Bad Boys: Ride Or Die review – Will Smith and Martin Lawrence return with huge action, but the old formula is showing its age
Bad Boys: Ride Or Die brings Will Smith and Martin Lawrence back together for another round of Miami mayhem, delivering gun battles, airborne fights and plenty of the duo’s trademark foul-mouthed comedy.
But four films into the franchise, the explosions may be getting bigger while the formula itself is beginning to feel increasingly familiar.
The 115-minute fourth instalment reunites Smith as Mike Lowrey and Lawrence as Marcus Burnett, nearly three decades after the pair first appeared together in the original Bad Boys in 1995.
This time, their mission becomes personal when their late boss, Captain Howard, is accused of being involved with criminal organisations.
Marcus returns from the brink with a bizarre new outlook
The story takes an unusual turn early on when Marcus suffers a heart attack.
During an out-of-body experience, he encounters the late Captain Howard, who offers cryptic guidance about what lies ahead.
Marcus eventually wakes in hospital convinced the experience has changed him. More importantly, he starts believing that he cannot die.
That newfound confidence leads to some of the movie’s more ridiculous comic sequences as Marcus tests his supposed invincibility by putting himself in increasingly dangerous situations.
Mike, meanwhile, has to deal with his partner’s strange behaviour while the pair become caught up in a much larger conspiracy.
Their central objective is to clear Captain Howard’s name after he is framed by a mysterious villain played by Eric Dane.
Mayor Lockwood, played by Ioan Gruffudd, becomes part of their efforts, while Vanessa Hudgens returns as Kelly and Alexander Ludwig reprises his role as Dorn.
Action remains the movie’s biggest strength
Where the comedy sometimes struggles, the action rarely slows down.
Directors Adil & Bilall fill the film with elaborate set pieces, including gun battles presented with the energy of a video game and fights taking place in mid-air.
There is a considerable body count and plenty of deliberately exaggerated spectacle.
For longtime Bad Boys fans, that may provide exactly the kind of entertainment they expect from Mike and Marcus.
The problem is everything happening between those sequences.
Many of the jokes take too long to reach their punchlines, weakening the chemistry and comic timing that helped make the partnership so entertaining in earlier films.
Marcus believing himself invincible provides several opportunities for physical comedy, but the joke is repeatedly stretched.
Nearly 30 years later, the formula feels familiar
Bad Boys has always relied on excess.
Fast cars, gunfire, outrageous situations and the contrasting personalities of its two detectives have been central to the franchise since 1995.
Ride Or Die certainly doesn’t abandon that approach.
Yet compared with the sharper impact of the original movie, the fourth instalment can feel like another attempt to squeeze entertainment from a formula audiences already know extremely well.
Smith and Lawrence remain the centre of the experience, and anyone primarily looking for another loud action adventure with Mike and Marcus will find plenty here.
But after almost three decades and four movies, familiarity has become one of the franchise’s biggest obstacles.
There is action everywhere. What feels harder to find is the freshness that made Bad Boys exciting in the first place.
Rating: ★★☆☆☆