least refuses to. At times, it’ll hit him in the face directly like when he’s barred entry from the nightclub the group is going undercover in and Rafe, the new “cool” young guy, has to convince the young women to let him and Marcus in. Back in the day, there’s no way Mike Lowrey wouldn’t have been let in on the spot. He walks in with this confidence and is unofficially told to his face that he’s not that guy anymore. Marcus laughs the situation off because he’s okay with getting old, but he knows it bothers Mike to his core and can’t help but make fun of him for it, just like when he points out Mike dyes his goatee and refuses to admit it. Mike even tries to hide his face when Marcus carelessly drives around in a van. Marcus honks and points out the fact, explaining to him, “Nobody gives a shit Mike”. It’s funny, but it also shows us exactly how the two are with each other, and how they have reacted to old age.

These layers added to both characters help them evolve for a new generation of moviegoers and really help the franchise stay afloat while reinvigorating it.

Truthfully, it would’ve been corny had Mike not changed as a person, but we would’ve expected it. How many times have we seen action stars refuse to admit they’ve gotten older in the movie roles they choose, continuing to put themselves in films where they look unstoppable in their fifties and sixties, and it becomes cheesy popcorn entertainment instead of realistic cinema? Hell, Smith himself had some fun with this as Deadshot in Suicide Squad.

This is why I expected the same “I’m cooler than everyone” bullshit to happen in Bad Boys for Life. What I didn’t expect was a soulful Mike, struggling with the revelation of not being in his prime anymore and working even harder to prove he’s still the man he used to be. Where Mike is at in the beginning is a parody of the old action star of yesteryear, and Marcus represents the fans who see through this star persona and laugh watching the mid-life crisis unfold. We even see it in the montage where Mike gets ready with his brightly colored suit and sunglasses like it’s 2005, and Marcus lounges around the house in a housecoat. It’s very representative of a person who is self-aware and a star that isn’t. Marcus is very much like how Martin Lawrence seems to be in real life too, now that he’s slowed down on career stuff and seems to be enjoying his life and family. The grounded realism in an action comedy like this is very appreciated, and I can’t stress this enough. This new breath of authenticity is a major reason why Bad Boys for Life was reviewed so positively compared to its predecessors.

Though the AMMO crew doesn’t get a lot of time to fully develop their personalities, I loved Mike’s interactions with them, especially when he told Rafe he would knock his “bitch ass clean the fuck out”. It felt good because Rafe needed to be humbled too. Though Mike’s working relationship with AMMO is contentious at first, they do start to appreciate each other. In a low-key warmhearted scene, Marcus calls in AMMO to help him and Mike, unbeknownst to Mike. After Marcus admits he feels better when they’re here, Mike privately tells him, “Yeah, me too”. It’s a very simple line but helps our character arcs come full circle. Mike has been faced with his own mortality before but when the mission gets deeper, it really feels like this could potentially be the end for either one of them. With so much on the line, he’s forced to face his aging again and understand where he’s at in life. With this specific line said, it’s Mike admitting that though him and Marcus could try this alone, he knows they shouldn’t. He’s starting to mature and realize times have changed. It’s not the 90s anymore when him and Marcus were fearless law bringers. They’re closer to retirement than they are their prime, and it’s okay to admit that and still do a good job.

Going along with the theme of maturing, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence’s acting have also noticeably matured for the emotional themes of the film. Take a look at how good the confrontation between Mike and Marcus is about Marcus’s retirement, and Mike pleading for his help in a revenge-fueled mission. This is something you can feel. It really seems like Mike and Marcus are having a game-changing moment regarding their friendship and personal lives. Mike’s teary eyes when Marcus refuses for his own sake, even though it’s when he needs Marcus most, is a very heartbreaking scene and easily one of the best of the film. You know it hurt Marcus to tell him “No”, but he had to put his foot down because he knew the potential for what could happen. It’s very well acted and added a lot of character depth.

Out of all the Bad Boys films, Bad Boys for Life has the most interesting story. Though we still have an evil drug lord that needs to be stopped, layers and twists are added as the plot develops, giving us an unexpected blood feud that changes the way we look at the character of Mike Lowrey forever. Was this a good or bad decision? I’m still on the fence about it, but I would love to hear everyone else’s thoughts on the matter. Personally, I think it weakened the character of Mike but since he didn’t have that many weaknesses to begin with, maybe he needed to be humbled a bit to add more drama to the action. Regardless, it made things very intriguing. This I can’t argue. The details to this story is what elevates the one-note characters of Isabel and Armando greatly. Isabel’s penchant for believing in dark magic wasn’t a bad idea either because it gave us a bunch of hysterical one-liners by Martin Lawrence, the unsung hero of this sequel. When I saw this in theaters, he got all the big laughs, and it was deserved. When he was going on about not having sex in a long time, not realizing everyone’s earpieces are connected, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. He’s still very funny giving Mike shit and calling him a “dumbass” anytime Rita walks by looking fine as hell. Even after all these years, Lawrence still has the comedic chops to carry a film when he needs to.

This leads into one issue I did have: the treatment of Martin Lawrence. He felt like an afterthought in this movie. I’m a huge fan of Martin Lawrence and though Marcus was still very funny in his role here, he wasn’t nearly treated like the equal to Mike in the action sequences like he was in previous films. He took a major backseat, which is quite unfortunate for Lawrence fans that were clamoring for a much bigger return. You could argue that the character was “retired”, so it took him awhile to get back into cop shape, but his retirement was way too recent to lose that much ability during a shootout. Here, Lawrence played more of a comedic sidekick role because the story was more about Mike. Though they made him seem important as moral support for Mike and his personal mission, I still felt like they didn’t do the character of Marcus Burnett justice like they did so well in the first two movies regarding the amount of help he brings to the table during missions.

I didn’t realize how much I loved Joe Pantoliano’s Captain Howard, but it was nice to see him back. It never dawned on me how important he was for the dynamic of the first two movies. It was also nice to see how good of a relationship he has with the two and how much he’s respected by everyone in the department in the present day. God knows he deserves it after what the “Bad Boys” put him through. Also, shout out goes to Theresa Randle for coming out of semi-retirement to play the role of Marcus’s wife one more time.

Another element brought back from the older films was the “hero” shot Michael Bay implemented. Here however, we get it after our protagonists get their asses kicked. What a way to show us this is a different era!

Bad Boys for Life is a grown-up version of the fast-paced, unrealistic action extravaganza the first two films are, but it’s quite alright. This third entry in the popular franchise has evolved with the times, same as the characters and the actors playing them, giving us yet another fun action comedy with a lot more depth and emotion than before. It will always be a fun time seeing Will Smith and Martin Lawrence reforming our favorite buddy cop duo for another adventure. The banter and arguing never gets old.

Sadly, with a sequel looming, it seems like a missed opportunity to not call this one Bad Boys III. For a fourth film, the title “Bad Boys 4 Life” would’ve been perfect. This will go down as this film’s biggest blunder.