Initially, it looked like this could be one to skip, but by taking us back, it’s almost sold as a must-see event movie – a trip down memory lane with the benefit of today’s tech at their disposal. In essence, we’re saying it’s pretty much the best job they could’ve done with a first trailer. They could’ve gone with a new hit, but it just wouldn’t have worked as well. It takes us back to the likes of True Lies, Con Air, Point Break and other surrounding classics of the decade.īy coming in with Diddy’s ‘Bad Boy For Life’ from the 2001 album The Saga Continues, lyrics like “we can’t be stopped” and “we still here” perfectly encapsulate the attitude of this sequel, while also transporting us to a simpler time for the genre. Even today, it stands out for its ballsy approach to action spectacle, favouring fun over anything else and wearing its nineties influence like a crown of bullets. Nostalgia feels even more important lately – look no further than Stranger Things – and the trailer really had to encourage fans to reminisce about what Bad Boys‘ return meant back in 2003. When you’re resurrecting a franchise which has lain dormant for almost two decades, nostalgia promises to play a crucial role in determining success. Eyeing a January 2020 release, it’s clear that Will and Martin just weren’t ready to say goodbye to the bad boy life, resurrecting the franchise a whopping seventeen years after the previous entry.
The third instalment in the influential Bad Boys series is aptly titled Bad Boys For Life. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence proved to be a charismatic buddy-cop pairing eight years later, Michael brought the boys back in the explosive sequel, 2003’s Bad Boys II.Īfter years and years, it looked as though a third in the franchise would never surface, but fortunately for fans, it’s back with a bang.ĭON’T FORGET ABOUT! What happened to Dre in Power? It’s not exactly Heat, but Michael Bay’s Bad Boys the very same year stands out as a thoroughly enjoyable and iconic slice of adrenaline-fuelled action cinema. You had Martin Scorsese’s Casino, David Fincher’s Seven and Michael Mann’s Heat stunning the masses, as well as smaller films like Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise and Larry Clark’s Kids making waves on the indie scene. Glancing over the nineties, 1995 stands out as a particularly great year for cinema. Still, a little self-awareness goes a long way.It’s back, and actually, the trailer is anything but bad. It's gleefully un-PC - the ACLU and PTSD are both the targets of some vicious jabs - and it has a fantastically high body count. Now, Bad Boys for Life isn't a political movie. Bad Boys for Life deals with those issues, at least indirectly. Were always gonna be here (yeah) We there (uhh) every motherfuckaz here Chorus - 2X. Place nuttin above it (nuttin) its on like that (cmon) Dont believe, we aint goin like that. Lowry and Burnett's shoot first, ask questions later-style of policing is a little harder to swallow given recent conversations about police brutality. Bad Boy til the casket drop (Bad Boy) gotta love it. The older movies are homophobic and slightly racist. The characters' ages also let Bad Boys for Life tackle an inconvenient truth: To modern sensibilities, Bad Boys hasn't aged particularly well. Lowry and Burnett are still caricatures, but they feel more lived in than ever before, helping sell the drama. It's all very funny, but it also helps ground Bad Boys for Life in a way that the previous two movies weren't. They shouldn't be able to pull off ridiculously athletic stunts with ease, or instantly charm co-workers half their age. Let's face it, Mike and Marcus shouldn't be able to flirt their way past the bouncer at a nightclub. If you can overlook some of these flaws, though, you'll have a grand old time. Bad Boys for Life is an unexpectedly ambitious film that doesn't really pull it all together.
Apparently, Lowry is the one who busted Isabel and her husband back in the day, and now that she's out of prison she and Armando will do anything they can to make the Miami PD officer's life utterly miserable.īad Boys for Life is full of bullets, explosions, and quips, but is it any good? That depends. Not that it matters when Isabel and Armando Artas, a mother-son criminal team, show up for revenge. They're older but not much wiser, and are beginning to realize that they can't keep this up, well, for life. Keeping the streets of Miami safe for so long has taken its toll on detectives Mike Lowry (Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence). In Bad Boys for Life, Martin Lawrence and Will Smith return to the franchise that kickstarted Michael Bay's career, but they're not exactly the same cops that you saw before.