Bad Boys: Ride or Die

Bad Boys for Life was surprising with its fresh screenplay, which put new wind in the franchise’s sails. But without input from Joe Carnahan, the screenplay for Ride or Die gets sloppy. Forced jokes and a moderately interesting plot, routine action without a single memorable scene. The overwrought scene with a helicopter seems to have been flown in from the Fast & Furious franchise.  The fierceness and polish of Bay’s action style is history. However, Bay appears in one shot, DJ Khaled in a whole scene, and the central duo are still cool even without good jokes. The nostalgia, bolstered by Mark Mancina’s musical motif and the setting of Miami skyscrapers with Caribbean beaches and palm trees, simply works. And young Reggie rulez! (06/24/2024)

As a generic action flick it's good enough, but to expect anything more is foolishness. Bad Boys: Ride or Die is a classic clichéd movie that offers perhaps not a single original element, is sentimental in every scene where it can be, relies too much on a kind of fatality and philosophical speeches, and equally tries too hard to exploit the nostalgia of the franchise. This then makes the result feel like a very typical film copied from the cookbook of blueprints for a classic action movie. However, despite all this, the film retains solid humour, has no dead spots and you actually enjoy watching the whole thing – I was most amused here by Martin Lawrence, who undergoes a kind of enlightenment at the beginning of the film and feels like he's immortal, so he performs solid suicide stunts throughout and his banter is downright brilliant in places. It doesn't offend, it doesn't excite, but it entertains; still, please put this franchise to rest forever, as from this point on, the more it recycles, the worse the legacy it leaves. (09/16/2024)

For me, the best episode of the franchise. It's not as unbearably loud as the first one, nor as visually aggressive as second one, or as shallow in plot as in the third one, which bordered almost on a Mexican soap opera. It has proper with, unexpectedly funny scenes, good visual ideas, and during action scenes the camera circles the space in an interesting way and chooses unconventional angles. And the biggest surprise is the one I least expected it from. Martin Lawrence may still be a pain in the ass, but holy wonder, he's funny here too. Starting with the unwanted "visit to the beyond" the goofiness and his sort of messiah complex make sense and I just enjoy the dude as an actor, unlike, say, the king of awkwardness Kevin Hart. The only one who spoils it a bit is the character of Will Smith's son, the youngster just can't act and in all the scenes he looks equally impassive, as if he's not even enjoying it. (07/25/2024)

It probably wasn't entirely convenient to go to see Bad Boys: Ride or Die when I hadn't seen the previous film, which is referenced quite a bit, but it happened. Despite my initial disorientation with the characters and the relationships between them, I did enjoy the film in the cinema. Compared to the first and second parts, the characters of Mike and Marcus definitely struck me as more likeable, and their age-related vulnerability had a lot to do with that. I also enjoyed the action sequences, which often alternated shots of action with character perspectives, making it feel like a PC game at times, but in a good way. While I didn't outright roll around laughing, I did chuckle more than once, so the comedy level was also functional. Now all that's left to do is watch the third one! (06/24/2024)

The fourth time didn't work so well. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are still an excellent duo, and they are opposed by a pretty decent villain, but what good is that when the plot revolves as much if not more around them as it does around completely uninteresting (old) new characters who don't have much to say. The film was worth seeing in the cinema mainly for the frantic action, which can probably turn into quite a mess at home on TV. (08/10/2024)