Bad Boys for Life arrived 17 years after Bad Boys II, with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence back as Miami detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett. Sony released it in the United States on January 17, 2020. It runs 124 minutes. It is a sequel that knows exactly what it is, and that is most of the problem.
Trailer, via Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Mike Lowrey Takes a Bullet
The plot turns on a revenge chain. Isabel Aretas, widow of cartel kingpin Benito, breaks out of a Mexican prison with help from her son Armando. She sends him to Miami to recover Benito’s hidden money and kill everyone tied to his arrest and death. She also orders Armando to kill Mike last. He does not wait. During a footrace with Marcus, Mike is shot and left in a coma for months.
That shooting is the film’s best idea. It gives Smith something to play besides swagger, and it forces Marcus into a retirement he actually wants. Martin Lawrence sells that weariness better than the script deserves.
AMMO, Rita Secada, and the Midlife Crisis
Once Mike recovers, he wants revenge. Marcus, retired, refuses to help, and the two fall out. Captain Conrad Howard, played again by Joe Pantoliano, lets Mike work with Advanced Miami Metro Operations, the tech-driven AMMO team led by Lieutenant Rita Secada, Mike’s ex-girlfriend. Paola Núñez plays Rita. Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig and Charles Melton fill out the team as Kelly, Dorn and Rafe.
Directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah keep the action clean and readable. The arms-deal surveillance sequence, where Mike intervenes and fails to save dealer Booker Grassie, moves with real tension. A later visit to informant Carver Remy ends with Carver dead and Armando escaping after a fistfight with Mike.
What the Franchise Gets Right
The midlife thread is the sharpest thing here. Marcus wants his grandson and his family. Mike wants the job. The tagline promises “Ride together. Die together,” and the film keeps circling that idea without ever quite landing it.
Jacob Scipio’s Armando is a cold, efficient presence, and Kate del Castillo gives Isabel real weight. Nicky Jam shows up as Zway-Lo. DJ Khaled appears as Manny. These are cameos, not characters.
The screenplay, credited to Chris Bremner, Peter Craig and Joe Carnahan from a story by Craig and Carnahan, carries three writers’ fingerprints. It lurches between comedy and grief. A third film had been discussed since 2003, with Michael Bay interested in returning before budget problems stalled it. The project was green-lit in October 2018 and shot from January to June 2019 in Atlanta, Miami and Mexico City.
The Verdict on Bad Boys for Life
Bad Boys for Life is a competent, likable sequel that never becomes a necessary one. It revives a dormant franchise with real craft, and El Arbi and Fallah stage action better than the material requires. But the revenge plot is thin, the AMMO team is underused, and the film resolves its best tension — Mike and Marcus apart — too quickly.
It is a better movie than Bad Boys II. It is not a better movie than it needed to be.
KEY FACTS
– Release date: January 17, 2020 (US)
– Runtime: 124 minutes
– Genre: Thriller, Action, Crime
– Metacritic: 59/100
– Clay Tribune score: 5.9/10
SCHEDULE
| Installment | Release |
|---|---|
| Bad Boys II | 2003 |
| Bad Boys for Life | January 17, 2020 |
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