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Bad Boys for life Movie Review

 
MD Movie review blog - Bad boys for life

MD Movie review blog - Bad boys for life

The Bad Boys Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett are back together for one last ride in the highly anticipated Bad Boys for Life.
— imdb

The 80’s and 90’s were chock full of buddy cop movies, from Lethal weapon to Tango and Cash and every other flavour in between. Some we’re excellent (Lethal Weapon) while others just hopped on the popularity train for a quick buck.

It’s a seminal genre that gets rehashed every once in a while and occasionally comes up trumps. I remember very little of the original Bad Boys other than Michael bay directed it and it had a lot of low angle slow mo shots. Produced by Don Simpson and Gerry Bruckheimer who created a glossy action picture empire in the 80’s & 90’s with high concept stories, buddy comedy and multiple (Ghost) screenwriters.

Bad Boys for Life in a lot of ways is a throwback to a 90’s movie, trawling out action movie cliches such as Pepto Bismal chugging Captain screaming at his subordinate police officers or cops getting ‘too old for this shit’ and needing to retire. We’ve essentially seen it all before story wise. In this regard Bad boys for life offers very little in terms of ingenuity. Once again its drug lords against cops with retirement thrown into the mix and a pretty obvious ’twist’ that is telegraphed from about two minutes into the picture.

The movie relies almost exclusively on the chemistry between Lawrence and Smith. They have a likeable appeal, slipping easily into their personas like twenty years hasn’t passed. The only caveat being that Lawrence seems to have worn the mileage a little heavier than his counterpart Smith. It is noticeable that Lawrence doesn’t feature as much in the action stakes, taking a somewhat more leisurely approach favouring him to deliver one liners instead.

Occasionally the movie is a little flat unnecessarily doling out exposition and needless multiple phone calls essentially saying the same things over and over. The action scenes aren’t as crisp or interesting as the first movie, retreading the same territory but handled with less aplomb.

Not to say that the movie is bad it isn’t. There are moments of banter between Lawrence and Smith that are funny. It moves relatively fast and doesn’t overstay its welcome. But will it be considered a classic of the genre ten, twenty years from now? It’s unlikely. As a diversion for two hours you could probably do worse but don’t go in expecting anything more than that.