Review: Bad Boys: Ride or Die Isn't Bad, but Could Be Better

Will Smith has a lot to prove with Bad Boys: Ride or Die. In 2020's Bad Boys for Life, he had to prove that a franchise whose last installment came out in 2003 still had legs and that he could anchor an action-comedy blockbuster in his 50s. And he did, to the tune of more than $426 million worldwide.

And then, in 2022, he slapped Chris Rock during the Oscars ceremony telecast for the whole world to see. Minutes later, he won Best Actor. Weeks later, the Academy banned him for a decade.

Bad Boys: Ride or Die is Smith's first major film since the bizarre Oscars incident. It is, in some ways, a shot at redemption for the star, a chance to remind audiences of how much we all loved him before the unpleasantness. Well, don't call it a comeback.

The film marks the return of Smith's iconic, much-rapped-about Miami cop Mike Lowrey and his goofy partner Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence), but this time, the plot is even thinner and more convoluted than For Life's cartel revenge drama. An ex-Special Forces operator (Eric Dane), an enemy of the deceased Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano, who played Ralph Cifaretto on The Sopranos), wants to frame the dead cop for corruption, leaving Mike and Marcus to clear his name. He's working with Lockwood (Ioan Gruffudd), a corrupt politician who bears a resemblance to Miami Mayor Francis Suarez thanks to a bad spray tan. The villain's motivations are vague at best — there's something about being tortured by the cartels and left to dust by Uncle Sam. Not that it matters much anyway — as with the rest of the franchise, we're here to clown around with the two buddy cops, and one is especially clownish this time.
Marcus acts like a bonehead right from the start, his character devolving from the devoted, harried family man of the Bay films (contrasted with the playboy Mike) into a goofy halfwit obsessed with junk food. His bad habits get the better of him when he has a heart attack on the dance floor at Mike's wedding, but rather than decide to change his ways, a vision of the dead Captain Howard convinces him that he's unkillable. He dangles from a rooftop in his hospital gown (the wind blows the back and reveals his derriere) and breakdances in traffic. Lawrence, as usual, acts as a vehicle for the film's unbelievably stupid and obvious sense of humor, less vulgar and malicious than the Michael Bay movies of the '90s and early 2000s but certainly corny and hackneyed — jokes about Marcus needing to diet after his heart attack feel like they were stolen from the set of Lawrence's '90s sitcom, Martin. It all serves to set up a joke during the final battle sequence in an abandoned swamp aquarium. Marcus is snapped out of his euphoric self-confidence by being attacked by a giant albino alligator. ("That motherfucker is racist!" he declares of the reptile.)

Smith gives a more serviceable, if not electric, performance as Mike, still sorting through residual drama from the last episode. (The movie's story feels more appropriate for a CBS police procedural than a blockbuster movie.) Now suffering panic attacks, he recruits the convicted cartel boss Armando (Jacob Scipio), his long-lost son from the previous film, as an unexpected ally while defending him from Howard's daughter Judy (Rhea Seehorn), a bitter U.S. Marshal hunting him down to avenge her father. Lowrey's arc lacks the surprising pathos of the last film, in which the lothario is suddenly forced to reckon with past mistakes and confront the family he never knew. He also has a new wife, Christine (Melanie Liburd), whose primary function in the film is to get kidnapped. None of the female characters in the film come out looking too strong; Seehorn, underappreciated for her role as Kim Wexler in Better Call Saul, plays Marshall Howard with one-note frustration, while Mike's now-boss and one-time flame Rita (Paola Núñez) has to be bailed out by her subordinates during a violent confrontation with Lockwood, whom she's also dating. This film's most active and powerful woman is Tabitha, a one-scene-wonder stripper madam played by Tiffany Haddish, who sells out Lowrey and Burnett to bounty hunters.

The action, at least, is impressive. Directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, returning from the last installment, take clear inspiration from Bay's bombastic style, even referencing the famous spinning pan ("Shit just got real") from Bad Boys II. However, their approach is thoroughly modern, steeped in the acrobatics of John Wick and utilizing new technology. Drone-mounted cameras follow car chases; a sequence on a crashing helicopter features whiplash rotations that follow the bodies getting tossed around the cockpit. One bravura sequence features Marcus' zero-to-hero son-in-law, Reggie (Dennis Greene), a marine, defending the family against a home invasion. The action is the best part of this movie, just as it was in Bay's film. It's a shame everything else in the movie can't measure up.
It's evident that the filmmakers want to shape Bad Boys into a Fast & Furious-style experience with spectacular stunts and deeper character interactions. They're already moving into that mold, recruiting the last film's villain and retaining its new-school cop team AMMO (with the notable absence of Charles Melton, who now acts in Todd Haynes movies). The problem is that Bay's movies had only the spectacle going for them, so they're already on shaky foundation. It's not necessarily the age of Smith and Lawrence that's the problem here — Tom Cruise is six years older than Smith, and he's just wrapping up his Mission Impossible series. It's more that the regressive attitude of these films is holding it back.

The same possibly goes for its setting. Miami is certainly a character in Bad Boys. A longtime resident, Michael Bay had an excellent sense of the city's geography when directing the action in his films set here. (His 2013 film Pain & Gain was based on an article in this publication.) He's also cameoed in all of the films, including Ride or Die. Other cameos include DJ Khaled reappearing as the gangster Manny, who was beaten with a meat hammer in the last movie. This time around, he suffers an even grislier fate, as does the Suarez analog, although I'll leave his exact fate a surprise. Even Wynwood's scammy art culture gets a sendup. (Sadly, neither Jimmy Butler nor Lionel Messi are in the film despite trailers.) Yet I wonder if Miami has enough material to inspire more of these movies. And I wonder if, in a post-Black Lives Matter world, we should still be making movies that glamorize police, and in particular, a police department with a consistent history of scandal and misbehavior.

Thanks to this film, Will Smith's career may live to Ride or Die another day after the Slap. But we know he can do better than this. If this is the last Bad Boys adventure, so be it — we really don't need another one.

Bad Boys: Ride or Die. Starring Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, and Joe Pantoliano. Directed by Adil & Bilall. Written by Chris Bremner and Will Beall. 115 mins. Rated R. Check for showtimes at miaminewtimes.com/miami/movietimes.