Bad Boys: Ride or Die (El Arbi, Fallah, 2024)

Written by Tom Augustine.

By this point, you’re either in sync with what a Bad Boys movie is offering, or you aren’t. This is the series whose most iconic moment is a tie between the scene where Martin Lawrence’s buddy cop is accidentally shot in the ass by his partner, played by a hilariously godlike Will Smith; or a scene in the same film where Lawrence glowers at said partner and intones ‘shit just got real’. The Bad Boys films have never met a tone they couldn’t wildly shift away from, to the point where it’s become something like a feature rather than a bug. The original film, a ‘90s Michael Bay joint which served as a nastier, grimier star vehicle for both Smith and Lawrence – two otherwise squeaky-clean ascendant performers at the time – was the first in a series that improbably melded eye-rolling, goofy comedic beats with po-faced action badassery, only to introduce a new, not-necessarily-welcome layer of poignancy with the third, Bay-less effort Bad Boys For Life. The series shares a lot in common with the Fast and Furious series, growing from unlikely, B-movie beginnings to giant action juggernaut, a strangely irresistible atonal mess of trashy soap operatics, groan-inducing comedy and intricately composed action sequences, all revolving around a star whose presence in the film is more-or-less contingent upon lashings of hero worship, something that has been in short supply for star Will Smith of late.

Consequently, if you’re on-board with all this, you’re in for more of the same with Bad Boys: Ride or Die, an entry that does incredibly little to rock the boat, and yet is well-constructed enough to ensure audiences leave the theatre with a surplus of goodwill for the series and its two leads. Michael Bay replacements Adil El Barbi and Bilall Fallah have enough gas in the tank to create an imitation of the previous director’s tone and style, even if they hardly surpass it. Much like For Life, this new entry is designed to be half-forgotten by the time you leave the cinema, an enjoyable diversion with some pleasingly constructed action sequences. Smith and Lawrence are back as Miami PD officers Lowrey and Burnett, who find themselves on the wrong side of the law after their now-deceased Captain (Joe Pantoliano) is framed by a group of high-level drug traffickers with connections to the highest offices of American government. When their investigations lead to them also being framed, they must team up with Lowrey’s estranged son (Jacob Scipio), the contract killer now locked up in a penitentiary after the events of For Life, who may hold the key to clearing theirs and their Captain’s names. 

Embattled movie star Will Smith attempts a comeback with this fourth instalment of the buddy cop action comedy series, reuniting with the directors of surprise success Bad Boys For Life. While this latest effort hardly reinvents the wheel, it provides sufficient high-calorie action for those already on the series’ wavelength.

The film functions as a direct sequel to For Life, with El Barbi and Fallah including more of their last effort’s attempts at poignancy (another similarity to Fast and Furious – this series is very concerned with the idea of ‘family’), most notably in their willingness to examine their heroes’ slow march into ageing. Both Lowrey and Burnett are no longer the young upstarts of the early entries to the series, and the directors draw as much mileage out of Lawrence’s Burnett’s brushes with death as possible. Early in the film, Burnett suffers a heart-attack directly after a scene detailing his weakness for Skittles and hotdogs. This segues into an amusing sequence in which Burnett gets a bizarre glimpse of the afterlife, only to return convinced of his own invincibility. Meanwhile, Smith’s Lowrey, one of the actor’s most bizarrely unlikeable lead characters, is struggling with his tortured relationship with his son and the emergence of debilitating panic attacks, which surface regularly in the film at the most expectedly inopportune moments imaginable. These inclusions are an extremely mixed-bag: while Burnett’s near-death experience does lead to some memorably funny moments (most notably in his recounting of his and Lowrey’s past lives together), many more fall utterly flat. Lowrey’s struggles, meanwhile, feel largely tacked-on, with little of the actual introspection that would have made this subplot feel worthwhile.

Anyway, few people are coming to the fourth Bad Boys movie seeking insight into these ageing heroes’ health woes. Where the film comes to life is, naturally, in its fight sequences. El Barbi and Fallah are incredibly solid directors of action, throwing as many gimmicks at the screen as possible. Drone shots zoom haphazardly around gunfighting arenas, highly saturated camerawork swirls and jitters aggressively, and the crisp editing work ensures these sequences leave an impact. Ride or Die includes a good variations of types of action, too, from a high-octane fight sequence set in a crashing prison helicopter, to a remarkably brutal prison fight (featuring a range of inventively applied gym equipment), to the final battle scene winningly set at an abandoned, alligator-centric Florida theme park. All the while, we get glimpses of Smith’s star-power, which has been absent from our screens since ‘The Incident’, but which proves surprisingly palatable. There’s simply no denying his presence when the banter with Lawrence actually clicks, which isn’t always, but often enough. The Bad Boys films are most enjoyable when they embrace their own ridiculousness, and nothing speaks to that more than the joy of seeing Lawrence fly across a room, double-pistols blazing. Does it matter that Eric Dane’s big bad is virtually a non-entity? Not really – no more so than a subplot featuring Pantoliano’s Captain’s daughter (an utterly wasted Rhea Seehorn, of Better Call Saul fame) ultimately matters in any true sense. Bad Boys: Ride or Die is weapons-grade junk food of the kind Burnett fawns over – but at least it knows that, and rides with it.

Bad Boys: Ride Or Die is in cinemas now.

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