Bad Boys: Ride or Die is a 2024 Sony Pictures action-comedy film directed by Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah, and starring Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Jacob Scipio, and Eric Dane. This is the 4th installment in the Bad Boys franchise following the pre pandemic 2020 film ‘Bad Boys for Life’. One of my stupid, petty gripes is the naming of the films in this series, specifically 3 and 4 feel like they should be switched. They could have named the 3rd film Ride or Die and the 4th film 4 Life, just take one from the NWO’s book and use the number 4 instead of spelling out the word, I mean it was right there! But I digress. This movie follows our 2 titular leads, Mike Lowery and Marcus Burnett, as they pick the guns and badges back up and embark on another journey into the depths of Miami. This film plays it a bit differently than the previous films in the series though and trades out the corruption in the seedy underbelly of the sunbathed city, for corruption inside the actual government itself as law enforcement and government agencies are in cahoots with the cartel and it’s up to our 2 bad boys to get to the bottom of it and clear their deceased captain’s name in the process. I’ll just say right off the bat, I really enjoyed this movie. I don’t think the Bad Boys franchise has had a miss yet and I’ve been a fan and rewatcher of this entire series since I first watched the original 2 some years back.
These movies all do a great job at mixing some really intense and explosive (sometimes literally) action scenes with hilarious moments of comedy and this film carried that legacy on well. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence bantering amongst themselves on screen never fails to bring a smile to my face and they have wonderful chemistry just bouncing off one another that often leads to comedy gold. Will Smith’s character Mike typically plays the more annoyed straight man and Martin Lawrence’s Marcus is usually the more outlandish expressive one, and like any good comedy duo they know their roles pretty well but still give Will some time to shine and have his moments of pure hilarity as well, usually in his reactions to Martin or someone else they’re interacting with. Will Smith has always been great at reacting to others nonsense in films and Martin Lawrence has always been hilarious with his wild bursts of emotion and expressive faces in films, mix these 2 together and it just works so well for me. This is also Will’s first big blockbuster film since the Oscars slap incident, and this felt like a nice return to form to hopefully help bring his public reception back to a positive. Much like Martin Lawrence’s big return after a rough hiatus from Hollywood was in 2020’s ‘Bad Boys for Life’, this series just seems to be a saving grace for these guys in their personal lives and careers and its great after everything they’ve both been through to see them come back together and seemingly effortlessly feel like early 2000s Will Smith and Martin Lawrence all over again. That being said, they are aging men, and this film did a pretty adequate job at showing us the different things they were both going through and experiencing as they’re growing older and not such young, invincible action heroes anymore.
I am having a hard time finding a whole lot of things that I didn’t like and enjoy about this movie, that’s not saying that it’s perfect by any means, but it was fun through and through. It truly felt like a big summer blockbuster movie; 2 stars as the leads, explosive moments of action, celebrity cameo appearances left and right, gut busting moments of comedy, it was just a fun time kind of movie. I guess 1 minor gripe of mine would have to be some of the line deliveries and moments between certain characters came off as unbelievable or corny, but you’d be hard pressed to find a movie out there that doesn’t have at least a few moments here and there within its runtime that doesn’t come off as a little unbelievable or corny. Especially in action movies, you kind of have to flex your believability to fully enjoy some of the sequences within the movie typically, it just felt worth mentioning here so I could find at least something worthwhile to comment on as a potential negative for certain viewers of the film. I really dug this movie though, maybe the 2nd best in the series for me behind the 2nd one but don’t hold me to that because I’m sure my opinion could change after further rewatches of the series. I don’t see Bad Boys ending on this movie though, we will almost certainly see at least a fifth film added to this series, especially since the seemingly overperformance at the box office so far in most critics’ minds. This isn’t one to take the whole family to, there’s plenty of violence and profanity throughout the run time, but this is a great summer movie to take a date to or go see with friends so go see it in theaters now while you have the chance! It gets nearly nothing but positive praise from my end and I’m always ready for more Bad Boys! Whatcha gonna do?
