Bad Boys: Ride or Die

Longtime, not to mention long in the tooth police partners Mike and Marcus ride together...they die together...and now are back in a superfluous sequel together. Mike is attempting to settle down, Marcus is trying to avoid stress, but that all goes out the window when their late superior officer Captain Howard is implicated to be in cahoots with a dangerous drug cartel. Naturally they feel inclined to preserve the posthumous legacy of their fellow policeman. Beyond good use of the Miami scenery, there isn't much going on here to justify this sequel's existence; it shoehorns in some major characters who aren't given anything substantial to do, with a stale plot that runs on autopilot featuring generic bad guys, rat-a-tat-tat action scenes (with disorienting camera work), and forced attempts at humor which continually flop. The results aren't funny or exciting despite how hard Martin and Will try to make it work, and attempts to recapture the magic of earlier movies only highlight how lame and unneeded this newest entry truly is...whatcha gonna do? Find something else to watch. *½

So I was left a little disappointed after the last film, something just seemed to be missing but this really hit the spot.

The 2 central characters still have great chemistry, but this felt a lot more like an ensemble piece with more fleshed out characters around them. I'm just going say #Reggierocks.

Some great cinematography with lots of fab camera and drone work zooming around all over the place. The first person gun work at one point added a new dimension.

Miami looks beautiful with the Orange and Teal tones.

Action galore and a good protagonist in Eric Dane, although his motive and why he is doing what he is, was pretty rubbish, but he still played it well, and to be fair you don't come in to this sort of film hoping for Shakespeare level story telling.

Some fun cameos pop up which raise a smile.

The soundtrack is good and Lorne Balfe delivers on the orchestrated score.

It has all you would expect from a Michael Bay production. Definitely life still in the franchise.

I do not understand why some people are still at this "Will Smith" slap stage. Just get over with it. You don't give 1/10 to a movie like this unless you're dumb and got shot in the head. Yes what he did was bad, but it has nothing to do with the movie nor his actions, cuz remember he's an actor. Remember all these people giving 1/10 are still but*hurt about the slap & are trying to boycott Will Smith for his acting career. I don't want to include any spoilers, The movie is funny got great comedy lines, great acting and the jokes are just too funny so don't lurk around giving weird unrealistic rating just because you don't like the actor in real life. & i'd suggest to watch it for fun.

It's still the same old routine. It's so boring to watch. How could the director have the nerve to make this? The bickering scenes from the first to the fourth installment have just worn me out. The only part that left a bit of an impression was the airplane scene, but even that was just so - so. After all, Hollywood action choreographers have exhausted every possible idea from space to the ocean floor. It's really difficult to get the audience's adrenaline pumping these days. And the ending, with the villains getting caught and the so - called forgiveness, is all the same old cliché. The crux of the matter is that in this combination of an action movie and a comedy, neither aspect has a single outstanding highlight. That's why it's a failure.

I looked forward to Bad Boys: Ride or Die as I really enjoyed Bad Boys for Life. It retains a lot of the positive things which have made the past films fun such as impactful action, R rated jokes and family dynamics. That came with a bunch of side characters new and old and an okay plot but there is one thing that lets this movie down and it's Martin Lawrence's character, Marcus Burnett.

Unfortunately, it's becoming all too common in Hollywood for a character to be so over the top for a movie that it just becomes distracting.

After surviving a near death experience at the beginning of the film, Marcus is high on life and he literally acts as if he is high for the rest of the film. This went beyond fun and playful to the point where it was distracting and annoying. It led to many frustrating scenes which felt like they belonged in a cartoon including one scene where the characters chose one of the worst possible moments to sing the Bad Boys theme.

In the End, Bad Boys Ride or Die is a frustrating but okay film which could have been much better with different narrative choices although many people might enjoy the direction that the film went.