One Last Ride Together

I love buddy cop movies, having watched this often humorous subgenre of the crime thriller since its heyday of the 1980’s (big surprise) in such films as ‘Lethal Weapon,’ ’48 Hours,’ ‘Tango & Cash’ and ‘Stakeout.’  Although it lost some steam in the ‘90’s, ‘Bad Boys’ (1995) starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as two brothas with an attitude put a fresh spin on the genre with its hip take on ‘Miami Vice,’ doing well enough to earn two sequels – thus qualifying as a “franchise” – with the latest occurring some 25 years after the original.

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Bad Boys for Life’ is the long-awaited “Bad Boys 3” that’s been in developmental hell since ‘Bad Boys II’ 17 years ago.  Although BB2 grossed $273 million worldwide, BB3 was held off due to the high salaries of A-List superstar Will Smith and director Michael Bay (the reported budget of BB2 was $130 million).  BB4Life was finally greenlighted after Bay was dropped from the project, which reduced its budget to well below that of its predecessor at $90 million.  BB4Life sees detectives Mike Lowrey (Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence), backed up by a team of cocky millennials led by Lowrey's ex-flame Rita straight out of CBS's crime-fighting procedural lineup, go up against cartel hitman Armando (Jacob Scipio), who's spurred on by his prison-escapee mother played by telenovelas veteran Kate del Castillo to kill everyone involved in her late husband's downfall.  But there's a twist.

 

Although I found BB4Life to be enjoyable enough as a mindless popcorn movie, it is also packed with enough genre tropes and “family bond” relationship subplots throughout its 124-minute running time that make it an ultimately forgettable exercise.  The action sequences are so relentless and the “tender” family moments are so contrived that I almost mistook it for a ‘Fast & Furious’ movie.  Its only saving grace is the slow-building twist about who Armando is near the end of the movie.

Grade: B