SebastienSpa

The documentary itself doesn't reveal much new about one of the world successful Formula 1 drivers. It's mostly montage of people's statements saying how great he was.

By doing so it follows the paradigm of TV documentaries, mediocre music - subsequently no real dramaturgical arch. A lot of emotion about a driver who wasn't that emotional.

In fact, most people watched this piece to finally get some new information about Michael's current state.

It's a little bit like the South Park episode about the new Terence & Phillip trailer - you have to watch through a lot of stuff that you don't necessarily want to see (like Senna's death live in every detail - was that really necessary?) and things we already know (yes, Michael was great, we get it), only to get to the point we've all been waiting for.

And then...

Sorry, Senna and D2S have production and dramaturgical standards where this documentary doesn't even come close.

Sometimes you come to wonder what you loved so much about the holy trinity of car presenters/entertainers. You re-watch previous grand tour episodes, and you come to realize that the package as a whole was the key ingredient. It was not just May, Hammond and Clarkson in hilarious situations, it was their stations they passed through on each episode. And part of that was the connection to the audience - because they simply behaved very differently when in front of a live crowd. This switch between the "real" and the(ir) fantasized world constantly became visible and created fantastic humour.

Now, here we have (as promised) another (actually very late) new adventure only episode to Grand Tour's season 4. Let's make this one short: What you get, is a (now) classic episode of Hammond, Clarkson & May, once again doing what they love doing most when not being in the UK: Going to remote places in ridiculous vehicles, cussing/discussing/laughing/failing/triumphing/etc to a Grand Tour like editing style and reaching the conclusion that we haven't learned anything from the one and a half hours that we had just spent with this topic.

To be quite honest, the encounter and chemistry between the three probably hasn't ever been about anything else, and some might argue that this is exactly why they, and only they can pull off something like this and come out victorious.

But do they? I have found this episode rather repetitive, easy to predict and above all - very one dimensioned. I do miss those car tests, those arguments over it, those audiovisual masterpieces they once presented to illustrate an experience. I do miss the arguments about certain topics in front of a live crowd. And I really miss the comparisons of cars in their Top List.

It now literally feels like a homeless clown trio on its voyage to ridicule the (third) world with infantile statements/ideas/actions. When you see these ingredients on several different stages over about 50 minutes, it's funny and plenty - but when you them only on one stage over about one and a half hours, it gets dull very quickly, no matter the high production values.

Oh, how did I celebrate when I heard Michael Bay won't be directing the movie, oh, how did I laugh about the intellectual quality of Michael Bay films... And yet, here we are with fresh blood trying to fix what seemed broken. A good movie needs not only characters but solid character development - that's what we've learned about movie making.

Now, here we have two characters and they haven't really been given a lot of development so far, so what do we do? We give 'em some! And while this drama unfolds in front of your eyes, a great share of nostalgia, a decent portion of "coming of age"-breeze and a constant reminder of the final ultimate point-of-no-return end of the protagonists' relationship - you quickly start asking when something will blow up? Because, huh, you got me there, I actually came here just to see that in the first place. But instead we're treated with characters who not only play to be, but really appear tired.

And, subsequently, we should be treated at least with our fair share of action, right? I mean, even the The Dark Knight Rises paid off in that sense. And the action in Bad Boys for Life is big - on paper. But it's unbelievable unimaginatively captured and put to screen. Yes, the colors are the there (just like Bay), the lights shines nicely on everything we need to see (just like Bay), the dialogues are sometimes stereotypically snotty (just like Bay) but, and what am I saying here, BUT this certain Mr Bay would have made this movie more fluent, more, *trembling here* gracious.

Right after I saw BBFL I went home, turned on Netflix, watched Bad Boys II and was blown away by how good this movie looks even by today's standards, 13 years later. Even the CGI is mostly bearable. In BBFL the camera angles, movements and focuses are sometimes just lazy compared to Bay's work in the two previous movies. And then there is the music - once again compared to Bad Boys II, it's generic, sometimes even non-supportive, thin and sits bad in the mix at times. To be honest, the music of Bad Boys II wasn't necessarily original, but it had a drive, it pumped and blasted when it had to. BBFL's music, however, is just a collection of phrases and instrumentations we've heard I-don't-know-how-many-times. Lazy would be a good word to describe it.

Bad Boys for Life is the best "movie" of the three (if you go by by-the-book rules) but it's the worst Bad Boys film (if you loved the first two ones for what they were - and are).