Bad Boys For Life movie review

MOVIE TITLE: Bad Boys

RATING: R

LENGTH: 2 hours, 3 minutes

Movie Review Mom GRADE: B+

IN A NUTSHELL:

Martin Lawrence announced this sequel to Bad Boys clear back in 2013. After many years of delays and changes of directors, fans of the original Bad Boys released 17 years ago will be rewarded for their patience with some high-octane action and funny buddy moments.

I admit I never saw the first two movies in this franchise, so my review is based on this one as a stand-alone film from a newb’s perspective. Whatcha gonna do?

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

Profanity, including TONS of F-bombs.
Lots of fast, dangerous driving.
Cold-hearted violence with blood. High body count.
Spanish is spoken with subtitles and without
Lots of talk of sexual relations
Lots of destruction and explosions
Lots of playful smack talk
Lots of weapons, including talk of God giving a weapon to someone to use to kill the bad guys
Lots of testosterone and machismo

THEMES:

“Don’t you know that family is all that matters?” – Detective Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence)
“Love is hard.” – Detective Mike Lowrey (Will Smith)
Friendship
Loyalty

THINGS I LIKED:

Will Smith and Martin Lawrence make a great combo and seemed to have a lot of fun making this movie.
There are some cameos from the last two Bad Boys movie, as well as former director Michael. Bay has announced that he will direct the next sequel. Yes, there will be another one, but it won’t take another 17 years for it to come out. Don’t leave before the rolling credits to see a little sneak peek.
Some Deadpool style humor.
I love twists.
Will Smith’s character describes Ammo as a “high school musical boy band”, which is funny because Vanessa Hudgens is in the movie and she got her big break in the movie High School Musical. I really like her but I thought her hairstyle was completely ridiculous for a cop in this movie. She seems eager to show her acting is versatile, after starring in two sugary sweet Christmas specials on Netflix called “A Knight Before Christmas” and “The Princess Switch.” (I actually watched both of them.)
Will Smith beating up DJ Khaled. ha ha He’s showing up in quite a few movies lately!
Lots of entertaining action sequences with snappy, funny comments.
The villains are okay….not great….but okay. At least, their motivations make more sense and you feel some urgency and level of personal meaning.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

Some dumb dialogue mixed in with the funny lines.
It’s a little too long. Some scenes are entirely unnecessary.
Super cliched action flick with villains from Mexico seeking revenge.
The ending action scene reminded me of Gemini Man Have you seen that Will Smith movie? It didn’t get very good reviews, but I enjoyed it. You can see my movie review of Gemini Man here. The last action scene is pretty ridiculous and exaggerated.
There are some really bad green scenes and facial CGI moments.
One character has an instant character change that seems unrealistically stretched.

FUNNY LINES:

“Sorry rich, white people. We’re not just black. We’re cops too.” – Detective Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence)
“Bad boys for life!” – (Will Smith) “Um, bad boys ain’t really boys no more.” – Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano)
“I got $50 on a torn ACL.” – Captain Howard
“Raids are supposed to be fun. They’re Captain Howard “Yeah, but I want one.” – Detective Mike Lowrey

INTERESTING LINES: