By Geno McGahee
In 1995, BAD BOYS was released, featuring two young actors that were known for their comedy but proved that they could also carry an action film. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence found magic in the movie, but it could have been far different. The original choices for the roles were Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz and it’s fair to say that had they taken the roles, the film would have crashed and burned immediately. What a disaster it would have been, but the universe stepped in and we got BAD BOYS with Smith and Lawrence and a great, stylish action film.
In 2003, Smith and Lawrence would star in a follow-up with BAD BOYS 2. It wasn’t nearly as good as the original, but it was still fun and it had some of the charm of the first. They made it work, but in 2020, 25 years after the original, to return with BAD BOYS FOR LIFE, I wasn’t too sold that the film would be good. It’s difficult to return to a series after so much time and make it connect and make it enjoyable, but they managed it here.
Isabel (Kate del Castillo) is an inmate in a prison and is approached by a prison guard. She attacks, slashing the guard with a knife in brutal fashion and leaving a large pool of blood all over the floor. It was a really brutal scene. Isabel escapes prison and meets up with her son, Armando (Jacob Scipio), and the plan is put into place. A revenge plot is hatched to take down the people that were responsible for Isabel’s husband going to prison and dying, including judges, forensic guys and Mike Lowery (Will Smith).
Marcus (Lawrence) becomes a grandfather and wants to get away from the force, but Mike is still heavily involved with it and has no ambitions to retire. They come to an agreement about staying together on the force with a foot race settling the matter. As they run, Mike gets shot in the chest three times and is nearly killed. This leads Marcus to leave the force as Mike goes through recovery.
When Mike fully recovers, he is intent on chasing down the man that shot him and desperately wants Marcus to join him. He declines, not wanting anything to do with the dangerous mission. Rita (Paola Nunez), former girlfriend of Mike and leader of a group of specialists within the police force that are assigned to the case already. Mike forces his way onto the team and it’s a messy pairing, with plenty of tension with Rita from their past.
Marcus has a hard time getting used to retirement but doesn’t want to return to the force until their good friend, Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano), gets taken out by Armando with a sniper rifle. This death unites Mike and Marcus in one final mission to take down the bad guys.
BAD BOYS FOR LIFE has so many great action sequences from beginning to end. This is the standard in the BAD BOYS movies, but they really turned it up here and it was a lot of fun. At one point, Mike is riding a motorcycle with Marcus in the sidecar and it is full of some great action and comedy. It’s just a great deal of fun and that’s true for the rest of the action sequences in this film.
We get a twist in the film that I didn’t really dig. (Spoiler) It’s uncovered that Armando is actually the son of Mike and now the situation is complicated. He is now looking inward and admits that he fell in love with Isabel during an undercover mission and Armando was his son that he didn’t know about. The film was moving along so well and then they throw this element in. I could have lived without this twist.
We get the final showdown with the Bad Boys, Rita and her group and Isabel, Armando and their army, and it’s a lot of fun. It’s a great mix of humor and action and we see Mike and Armando team up at the end, which sort of sucked. Armando was a psycho killer, but he survives and becomes OK with Mike after trying to kill him the entire film. I think it would have been much better had this not been thrown in there.
At the end of the film, we get the hint that Mike and Armando are going to work together in a sequel that they are hinting, which doesn’t really appeal to me but BAD BOYS FOR LIFE proved to be a very good action film. Smith and Lawrence work together so well and it was a great way to wrap up the series. This film isn’t as good as the first one, but I’d say that it’s better than the second one. Smith and Lawrence bring that mix of drama, comedy and action to this that just works incredibly well. I highly recommend this one. If you liked the original BAD BOYS films, you’ll want to see this one.
