Bad Boys: Ride or Die

Been a hardcore fan of the first bad boys and also enjoyed the second but this one lacks depth and the way the camera moves around all the time makes it really uncomfortable to watch and takes away a lot how you experience the story. It's like they try to cover the lack of depth with some spectacular filming but they made it worse. Quite disappointing. Don't get me wrong it's still entertaining but it's just not bad boys anymore as it used to be. There just could have been worked more in depth around the characters and conversations instead of trying to focus only on the filming. It's like the directors want it just too much. Keep it simple and don't overdue it. Especially when you have good actors.

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

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.

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 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.