Mike Lowry (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) are still the toughest cops in Miami. However, Marcus already wants to retire badly: he had a grandson who was named after … Marcus himself, so Marcus wants to spend more time with his family, sit in an armchair in front of the TV, sip beer and not risk his life, because at work his life is in terrible danger all the time, as he is the partner of the completely crazy Mike Lowry.
Meanwhile, in Mexico City, drug lord Aretas’ widow Isabel (Kate del Castillo) is plotting against Mike and snares her son Armando (Jacob Scipio) on him.
Armando arrives in Miami, first arranges a small massacre in the port, and then completely watches over Mike at the exit from the tavern, where Marcus once again tried to agree with Mike that he would retire, and shoots the brave cop with a submachine gun .
Mike barely survived – he survived three clinical deaths – however, modern medicine put even not such bad guys on their feet, so Mike recovered very quickly and was even able to attend the wedding of Marcus’ daughter, at which he found out a terrible thing: Marcus really retired and is not going to return.
And Mike, of course, needs to find out who is hunting him and why. However, Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano), Mike’s superior, is strongly opposed to Mike investigating the case, as he has a classic conflict of interest. But the captain understands that Mike is not the kind of person who can be kept in check, so he attaches Mike as a consultant to the special department of AMMO: these are young guys who are well versed in all sorts of computer stuff, they also have serious combat training. The department is run by hot Latina Rita (Paola Nunez), who met with Mike some time ago.
Near Mike, people he knows well begin to die, and Mike suspects that this is the work of the same shooter. And now Marcus obviously will not be able to sit out in retirement, because the “bad guys” need to somehow solve this problem.
***
As you know, the 1995 film “Bad Boys” is a film by Michael Bay and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. For clip maker Michael Bay, this was the first feature film in which he, without much ado, made two black guys partners: they were played by almost unknown young actors Will Smith (he generally started out as a rapper) and serial actor Martin Lawrence. The plot of the film was incredibly stupid and consisted of almost nothing but clichés, but the characters of Smith and Lawrence quarreled very amusingly, there were wild races in the film, filmed in an original manner, which later became Michael Bay’s corporate style, journalists scolded the film, and he, with the budget of everything at $19 million, ka-a-a-a-ak raised a box office of as much as $ 141 million, so that all roads became open in front of Bay in Hollywood, and how he took advantage of it – we know.
“Bad Boys” 1995
Well, what happened to Smith and Lawrence after that – we also know: Smith very quickly became a superstar, receiving $ 20 million per film, and Lawrence also received $ 20 million a couple of times after that, but then he was quickly blown away, so the superstars didn’t come out of it.
The second “Bad Boys” Bay with Bruckheimer was released eight years later – in 2003. The budget skyrocketed right up to $130 million, a significant part of which was the fees to Smith and Lawrence, the level of script delusions also increased, but Bay in the picture was able to fully enjoy himself with extremely unreliable, but spectacular chases and gunfights, and Smith and Lawrence laughed at the stars, realizing how cool they are.
“Bad Boys” 2003
The second part was much more cheerful than the first, but due to the inflated budget, the fees showed very modest, only $ 273 million. But the picture at least paid off, so Sony decided that the franchise could be tried to continue.
But with the triquel project, which began to be developed almost immediately after the release of the second film, something did not work out for a long time. After the extremely modest results of the sequel, the studio was not going to invest even more in the budget of the new picture, while Will Smith was not ready to cut his standard financial claims, which were formulated simply and clearly as “twenty per film”, Michael Bay did not want to put a picture with a budget of less than hundreds of millions, the script was constantly rewritten, because, according to the producers, it turned out to be not idiotic enough, as a result, at some point, Bay refused to work on the triquel, after which the studio made a curious knight’s move.
Namely: as directors, they invited two Belgian directors of Moroccan origin, Adil El Arbi and Bilal Fallu (these directors attracted attention in Hollywood with their modern adaptation of the story of Romeo and Juliet – the film “Black”, shown at the festival), and the final version of the script was written by a certain Chris Bremner, for whom this is the first screenwriting experience.
The entire budget was $ 90 million, and, given the alignment, no one expected anything good from the triquel. Nevertheless, he swept more than successfully, collecting as much as $ 425 million around the world, and the fact that the critics of the triquel traditionally scolded the studio did not care at all.
So what did El Arbi and Fallu shoot? They carefully preserved the traditional approach of Michael Bay. To be honest, when I watched this film, I was sure that Bay also directed it. Moreover, he is personally present in the picture – in the form of a wedding steward.
Michael Bay in movie
The first two films often copied plot moves from Lethal Weapon, especially the second one, and in the triquel everything is very similar: Markus is the same Sergeant Murtaugh, who is too old for this shit, and Mike is like Riggs, who is still crazy . True, they were not assigned the ever-fussing Leo to help them, but in return they provided a whole small detachment of talented youth, which Mike at first considers a “school theater group”, but then, as expected, recognizes the merits of the detachment, which is even allowed to take part in the deadly adventures of the elusive “bad guys” “, especially since under the beneficial influence of Mike, the squad learned not to pay too much attention to all sorts of instructions and restrictions.
The level of scenario cretinism has not decreased, but it has not increased either – everything is approximately in the paradigm of a typical Michael Bay action movie, where the most important thing is to overthrow the helicopter on the main characters in time, show firefights in rapid speed, jaw-dropping punches and pranksters, and also crank out three spectacular chases, moreover the slower what the next supercar is chasing, the better: we remember how in the second “Bad Boys” Mike was chasing a huge tractor transporting cars in a Ferrari Maranello for about twenty minutes.
We are used to Michael Bay, we do not pay attention to such things. And what is not Michael Bay here – well, they don’t give a damn, because El Arbi and Fallu are faithful to his precepts.
What’s nice is that Will Smith and Martin Lawrence have not faded to dangerously gray values yet. They quarrel still vigorously, and their dialogues are quite funny, and sometimes very successful jokes slip through at all. (You should listen to how they sound in translation.)
Will Smith at times allows drama that is not very appropriate in this special-effect skit, but Martin Lawrence appears on the horizon with frank buffoonery, after which everything looks the way it should look: easy and relaxed.
The AMMO detachment at first seemed somewhat far-fetched and even out of place (and again, this is a stamp of stamps), but in the end they sorted it out very well, so the squad really fit into the picture.
As a result, I looked with pleasure. I didn’t expect anything special, and at the same time I got a stupid, but cheerful, dynamic, spectacular and fun action movie, where two war horses are not quite old yet and keep the furrow evenly, the excellent Joe Pantoliano lit up again in the role of Captain Howard (each of his appearances in the frame noticeably drew attention away from Will Smith), Will Smith demonstrated that he was quite able to decently pronounce a couple of phrases in Spanish (Vin Diesel did not succeed), and all sorts of chases, gunfights, antics and jumps looked at a good level, and Luke in finally found his Darth Vader, although without a bucket on his head – this is also a noticeable plus.
All in all, a surprisingly decent triquel. Foolish, but quite watchable, and as “on Friday evening, yes with beer” – and completely in its place, hasta el fuego. In the sense that we will meet in the kitchen when you want to fry something while watching.
PS In Spanish-language YouTube, a video (in Spanish) was actively circulating, how one terribly popular YouTuber elrubiusOMG (37 million subscribers) with his friend came to the garage to show his friend his new Porsche, but it turned out that it was Will Smith’s Porsche, on which he skated in Bad Boys for Life. And there was Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, who bickered in English-Spanish with this YouTuber and his friend. And then they all took pictures together. Of course, this was another promotion, but at the school of Young Catalan everyone sent this video to each other, considering the video a real story, and they were delighted with it. I did not dissuade Young Catalan …
Bad Boys For Life movie meaning
Director: Adil El Arbi, Bilal Falla Cast: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Ann Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Charles Melton, Paola Nunez, Kate del Castillo, Nicky Jam, Joe Pantoliano, Jacob Scipio
Budget: $90 million, Global gross: $425 million
Action, USA-Mexico, 2020, 124 min.