The Bad Boys are back, but this time, they’re older. They’re wiser. And they’re tired. Well, Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) is anyway.
Bad Boys for Life has arrived in cinemas and if you loved the first two installments, then this action-packed movie is going to hit exactly where you need it to.
Featuring the exceptional chemistry between Lawrence and his ‘odd-couple’ co-star, Will Smith (Detective Mike Lowrey), it feels like no time has passed since the release of Bad Boys II in 2003.
In fact, Jerry Bruckheimer says it best.
“If you like watching two wonderful, funny actors go at it for a couple of hours, this is the movie for you.”
But, there’s a distinct difference between this film and the others (and no, it’s not because Michael Bay is no longer at the helm).
This time round, the film toys with the theme of mortality – and not just the mortality of the crims they are pursuing. It’s the mortality of its main shoot-em-up cop, Lowrey.
After the matriarch of a drug cartel escapes a Mexican prison, she enlists the help of her son, a trained assassin, to help her get revenge on all of the US law enforcement officials that help put her inside.
And it’s here, within ten minutes (and this is certainly no spoiler), Lowrey has three bullets in his chest.
Burnett, who is now a retiring grandaddy, kneels at the hospital chapel, praying for his friend’s life — in exchange, he promises a more peaceful existence.
When Lowrey is ready to seek revenge on the ones who shot him, Burnett is whisked out of retirement and back into the insane and action-packed antics that comes with being his partner.
But, if you think the film is about to rehash these characters like no time has passed; think again, because a large part of the film focuses on the fact that Smith and Lawrence are indeed ageing.
Replacing their young Bad Boys attitude with that of a middle-aged man, paired with aches and pains of growing older and some serious familial responsibility (well, for Burnett anyway), Bad Boys For Life honours the fact that age truly can change you.
And while Lowrey fights it, Burnett embraces it. But for how long can this dynamic stay the same?
Don’t be fooled by this though — because it’s still the same old Bad Boys and this latest installment is seriously everything you’ve come to know and love from the franchise.
Bad Boys for Life is in cinemas now.