by Jeremy Kazieva,
Bigger, Badder, Unpredictable, Hilarious, you name it. Bad Boys: Ride or Die is the franchise’s best film for multiple reasons. This film continues off from where the 3rd one ended as we finally get an inside look at who ordered the killing of Captain Howard. You get the returning characters and new characters from both family and police. One of the family members will be a scene stealer and have you applauding. The movie takes place in Miami, so you already know that the cinematography will be beautiful, the cameo(s) are unpredictable and hilarious and one of them fits the Miami vibe. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence continue to dominate as the best action duo, and Marcus Burnette continues to find new ways of making you laugh in every single scene. That is also probably one of the flaws in this film… Martin Lawrence plays a cop who tries to use way too much forced humor than this movie needs, but when it’s time to go to work, he puts his life on the line in the most Marcus way possible.
As for the supporting cast, you get the returning characters from the 3rd film as well as some new ones in Rhea Seehorn, Quinn Hemphill, John Sally, Loan Gruffudd, among others. The supporting cast on the police side showed how real-life Miami cops should be, not letting anything stop them or get in their way from getting the job done, or in this sense, almost done, and the cast from the family side, especially one certain character, shows why he/she deserves more screentime. Shows why their past turned out to be very useful when it comes to protecting the family and when I tell you that the audience applauded after watching the character in the movie, it’s for a certain reason. Another family member we need to show praise for is Jacob Scipio, who plays Mike Lowrey’s son, Armando Aretas. After the events of the 3rd film, he is held as a prisoner until things go sideways and escapes with Marcus and his father, going on the run as claimed fugitives. As much as Armando would probably hate for me to admit it, he was another character I thoroughly enjoyed watching from a development standpoint. Seeing where he started up to the ending of this film, after the events he goes through in this one, he tends to give you a lot of edge-of-your-seat moments that can have you gasping and caring even more for his character.
Something that needs to be talked about is the directing because Adil El Arbi and Billal Fallah seriously cooked! Suppose you have ever ridden on this Disney ride called “Soarin”. In that case, you will have a sense as to how the camera has been seriously taking you on a ride during every action and driving scene and if you have played a FPS video game, this film is the same thing during the action scenes at times. Giving us a fresh new perspective and visual of what the duo of Mike and Marcus see when in action. The editing and VFX in this movie didn’t make much sense in the beginning along with how and why the incident involving Marcus even happened, but it was still very new to see in this ‘Bad Boys’ franchise because it’s just things you wouldn’t expect to see after watching the first three films, but it also made Martin Lawrence’s character very difficult to be taken seriously.
Overall, I do believe, still, that this movie was the best that I’ve ever seen the duo of Mike and Marcus because during the events that they go through, they have so much at stake to save the legacy of Captain Howard, their jobs, and their family that seeing how they handle everything, even while going through mental health problems, they find a way to get the job done even if it’s not according to plan. It’s chaotic, and unpredictable, shows Miami in multiple gorgeous angles, and even hints at a possible 5th film… This movie is everything you’d expect in a ‘Bad Boys’ film and it certainly ups its game.