Directors: Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah
What do you get when you take a Michael Bay property, remove
the man himself and take a swing at making a 90s style action movie in 2020? Bad
Boys for Life, apparently. Impossible to talk about without at least
touching on the originals, Bad Boys as a franchise is a Smith/Lawrence
police action franchise. Smith is Det. Mike Lowrey, a trust fund baby who is a
cop because he likes killing people. Martin Lawrence is Det. Marcus Burnett, a
guy who’s a cop, apparently, to make Mike happy and to avoid his wife, Teresa,
who’s only character trait is that she’s a nag. The first movie concerns
identity confusion between the detectives who we had just met in a plot that
would be embarrassing in a third movie, and the second (although better) does
involve Mike and Marcus and some SWAT guys declaring and committing open war on
Cuba. Your mileage may vary, but I’ve never liked these movies. Decently shot
action and a collection of homophobic and race jokes that were awkward even in
the era.