Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024)

Starring: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Jacob Scipio, Paola Núñez, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Ioan Gruffudd, Tiffany Haddish, Joe Pantoliano, John Salley, DJ Khaled, and Joyner Lucas, with a cameo from Michael Bay
Grade: B

Bad Boys: Ride or Die was worth it for Reggie’s action sequence alone. That was 20 years in the making, and it was worth every second.

He earned that grill.

Summary

Driving in a hurry through the streets of Miami because Det. Lt. Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) made them late, his best friend and partner Det. Lt. Mike Lowrey (Smith) is on the way to his wedding with Marcus in the passenger seat. His reckless driving is a bit too much, so Marcus demands he pull over to a corner store for some ginger ale. Following continued pestering, Mike relents and gives him 90 seconds to get a ginger ale and nothing else. Once Marcus gets in the store, he grabs the ginger ale but adds Skittles and a hot dog. He tries to hurry, but a criminal appears and tries to hold up the store for money. Marcus tries to plead with him to not do this today because he knows Mike is about to walk in pissed off, but the criminal doesn’t listen. Just then, Mike walks in to see the man with the gun but is more pissed that Marcus has the extra food. Marcus tries to blame his buying of Skittles on the cashier taking too long with the ginger ale, but the cashier immediately dispels this as not being true. Mike reminds Marcus that he shouldn’t be eating hot dogs, but Marcus says it’s not his. The cashier snitches on him for this too, so Marcus tells the guy to mind his business. The criminal threatens everyone, so Mike tells him to lower the weapon and for Marcus to get in the car. Marcus points out how there’s a gun to his head, but the unflinching Mike gives him the ultimatum of dealing with him or the criminal. Marcus agrees to go to the car, but it’s all part of the plan. He pushes up the criminal’s gun hand in the air, allowing for Mike to shoot the criminal in the leg. Mike and Marcus point their guns at the criminal while he’s down, and Marcus says he didn’t have to shoot him. Not wanting to hear it, Mike tells him to go to the car. Marcus tells the cashier to call the police, and he grabs his Skittles, but Mike knocks the candy out of his hand on the way out the door.

The Bad Boys are back.

Mike gets married to his physical therapist Christine (Melanie Liburd), and it’s a nice wedding. Everyone is there including Reggie (Dennis McDonald) and the memory of Captain Conrad Howard (Pantoliano), who’s picture is framed and placed near Marcus for the ceremony. At the reception, Kelly (Hudgens) of AMMO notes that it makes sense for Mike to get married to the therapist he met after he was shot. Dorn (Ludwig) agrees that it’s cool because of how important mental health is, but Kelly notes that Christine was Mike’s physical therapist. Mike’s ex-girlfriend and now Miami PD captain Rita Secada (Núñez) greets Mike at the reception with her new boyfriend and district attorney Adam Lockwood (Gruffudd). Mike gives well wishes to both of them and tells Adam that he has his vote if he pursues becoming mayor. Once Adam goes to get a drink, Rita and Mike discuss Mike finally overcoming his terminal bachelor status, how he finally met the right one, and how he had a lot of growing up to do, though Rita jokingly points out that he was 50. When it comes to speeches, Marcus goes and gets emotional right away. He fumbles through the opening and embarrasses Mike by mentioning the witch from Bad Boys for Life and Marcus’s own sister from Bad Boys II, doubling down and saying that Mike could have told him about that. Marcus goes on to talk about how Captain Howard would have loved to have been there to see this, and he points out Howard’s daughter in US Marshal Judy (Rhea Seehorn) and granddaughter Callie (Quinn Hemphill) being there to represent him. He hands the microphone over to Callie who says that Howard loved Mike and Marcus and if he was there, he would have told Mike not to “F” this up. This gets a laugh, and Marcus gets the microphone back to correct her and say that Howard would’ve said “Don’t fuck it up”, which gets an even bigger laugh. To finish the speech off, he tells Mike that they have been partners for a long time, but now, Mike will be Christine’s partner. With this, they toast, and the dancing begins. On the dance floor, Marcus has the party jumping, but he’s unexpectedly hit with a heart attack and drops.

Marcus has visions of meeting Captain Howard, but Howard tells him that it’s not his time before embracing him and whispering something to him.

Sometime after, Marcus wakes up in a hospital bed with a smile on his face. Without saying a word to the asleep Mike who’s sitting there at his bedside, Marcus gets out of his bed and takes the elevator to the roof of the building. Still wearing his hospital gown, he stands on the upper ledge with a smile on his face. Mike runs after him and finds him on the roof. He’s worried what Marcus is going to do, but Marcus feels happiness and clarity for the first time in his life. Again, it’s not his time and he’s reveling in the fact. He feels stronger than ever. A nurse comes out to check on them, but Mike tells her it’s fine, even though he has no idea what Marcus is talking about. With a new lease on life, an excited Marcus flashes all of Miami. Finally, Marcus comes down from the ledge and embraces Mike but tells him that a storm is coming and Mike is going to be tested. Things are going to get bad, and Mike will have to make a really hard choice, but Marcus assures him that he will be good. At night, James McGrath (Eric Dane) gets to a wealthy cartel banker’s condo via helicopter. McGrath wants the banker to move just under $20 million of his boss’s money, so it becomes cartel cash. It would be a “backdated series of transfers beginning 2004, ending January 2020” into the account of the deceased Captain Howard. McGrath has people who can handle the logistics. He just wants the banker’s login credentials. He questions why he would give McGrath this information, so McGrath’s henchman shoots one of the banker’s men. Then, McGrath forces the banker’s girlfriend to sit on his lap, and the henchman holds the banker’s phone to his face to get his facial ID. The banker argues you can’t transfer funds from a phone, but McGrath opens the phone and calls the banker’s wife on Facetime. McGrath shows the wife the banker and the other girl, asking if they know each other. The banker’s wife is questioning what’s happening. Finally, the banker agrees to comply, so McGrath hangs up the phone. The banker opens his laptop to transfer the funds to Howard’s account and adds “they” will kill McGrath for this, but McGrath doesn’t think anyone will know this happened.

McGrath starts conjuring up a story about how the banker’s girlfriend heard him on the phone with his wife and realized he was never going to divorce her. In a fit of passion, she shot him. With this, McGrath uses the girl’s hand to shoot and kill the banker, staging the murder. Still using her hand on the gun, McGrath says that his bodyguard tried to step in but was too late, shooting the other guy McGrath’s henchman already killed again. Then, McGrath tells the girl that she realized the horror of her actions and took her own life. With this, he forces her hand on the gun and uses it to shoot her, staging the suicide. Sometime later, Mike and Marcus are driving, and Marcus is Facetiming his wife Theresa (Tasha Smith), who is worried about Marcus because his heart attack was only two weeks ago. For the record, Mike agrees with Theresa. Still, Marcus says he couldn’t stay away from her and starts talking crazy about wanting to see her, getting a little too sexual. This bothers Mike while he’s driving because Marcus is using his phone. Eventually, Marcus hangs up because they’re coming her way anyway. While in the car, Marcus tells Mike this isn’t the first time they’ve done this, confusing Mike because they ride together all the time. What Marcus means is their souls. He goes on about how they have been bounded together for lifetimes. They haven’t always been Mike and Marcus per say, but they’ve always been each other through these lifetimes. He calls them soulmates, and Mike isn’t going for it because it sounds too weird. Marcus doesn’t make things any better by commenting how Mike is stuck on the physical and “souls don’t have dicks”. Mike is sure his soul does, so Marcus reveals that his soul is just more advanced than Mike’s. It’s not that Mike’s soul is stupid, it’s just that it’s a “baby soul”. Marcus refers to his own soul as a “mother soul” and that he just has to “suckle you” and “put you on that titty”.

Marcus starts to laugh while saying it, and Mike questions how long Marcus’s brain went without oxygen.

Mike and Marcus get back to the house for a family get-together, and Marcus and Theresa start making out soon after until Mike has to calm him down. Still, Marcus tells Christine that he’s never felt better in his life when she asks. Marcus goes to get something to drink. Once he goes into the kitchen, Marcus’s daughters and Theresa ask Mike what happened with Marcus, so he updates them on everything Marcus has done since waking up from the hospital like his actions and strange comments and such. At the same time, Marcus sees that all his snacks are gone, so he thinks Reggie did it. Reggie is playing video games with his son next to him, and Marcus tells him he needs to get a job. Reggie reminds him he’s a US Marine, so Marcus tells him to deploy, even though he just got back from Yemen. Marcus thinks Reggie thought he was dead and ate everything. To prove it, he looks at the Ring camera he installed, only to find out that Theresa threw everything out. He confronts her, but Theresa points out the strict orders from the doctor in removing salt, sugar, and fats from his diet. Mike adds the other orders of no stress, loud noises, or physical exertion. Theresa is trying to help and has joined him in making the family vegetarians. She pulls a salad out of the fridge for him, so Mike and Christine go to leave. Before Mike exits, Marcus offers him a $1,000 for some Skittles, but Mike refuses. Marcus counters with $2,000 for some Ding-Dongs, but Mike doesn’t bite, saying he’s going to be Ding Dong-less, “like my soul”. That night, Mike has a nightmare recalling the words “You always take whoever I love”, remembering the murder of Howard by the hands of his son Armando Aretas (Scipio). He wakes up and looks concerned at the asleep Christine. During Mike’s workout the next day, he takes a look at his phone to see the news report of the Department of Justice launching an investigation into Howard and the Miami Police Department being accused of corruption. Apparently, they have credible intelligence that Howard was directing these elements in coordination with the cartels. A pissed off Mike and Marcus head straight to Miami PD and interrupt FBI Agent Bud Grice’s (Jason Davis) meeting.

There, Mike goes straight to Rita to ask if she knew about this. She found out two weeks ago, and Marcus interrupts because of how disrespectful it was to find out about it through a press conference. Rita points out their personal closeness to Howard, but Mike reminds Rita that neither her nor Adam would have a job if it wasn’t for Howard. Mike knows all of this news isn’t true, but Rita is not as confident. Adam chimes in to say the investigation has turned up new evidence, and Grice talks about how Miami law enforcement has been a “leaky ship for years now”, with events appearing random “until you aggregate them over a period of years”, resulting in a pattern emerging. Grice states they knew someone was providing intelligence to a cartel moving product into South Florida. They just didn’t know who. Bringing up the cartel banker that McGrath killed earlier, Adam talks about how the man turned up dead after being shot and killed by his girlfriend. On the scene, they found a phone with Howard’s contact on it with years of communication with the cartel, account references offshore, and millions of dollars in Howard’s name. Grice bluntly states that this was the final piece they needed to “nail that dirty motherfucker”, prompting Mike to get in his face and dare him to say it again. Rita gets in between them, and Grice adds there were others with Howard, and they will find them too. Mike says he was with Howard and tells Grice to cuff him right there. Marcus tries to calm him down, but Mike refuses to let these assholes tear down Howard’s legacy when he’s not here to defend himself. Howard’s daughter Judy enters the room. She knows she doesn’t have jurisdiction there, but as a professional courtesy, she requests visibility into the sources of the allegations of Howard. Mike assures her they will figure this out and asks how Callie is doing, but Judy doesn’t want to hear it from Mike and shrugs him off, adding that Howard would still be here if it wasn’t for Mike’s “bastard son” Armando. She tells Mike that if she ever catches Armando on the street, she will put him down. Marcus takes Mike out of the room before things get worse.

Trying to figure out the next move, Mike tells Marcus that since they said Howard was working with the cartel, they should go ask the cartel. At the Federal Correctional Facility in Central Florida, Mike and Marcus go to meet with Armando and ask if they know anything about Howard being dirty. Armando asks how much time off he will get for this information, so Mike vaguely responds that he’s working on that. Still, he pleads with Armando on how he needs him on this. When referring to Howard by name again, a nearby prison guard looks over at them. Armando tells the two that Howard did not work with the cartels. He was onto the ones that were, so he got greenlit. Mike is confused, as he thought Howard was killed because he was on Armando’s mother’s hitlist, but Armando says Howard was added to it. In actuality, “your people wanted it to look like us. Your people wanted him dead”. There are more corrupt people on their side that they don’t know about it. Mike wants an example, so Armando talks about McGrath. Though he doesn’t know McGrath’s name, Armando could ID him. His mother was the one who dealt with him, prompting Marcus to tell Mike that he knew they should have kept “that damn witch alive”. Mike has to remind him they are talking to her son, so Marcus turns to Armando to add “May she rest in peace”. At McGrath’s compound in an abandoned alligator theme park, henchman Lintz (Derek Russo) tells McGrath that a man on the inside got all of Howard’s records in the JTF file. McGrath knows Howard was onto their operation. They just don’t know how much he had, and they need to make sure they have every trace of it. His hackers couldn’t find much in Howard’s files or computers, but his old personal laptop had a weak encryption. The female hacker Nicole (Jenna Kanell) logs in, but she accidently tripped a fail-safe. She traces the phone to see the fail-safe text message that was sent. The text is a video message sent to both Mike and Marcus’s phones as they are driving. Confused, the two pull over and play the video. Howard is talking to the camera saying that if they are seeing this, he’s already dead.

With this, he admits he’s putting Mike and Marcus in mortal danger with this message. Howard admits they have rats in the department, the “Coke-bottle giant is the key”, and “Don’t trust anybody”. Mike is confused by the second comment, but Marcus knows Howard means Fletcher (Salley). Back with McGrath and his crew, Nicole gets the information from tracing Howard’s phone’s fail-safe text and prints off the records of Mike and Marcus. Lintz thinks they should kill them, but McGrath knows extra dead cops isn’t going to help them. He just wants them to be under constant surveillance to see if they make a move. Following this, Mike and Marcus pull up to Fletcher’s warehouse. Before they go in, Marcus tells Mike that he can’t die. To prove it, he walks backwards into traffic, prompting Mike to chase after him. Mike almost gets hit by a pedestrian too (Bay). When they get to the other side, Marcus gives Mike the advice of trusting the universe and that it’s just not his time. Getting pissed off, Mike wants to challenge this by pulling out his gun and suggesting that if he were to shoot Marcus, he would not die, according to him. However, Marcus argues that fate dictates he won’t do it. Mike brings up the hypothetical of him shooting him and asking him if he won’t die, but Marcus counters that fate doesn’t deal in hypotheticals. After a random citizen drives by and threatens to call the police, Mike tells her they’re already there and to mind her business. Mike and Marcus enter Fletcher’s warehouse, and it’s well attended. Marcus gets distracted by a bowl of jellybeans, so Mike has to stop him. Fletcher is speaking to a bunch of women about how he calls the place a creative space for “black imagination”, but he’s interrupted by the two. Fletcher talks about how he’s an artiste now and this is his studio gallery, though Marcus doesn’t buy it. They start talking about Howard, and Fletcher gives his condolences since Howard changed his life, but he can’t say what he’s supposed to say in terms of giving up information until Mike says some specific key word. Mike is persistent, so Fletcher says Howard was onto something big.

He didn’t trust that Mike and Marcus would figure it out, so Howard contacted him instead. With this, Fletcher put the information in something. He implies it’s in the wall with his gesturing, but Marcus gets mad and points a gun at him. As Mike tells Marcus to knock it off and Fletcher gives them a further hint that it’s in something that “will live forever”, an assassin headshots Fletcher. The warehouse is thrown into a frenzy, and a shootout begins once Mike and Marcus spot a team of killers inside the place. The jellybeans are flying everywhere, so Marcus eats one but it’s the black one and he hates that flavor. The fruit juice near the candy starts pouring out, so he starts drinking that and Mike gets annoyed with him. Still, it energizes Marcus, and he goes on a shooting spree. Eventually, the two chase one guy out into traffic. Marcus jumps on the hood of a car and has the driver go towards the man. He jumps off onto the guy. As they fight, Mike drops his ammo and has this loss of energy in the moment, falling to his knees. McGrath drives straight to Mike to try and kill him, but Marcus runs back and saves Mike just in time from getting hit. Afterwards, Mike is told by the EMT that he suffered a panic attack, but Mike doesn’t believe it. Once the EMT mentions counseling as an option, Mike leaves in a haste and Marcus chases after him to check up on him, but Mike doesn’t want to hear it. They find Rita at the crime scene, and she asks what happened. Marcus says Mike had a panic attack, but Mike downplays it. Next, Marcus tries to talk about the video Howard sent, but Mike cuts him off and says they got a tip that Fletcher violated his parole, so they went to check it out. Rita asks Marcus if this is true, and he just says he was with Mike. Changing the subject, Mike questions if Rita believes Howard was stupid enough to put accounts in his own name, adding that he was framed. Rita wonders who would do it, so Marcus points out that’s what they’re trying to find out. How Rita didn’t get there by herself is weird but alright. Mike tells Rita she’s smarter than this, so Rita reminds him that she’s the boss here. Plus, she’s also trying to protect him.

Once Rita leaves, Dorn comes over to tell Mike and Marcus he has no footage for a two-block radius, so they must have killed all CCTV and security cameras. Kelly notes that on the projection wall, she was taking footage of the images coming up and there is a visible QR code on it. Mike tells her to not go over it here, and he has them shut down the projection. Mike, Marcus, Kelly, and Dorn go back to the AMMO van to discuss details. They open the QR code, and it’s another video of Howard. Now, he’s revealing more details. He’s not sure how high up it goes, but there are corrupt officials on their side and they’re working with the cartel. Things started to seem weird 9 years ago when that shipment of cocaine they were about to raid went missing. He kept getting shut down from above, so he pulled Sanchez and Ruiz out of retirement to work on the outside. They were killed in a car crash a week later. It shook him up, which is why he never brought Mike and Marcus in on it. Now, he’s leaving it up to them. Reminding the two about the bust in 2003 of 314 pounds of ecstasy, he says he held onto the storage unit off the books. That’s where the real files are to get everyone in trouble. He wants Mike and Marcus to finish what he started, finishing by saying they are his last hope. Trying to think back to 2003 (Bad Boys II), Mike remembers going at it with the Haitian Zoe Pound gang members, but Marcus can’t remember where the storage locker would be. Mike can’t remember either, so he wants Kelly and Dorn to go down to the station to pull their original case files. That should tell them where the locker is, adding to do it quietly and carefully because they don’t know who to trust. Dorn takes this in and tells them that he isn’t one of the rats, and Mike sarcastically thanks him for revealing this. Meanwhile, Armando is in the prison yard doing his workout. Several other prisoners walk in, and Armando senses an ambush coming, especially after seeing a tower guard turn a blind eye.

Attaching a plate to his waistband by tying it into his clothes, he takes them all out. He even beats the hell out of a few with a kettlebell. Eventually, the guards move in and apprehend him. At Miami PD, Mike tries to explain to Rita and Adam that they tried to kill Armando, and Armando can prove Howard’s innocence because he can ID the man who ordered the hit on Howard. Mike pleads with Adam to get Armando transferred to Miami to a secured location. They’ll debrief him, get his testimony, and get some pictures in front of him. He just wants them to do it immediately because these people are trying to cover their asses and they’re not going to stop anytime soon. Adam agrees to do it for Mike, but he’s entrusting Mike to accompany Armando and to go through with everything he said. If he fails, it’s going to fall back on Adam, so he tells Mike to not screw him on this. Mike thanks the two and leaves to answer a phone call from Dorn. They found the Zoe Pound storage unit. They will get the files and will go back to Dorn’s houseboat for safekeeping. Mike tells Dorn to let him know when he has it and hangs up. Grice keeps an eye on Mike as he exits the building. Mike and Marcus drive to the airport and meet with some US Marshals. They head into a plane where they surrender their guns for the ride, and Mike greets Armando who is placed in a cage next to them. It’s only a 45-minute flight. As Mike sits there, Marcus tells him that in one of their previous lifetimes together, Mike was a stubborn donkey that he owned. However, Marcus says he was a bad owner that used to beat him, but it was because he wouldn’t listen. He realizes he was scarring Mike’s soul. Mike doesn’t want to hear it and jokes that Marcus missed his nap. Marcus gets annoyed because he was trying to apologize to him, adding that this was exactly how Mike was as a donkey. Unbeknownst to them, McGrath is on board and acts as the co-pilot and Lintz sits behind the main pilot.

Sometime into the flight, Marcus gets out of his seat because he senses something strange in the air. He goes and looks out the window. In the cockpit, McGrath forces the pilot at gunpoint to send a message to air traffic control that Armando has escaped custody with the aid of Mike and Marcus, how there are officers down, how they are coming for the cockpit, and they are attempting to hijack the plane. As soon as the pilot finishes telling all ground units to respond, McGrath slits the man’s throat. Lintz breaks into the strongbox to get Mike and Marcus’s guns, and McGrath asks specifically for Mike’s gun. Just as Marcus looks into the cockpit door, McGrath kicks it open and starts firing at everyone on the plane. Lintz opens the back of the plane. Mike attacks McGrath while Marcus attacks Lintz. The firing in the cockpit forces the plane to take a nosedive, and Lintz flies out of the plane, though he gets his parachute off in time. McGrath kicks some latch that almost sends the cage out of the plane, and it forces Mike to save Armando. As McGrath jumps out of the plane with his parachute, Mike and Marcus switch jobs. Marcus holds the rope to keep the cage inside, so Mike can grab the keys to free Armando. They pull it off just in time, and Armando and Marcus go to the cockpit and crash-land the plane into a body of water, just barely surviving. The three get out of the water to collect themselves. Mike notes that McGrath was using Mike’s gun and questions how they get on a federal transport. Armando wants to split up, but Mike wants to stay together. Armando shoves past him, so Mike grabs him, forcing Marcus to get in between the two. Mike stresses how Armando is the only person who can identify who is doing this. The only way any of them stay alive is if they get to them before McGrath and company get to them first. Marcus calms things down, so Mike brings up how Howard has files that detail who’s behind all this and Dorn has them.

All they have to do is get back to Miami. Armando is fine with it but tells Mike and Marcus that he will leave them there if they slow him down. He also tells them to lose their phones. Now, they’re in Armando’s world. The whole city is looking for the three, but they are going to try and pull off the impossible to clear Howard and now their names.

My Thoughts:

With every sequel, the Bad Boys franchise continues to prove everyone wrong. Every time, critics and audiences question if the series has anything left. Some try to argue that they don’t have a story left to tell, but Bad Boys: Ride or Die is further proof that the team of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence continue to endure and evolve with each action-packed adventure. It started with Bad Boys for Life, what could have been a fitting finale to the trilogy that the fans were clamoring for. However, despite the aged stars and the story acquiescing to the fact, the third film succeeded because of a refreshing central plot, new characters to liven things up, and exciting direction from the team of Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. It breathed new life into the franchise, reviving it for the next generation while inserting changes where it was needed. In addition, our favorite star duo themselves seemed to be reinvigorated enough to continue carrying the torch. Though Bad Boys: Ride or Die might be the weakest outing of the franchise in comparison to the other movies, it’s not by much. It’s still an entertaining sequel, the action is awesome, it retains the emotional depth of its predecessor but to a lesser extent, and the chemistry between Smith and Lawrence is still just as good as it’s always been.

Four years later, Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett pick up right where they left off. The biggest highlight of Bad Boys for Life is how they didn’t shy away from all the time passing between the second and third films. Taking a mature and realistic approach with the story and the characters, Mike and Marcus deal with aging and where they are at in life in vastly different ways. Marcus accepts being a father and husband on the verge of retirement, but Mike struggles with coming to terms with his age, as he still tries to be the cool guy in his 20s in Miami. The evolution of the series in acknowledging this was the most welcomed change of all because it grounded the series and added a lot of depth to the characters that they didn’t have previously. When they were younger, they didn’t need this depth to be entertaining because Will Smith’s Mike Lowrey and Martin Lawrence’s Marcus Burnett were that fun together. They could carry the weight of a film purely because of their chemistry and respected personas and images. As time passes however, things have to change. The star power is still there, but there needs to be a little extra in the categories of development and story direction with the characters to make a return worthwhile. Top Gun: Maverick, Creed, and Bad Boys for Life are great examples of reconfiguring the evolution of an older star character and still making them just as important as before by adding some carefully placed steps to their overall character arcs. It’s important from a logistical standpoint because if you don’t acknowledge the visible age or shape of a star, the story comes off as ignorant and self-indulgent, and the possibility of losing the viewer or fan becomes imminent. It has become my biggest gripe with Vin Diesel in the Fast and Furious franchise and xXx: The Return of Xander Cage because despite him being in the worst shape he’s ever been in onscreen, he’s depicted as this real-life superhero to an almost insulting degree.

Usually, action films tend to ignore the ages of their stars when they get older and scenes and moments are just carefully constructed around the main actor’s limitations. Truthfully, it is fine when it’s done right. Most of Liam Neeson’s action sequences still seem somewhat plausible with how his physicality is portrayed in combination with his use of weapons. With the new direction of Bad Boys, they have taken the criticisms of these other action movies and figured out a way to satisfy both ends of the spectrum with strategically placed story elements.

Adding in younger talent helps with the dirty work so Smith and Lawrence don’t have to do everything, especially with technology playing a big part in the action sequences like Dorn’s drone. This allows the stars to save themselves for the big moments like the electric plane hijacking sequence and for character-building moments that brought the audiences to the theater in the first place. Again, the constant bickering and rapport of Smith and Lawrence is what sets the series apart from other buddy cop movies. It always has been. Be honest, as great as the action was in the movie like Marcus driving the car while’s it’s on fire and they’re being chased by Judy (“Windshield wiper fluid is flammable!”), it’s not how thrilling the chase is. The entertainment stems from Lawrence’s performance and reaction to it all. When Ride or Die shines the most, it’s when Mike and Marcus try to steal the hillbillies’ clothes and are forced at gunpoint to try and sing a Reba McIntyre song (I would’ve lost this battle too for the record) or Marcus sitting in-between Mike and Armando in the truck like a mediator as they talk about Armando’s mother. It’s these character-building moments that Mike and Marcus thrive at the most. Anything they do in the action sequences are just icing on the cake at this point. Thankfully, they are still up for the challenge, especially Smith. He’s still got it, even if a big part of the story this go-around was Mike losing a step with his ill-timed panic attacks. It’s okay though because all it did was make things more interesting, adding another layer of tension to the action and furthering the arc of Mike Lowrey. It’s all by design. Though these later Bad Boys movies still retain the loud, crazy action sequences, and intense shootouts that it’s known for, the difference is in how the characters have responded now after realizing how much life has changed over the years. They still have their grit and heroic qualities when the adrenaline is up like Marcus’s energized war cry of Run DMC’s “Peter Piper” charging up Mike in the climax in a great moment, but the seriousness of what they face each time they go out there is not lost on them.

For the first time, Mike is starting to get it. Not only is he including his younger AMMO cohorts like Dorn and Kelly in their everyday exploits to where they have ingrained themselves into the lore of the franchise, but Mike has finally gotten married. He’s grown up and has moved past who he used to be in his personal and professional life. He is taking his relationship with Christine seriously and is still checking up on his son Armando while he’s in prison. Despite everything that happened in Bad Boys for Life, Mike made good on his promise to make up for things, internalizing the responsibilities he has in his position, and he tries his hand at parenting the grown Armando once the events of Ride or Die bring them closer together. Naturally, Mike notes Armando’s hardheadedness, which Marcus reminds Mike how that makes him and Armando one and the same. Once both men realize where the other is coming from, their begrudging respect and low-key love they have for each other flourishes in the most understated, “manly” way an action film or Mike himself will allow. This is one aspect of Mike that is played with a lot, as the hits his ego takes and his refusal to let anyone in has helped the humor of the series stay afloat since Marcus is the exact opposite. As expected, Mike still struggles with real-life emotions and can’t help but act tough over everything, which is why he takes the unashamed Marcus aside after Marcus tried to get a group hug going with, “You’re making us look soft like we don’t know how to be on the run”. It didn’t affect him at first until Armando called them terrible fugitives before leaving them at the campfire. Mike’s outward image still matters to him, even if he does try to act like he’s past that. They played with this a lot in the film’s predecessor but carrying it into this movie because he’s dealing with his tough-as-nails jailbird son was a great decision, as it’s totally what Mike Lowrey would be as a dad. Going along with Mike having to learn, his newfound appreciation for teamwork has been a great development over these latest sequels. When he looks to people like Dorn, Kelly, or Rita for help, it’s more important than you realize.

It legitimizes the characters and the actors in the eyes of the fans. That’s how important it is to take Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett in this direction, as well as Smith and Lawrence themselves. They can create new stars by giving them this credibility onscreen. Though the supporting cast still isn’t on their level yet, they are slowly chipping away with each sequel.

As it is with any star, Mike Lowrey suffers from main character syndrome and doesn’t realize it. During that campfire scene, he tries to apologize to Armando because he feels as if bad shit happens to anyone he loves, arguing that he might be cursed. However, Armando hits him with the reality check, saying that bad shit happens to everybody and how it “Ain’t always about you”. A character like Mike Lowrey needed to hear that, as his personal selfishness in things needing to be about him in some way has always been something the character has had trouble with. This scene was a great way to show Mike’s constant struggle with maturation and how he’s starting to see his issues more and more, even if he doesn’t fully embrace it. Still, this is true to life, as it’s a struggle for a lot of us in our everyday lives too. Even so, Mike trying to play action star and parent at the same time was fun and never felt as hokey as it could have been. The odd and out-of-place vision sequences of Captain Howard took that spot with force, along with the moronic after credits sequence that should have never been in a Bad Boys movie. Thankfully, Mike earnestly trying his hardest to make up for what happened all those years ago makes us forget about it (sort of). Though it takes a while for Armando to warm up to Mike trying to be this presence in his life, he does start to relent after him, Mike, and Marcus work tirelessly in trying to save the day while every gang and law enforcement official are out for their necks. The tough and athletic Jacob Scipio continues to surprise in this franchise and the action genre as a whole. Though him surviving what happens at the end of the film would be flat-out nonsensical, I wouldn’t mind Armando being a long-term supporting character if the franchise continues to thrive. Scipio has been impressive thus far and deserves more opportunities, especially in action movies. As much as Smith’s Mike thrived, the direction they take Marcus is still a mixed bag and it’s arguably worse than what they did with him in Bad Boys for Life.

It’s only “arguably” because at least he got to fight more in Ride or Die, while the previous film made him an afterthought in this department. From the beginning, Marcus was always the mature one between the two from an emotional standpoint because of his family. In Ride or Die, Marcus is still that way, but the writers put him down another path to spice things up comedically. After almost dying, Marcus becomes mentally freed and his new lease on life is believing he can’t die since he was told by the ghost of Captain Howard that it’s not his time yet. It seems amusing, but it’s not nearly as funny as you would think. Lawrence is still a great comedic actor, but the material given to him isn’t anything special. The humor of the movie is more saved by Smith’s reactions to his outrageous comments, as it’s always funny when he deadpans and shakes his head at Marcus. They also take all this time to talk about how Marcus can’t eat this or that and has to avoid stressful situations following his heart attack, but this element of intrigue is completely disregarded almost immediately after the scene in which they explain it, which begs the question why they bothered writing the lines in the first place if it wasn’t going to factor in. Why can’t they just let Martin talk shit like with Fletcher, or his yelling at the hillbillies “We’re not stealing your shit because we black!”? His character development doesn’t have to be him having some sort of ailment with every sequel. I suppose it was fun watching Marcus be calm for the first time ever since he’s that confident in his place in life after hitting the “basement of the ocean”, along with it freaking everyone else out as a result, but his role was just slightly underwhelming in comparison to Mike. Then again, this was the issue with Bad Boys for Life as well. Maybe we should just be happy Martin Lawrence is still willing to make movies, and we’ll leave it at that. Still, his random bursts of courage helped make up for things like Marcus telling a worried Mike to take the 6 in the back and he’ll take the 3 in the front before a shootout ensues. It gets to the point where even Mike doesn’t know what the hell Marcus is thinking, and it’s amusing because their chemistry is still untouchable.

Plus, he still gets moments like when he slaps Mike out of a panic attack and yells, “Cut that bitch-ass shit out Mike! I need “Nasty” Mike!”.

Though the first-person shooter POV shot of Mike as he takes out bad guys in the Gatorville sequence is a cool idea, it doesn’t translate as well as you’d hope for onscreen. Actually, the behind-the-scenes footage of Smith performing the scene with the camera attached to him was what made it more impressive because of how much it demands of the actor. It’s a shame it didn’t look as cool in the movie. Even so, you have to take the good with the bad regarding Adil & Bilall’s direction. They are willing to take these artistic swings to make these frenetic action sequences something creatively different and unique in their own way. The climax was all of it put together for one outlandishly fun shootout, but not everything hit the mark. It’s okay though. We should all respect and appreciate when filmmakers are willing to take risks like this. Is the third act a constant, never-stopping, straight-up, video game sequence? Absolutely, and it’s not for everyone. Nevertheless, Adil & Bilall are showing audiences what’s in store for them over the next few years and what is possible in action cinema, as a lot of the techniques used throughout Ride or Die seem to be innovated by the duo. It’s still rough around the edges, but its exploration has been intriguing, much like the divisive work of Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (the Crank series, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, etc.)

Though the cameos aren’t as gratuitous as a Fast and Furious movie or some of Adam Sandler’s more recent films, including TikTok star Khaby Lame to do his shrugging gesture screamed like an old person producer trying desperately to look relevant for modern audiences. You didn’t need it. The same could be said of Mike when he tells Dorn “Thanks for the drip” when he’s just wearing a regular shirt and pants. At least they utilized DJ Khaled in a short-and-sweet way, with the recurring gag of him getting destroyed in some way being a highlight of both of the most recent Bad Boys sequels. Mike already knowing it’s him after hearing his voice and letting out, “Ah shit. This motherfucker” was hilarious, as it was basically all of our reactions when it happened. Rap’s resident cornball Joyner Lucas was an unexpected addition as a local gang member, and he did a solid job with his limited minutes onscreen. With how his subsequent action sequence is filmed, it’s an unknown if his character got killed. If he wasn’t, a future sequel having his role expanded in a larger way wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Going along with this, audible groans came along with Tiffany Haddish’s appearance onscreen at the strip club Pony’s, but Marcus being right about Tabitha not liking Mike as much as he thinks and her just wanting the money for their bounty was one of the more entertaining scenes of the movie. Usually in an action movie like this, one of the main characters has a friend that gives them a bunch of stuff for free while they’re on the run and don’t have anywhere else to go. It’s an overdone trope, so it was actually funny to see it be a ruse this time around. Tabitha adding fuel to it by acting like she will give them everything if Mike eats her out was great, especially because Marcus was trying to encourage him to think about it. Marcus clowning Mike after Tabitha pulls out a gun was hysterical (“That’s cold. He almost did that shit!”). One action movie trope they redo but do correctly is the calm before the storm sequence. This is when the main characters discuss the plan and stress how important it is.

Will Smith’s detailed and earnest delivery of the plan, why they can’t add anyone else (“Every extra person that we involve increases the likelihood that they know we’re coming”), and how “We not losing today” was fantastically done. The gravity of the situation is felt by the viewer. To pulls this off in the fourth film of the franchise no less and still tease the viewer into getting into how big this mission is for our main characters is a hard sell at this point because the audience has to assume they won’t do anything too drastic. Nevertheless, the anxiousness is felt because of how well it’s handled and gets to the point where you can’t wait for that climax at Gatorville. How well Will Smith has grown as an actor is on display immensely here. He doesn’t shy away from the big moment, and his outbursts when defending Captain’s Howard’s name makes you want to go to war alongside him. Even Rita can’t help but believe him because of how good Smith’s Mike is in his authentic and understated performance as the sympathetic hero trying to do everything to clear his friend’s name. You don’t think you would be emotionally affected by a movie like this, but after the hostages are taken, there is another subtle moment showcasing how good Smith has become. At first, Mike is on the verge of a panic attack again, and Armando seeing his dad in pain starts to tear up as he offers, “I’ll go. Let my life be worth something”. Not wanting to lose him again or anyone else for that matter, he uses his last gust of energy to say, “Never”. It’s an unexpectedly awesome and powerful moment. Along with this, the goosebumps when Mike and Marcus sing the theme song before the climax were felt. With each sequel, it becomes more iconic, and the dramatic feel it gives the scene in Ride or Die is epic.

On a minor note, Eric Dane’s James McGrath was underwhelming, “Colombian manicures” aside. The biggest knock on the Bad Boys franchise is that the villains have never been up to par, and it doesn’t change here, despite how complex the story is this time around. Considering how big the stakes were and how much they gave McGrath to be this all-encompassing, intelligent and intimidating villain, he didn’t have the “It” factor that made him an adversary worthy of such a buildup. Plus, he looked like bad guy actor Neal McDonough incarnate. If anything, they should have just gave him the role instead. In general, the film would have benefitted with less characters too. There is a lot going on here and it becomes too bloated for its own good, especially with Judy and Callie. Had the screws been tightened to allow AMMO to flourish and possibly some more scenes with McGrath, the story could have flowed a lot better. Here, there was just too much to juggle with interweaving plotlines and character relationships, and the writers and subsequently the directing duo weren’t ready for the problem they caused. The twist was solid though, especially because it led to Martin Lawrence’s perfect delivery of “Damn she got bad taste in men!”. It’s a four-way tie between that, the air quoting of the word “family” when talking about Armando, Marcus calling the alligator a racist, and the beach shootout for being the best Martin moments of the movie.

A film like Bad Boys: Ride or Die is truly a sign of the times. It includes all the stuff we love about these awesome and funny action comedies, but it also aims to help the viewer grow with the characters. It helps the audience come to the realization of how much time has passed over the years. Just like the characters themselves, we too have matured, whether we may have realized it or not. In one of the final moments, Reggie wants to take over the grill and Mike and Marcus try to do their usual shtick in messing with him and acting like he doesn’t have a seat at their table. Strangely enough, it’s not as funny as it was in Bad Boys II. You smile, but you look at as an adult and think, “We grown now. Give the kid a break”. Just as you begin to think it, Mike and Marcus are self-aware enough to realize the exact same thing, which results in them relenting and welcoming Reggie to take over. Though it doesn’t build on its predecessor’s overall success, Bad Boys: Ride or Die builds on its heart. If this continues, the action is just as exciting, and this cast is willing to return for another go-around, then I cannot wait for a fifth film.