I’m not going to point fingers and say the guys who wrote the latest installment of the “Bad Boys” franchise, “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” relied on A.I., which is rather controversial in show biz these days. But then again, if this sequel were to be written by A computer, there will not be a huge different outcome.
Straight up continuing the storyline of 2020’s “Bad Boys for Life,” much to people’s surprise “Ride or Die” contains none of the qualities of such a movie but makes it feel painful to watch for now doing anything new. The film does come to life from time to time, thanks to the fast-paced camerawork and editing. Still, it is far from enough to create a film that provides enough entertainment or showcases any creative brilliance. Imagine just going through the basics, and limiting risks: There you have the third option. Ride, Die, or Tread Water.
Once again in “Ride or Die,” as if she were trying her very best to remind us of the last story, the director does not refrain from including the same nauseating drive through Miami in the beginning and ends with a shot aiming at a beloved character where the audience is certain they’re staring at Grim Reaper. Previously we saw Mike Lowery played by Will Smith, whom viewers only ever seem to want to see shot, get lunged at on South Beach while the current one sees Marcus Miles played by Martin Lawrence having a heart attack at a wedding with Christine played by Melanie Liburd as the first scene.
While trying to shoot mc lowery may have been the start of a bond building story in the third film, in this one, it is something funnier because Marcus thinks he is basically deity level. After all, he survived and witnessed Captain Howard, played by Joe Pantoliano, tell him that this wasn’t his time and that it was alright for him to run into oncoming cars. Even so, he has since been barred from eating Skittles by his wife and work partner.
The last series had some intrigue from the outset as there was an attempt on Mike’s life as the trigger of the story, while this one takes ages to cut to the chase. During the moments when Marcus was almost dead, Conrad-Wan Kenobi tells him that “a storm is coming,” which is in the form of a cartel enforcer song called McGrath (Eric Dane in a completely unmemorable or uninteresting character), who is virtually a narrative device for action.
A former captain of English competitive professional boxer Howard is described as the leakiest of them all, not the greatest but stage five, which later on ends with Howard accused of being the orchestrator to Sanders framing Howard and putting drug money into his murdered ex captain’s account.
As Howard’s legacy seems to be disintegrating into virtual ashes in front of lingering Marcus and Mike’s eyes, both of them know that they have to do everything to restore his name even if it takes going within the cartel thanks to the imprisoned Armando (played by Jacob Scipio the very charmingly awful character), who is Mike’s son during the previous movie.
It wouldn’t be a “Bad Boys” movie if the protagonists aren’t pushing back against one of this films villains, a man named Lockwood (Ioan Gruffudd) who is Mike’s ex Rita Secada (Paola Nunez) new partner and potentially the future mayor of Miami. Also, Captain Howard’s daughter Judy (Rhea Seehorn) compels her daughter Callie (Quinn Hemphill, who just came along to the storyline as a backup princess in scrapes).
There is also somewhat irrelevant widening of the Mary character’s role, as her husband’s center-fold Marcus was not enough and always on the cut. Helen Hunt was added with Tasha Smith to take her sit as Marcus’ wife Theresa (who has to be terribly replaced by Theresa Randle), and also Eva Mendes, Vanessa Hudgens & Alexander Ludwig, and some plausible and uninspired funny cameos, which have been in much better films.
It’s obvious, the leads are the core of a Bad Boys movie the two Smith and Lawrence have always been the main reason for the love of these movies. The brilliance of the 2020 movie is how the viewers witnessed their chemistry remain constant over a seemingly long interlude of 17 years. Simply put, it’s just not as tightly constructed one as before with quite a number of the jokes in the first half more so of the first half falling flat, so much of the draw that is meant to be saccharine reads as tired and the film is shorter than its predecessor but has a very noticeably disjointed structure that stretches the movie.
Look, no one goes to watch a Bad Boys to provoke deep thoughts, but writers Chris Bremner and Will Beall seem to miss the tone of the piece. It comes up most of the time through the way they are introducing ideas like how the villain is tortured and becomes radicalized, there simply isn’t enough information to support it. If you want to come across as foolish and dumb, then go ahead but don’t make mention of the fact that the attacks on 9/11 fundamentally changed the world.
To be fair, directors Adil & Bilall are proficient filmmakers cuts as there one or two action set-pieces where in fact their excessive usage of shooting via drones becomes the self exalted character of the film. At every action scene of a film there is always a histrionic drone camera that revolves around the scene giving its most action inclined qualitative of the movie its motion. People pull this type of functionalism and then proceed to say it’s because of the character Smith and Lawrence who at present cannot do John Wick type of coordination but there is an entertaining chaos to the setting that is the strongest point of the film.
It is a very nice and beautiful looking film and the viewers’ head is busy moving to different directions trying to get the entire view. He helicopter scene and the last shooting scene at gator farm were just pure fun though even these times structure and the characters’ internal workings make less and less sense as the film goes on (the physics that allowed Marcus to be almost Hulk in the copter are a given) and Scipio should get some wrap for being so aggressive in his actions scenes which the rest of the film is often incapable of. he could easily head his own ‘Bad Boys Jr.’.
“Bad Boys for Life” had the ‘wow’ factor given the long delay that this sequel with all the nostalgia actually blended with new age action directing which viewers just before the pandemic would really appreciate.
I can see why the team behind ‘Ride or Die’ decided to run it back again instead of trying to invent the wheel when it came to the concept that brought them success. Acceptable, in terms of making financial sense, does not automatically imply it is right. Even A.I can tell you that.
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