Bad Boys: Ride or Die

I loved the first two and felt like the third was very, very off tone and out of place for the "trilogy". If like me you disliked the third, you will hate for forth. Where the third introduced this bazaar soap opera styled movie with a witch and a long lost son, this one they introduce.... god? And soul mates..... its funny I completely missed the warlock and demons in the first and second film.

I genuinely hope this movie makes enough money to fund a 5th film just so they can afford Michael bay and some decent writers! Because I love seeing Will and Martin together and the characters (at least the OG version of them were so great). Why have they made Marcus SOOO dumb... it didn't work for Thor love and thunder and it doesn't work here.

The directors need to quit and just work for MTV it's genuinely like they have never seen the first two films and have only HEARD about Bay's style of directing. Just because you can fit a camera in a seemingly impossible position doesn't mean you should do it every 3 minutes. Every shot and scene in this film is just flooding with an attempt to be stylish or cool or bay-esc. The camera is constantly spinning or moving it makes Bay's shaky cam feel like a tripod. Also what's with ALL the colour/neon!? Every close up I swear has either a red, green or purple glow to it; unless it's interior, in which case you are treated to over the top lens flare from curtain less windows. The OG films looked beautiful but also had some grit to them.

Point is I am a fan so wanted to like it but it didn't look good, it wasn't funny and it just felt like the franchise is going the same direction as fast and the furious but some how less entertaining.

The last two films have been a crime to cinema, how they got Will and Martin to sign their contracts I will never know.

How two thirds of this film was ever put on the page, I will never know. It felt like a straight to DVD waste of time.

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.

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.

The movie" continues the long-running saga, but this latest installment falls into the trap of delivering more of the same without much innovation. The film lacks any fresh elements and largely recycles tropes seen in countless other action movies.

The action scenes, while brief and sporadic, feature our heavily battered yet inexplicably bulletproof heroes. These sequences are interspersed with lengthy, tiresome filler dialogue that does little to advance the plot or develop the characters. The two hours in the theater felt more like a slog, as the film struggled to maintain engagement with its audience.

"Bad Boys 4" at times resembles an ego-shooter game, a style that may appeal to fans of intense, immersive violence. However, this aspect requires a particular taste for such content. While the film manages to deliver solid entertainment and the dynamic chemistry between Smith and Lawrence remains a highlight, it ultimately fails to rise to the level of a masterpiece.

One of the most glaring issues is the evident aging of the main actors. Smith and Lawrence, though charismatic, often show their age, and the series' attempt to maintain the high-energy antics of its predecessors feels forced and out of touch. The weariness is palpable in many scenes, making it clear that the franchise is running on fumes.

A passable action film that relies heavily on the established rapport of its leading men. It offers a familiar blend of action and humor, but its lack of originality and overused clichés render it a largely forgettable experience. While fans of the series might find some enjoyment, it's time for this franchise to finally rest, acknowledging that its stars can no longer convincingly play the roles of youthful action heroes.

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.