“Bad Boys: Ride or Die” picks up soon after 2020’s legacy sequel “Bad Boys for Life,” but it doesn’t ride on that movie’s fumes. The same directing duo (Adil & Balall) and one returning writer (Chris Bremmer) make smart use of the new characters from that film and tell a branching story wherein the late Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano) is framed for conspiring with drug cartels.
Mike (Will Smith) and Marcus (Martin Lawrence) must clear his good name and take down the baddies. I’m not a huge fan of frame-job and misunderstanding-based plots, and it’s disheartening to find “Better Call Saul’s” Rhea Seehorn – as Judy, daughter of Captain Howard – as a temporary enemy of our good-guy “bad boys.”
Safely middle of the road among action franchises
But the plot moves quickly, so there isn’t much time to overthink. If I did think about it, though, this fourth “Bad Boys” picture holds up reasonably well logistically. As was also the case in part three, Adil & Balall have taken a step back from the excesses of late-stage Michael Bay (look for his brief cameo) in 2003’s “Bad Boys II.”
“Bad Boys: Ride or Die” (2024)
Directors: Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah
Writers: Chris Bremner, Will Beall (screenplay); George Gallo (characters)
Stars: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens
These legacy sequels aren’t spending as much money on insane set pieces (remember the highway car-dodging of “BB2”?), but they are spending time on characters. Even if the execution isn’t always there – this entry has 50 percent too much of Marcus being nutty, obsessed with idea that he and Mike are a reincarnated master and donkey – it’s a smart fiscal tradeoff. Be fairly modest with the budget; give people a lot of these characters they already love.
I suspect that deep down Adil & Balall – and perhaps Smith, although Martin seems thrilled to just be back on his feet – wish they were piloting “Mission: Impossible” or “John Wick” films. When our heroes – using tech support from Dorn (Alexander Ludwig) – use electronic voice-fakery, we think “M:I.” And when Mike cuts through baddies in gun-barrel-view shots, we think “Wick.”
“Bad Boys” loses those comparisons. But when Mike and Marcus barbecue in the park with friends and family, we think of “Fast & Furious,” and “BB” wins that comparison with ease. They aren’t merely hanging out and winging the scripts with cameras rolling; there’s thought put into story and characters before “action” is called.
Leaning on Lawrence
“BB4” is still firmly a buddy-cop movie, but it has mostly forgotten how to be a comedy. There’s nothing laugh-out-loud funny here, although an occasional good quip rises to the surface.
A nicely timed sequence finds Mike’s estranged son Armando (Jacob Scipio) calling special-forces cop Kelly (Vanessa Hudgens) “fine,” drawing the ire of boyfriend Dorn. Then we cut to Armando tipping back a drink like in that meme; he knows what he said.
More of those comedic beats would’ve boosted “BB4,” but it’s content to lean on Lawrence, asking him to do too much riffing. If we’ve forgotten that Smith and Lawrence started in sitcoms, the opening storyline about Marcus needing to watch his diet after a heart attack reminds us.
Keys to success
South Florida continues to be a delicious setting, and I was excited to hear the exposition about an abandoned Florida Keys gator park as we head to the final showdown, with a bonus wrinkle that a 16-foot-long albino gator named Duke roams there. The cartel leaders and their conspirators in official circles had been established as bad enough to be worthy of being eaten alive, and the payoff is OK, but not what it could’ve been.
I wouldn’t imagine I’d say this in the wake of the first two “Bad Boys” films, but “BB4” is reserved with its action. The stakes seem oddly low, even when the family members of our heroes are in the line of fire. When Marcus’ son-in-law, U.S. Marine Reggie (Dennis McDonald), is in a life-or-death situation, Marcus marvels at the video feed of Reggie mowing down baddies like he’s watching a video game.
Marry Mike, like Christine (Melanie Liburd) does – or marry into Marcus’ family like Reggie does — and I guess you accept that you’ll be in danger like the “Simpsons” Ralph meme. A viewer must have total advance acceptance that all the trained good guys will dodge bullets on more days than they don’t, and all the untrained good guys will be kidnapping targets.
“Bad Boys: Ride or Die” delivers what we ordered, accurately and on time.