I wasn’t meant to see this film; there was a mishap with the other film that I was going to review and so the company said go see whatever you want, it’s on us. Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth I scanned the board to see what films were on and Bad Boys For Life (dir Bilall Fallah, Adil El Arbi) was just about to start so I grabbed my tickets and headed on in.
Bad Boys For Life is actually Bad Boys 3 and the For Life moniker felt like it should have been used for the potential fourth film, but maybe they didn’t think the stars, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence would be able to do this sort of film in their 60’s.
The original Bad Boys was amazing, at that time in my life the wisecracking headstrong Mike Lowery (Smith) was the coolest thing to ever be put on screen. Smith even admits that Bad Boys director Michael Bay’s shot of him running with his shirt open turned him into a movie star considering that Lawrence had top billing on the movie showed that we were many years away from the Willennium.
Bad Boys 2 was much the same, however now, Smith and Lawrence are in their 30’s so the immature bone-headed decisions didn’t make as much sense. You can understand a person in their early 20’s making some poor decisions based on good intentions but you would think they would learn and grow from those experiences and make different choices in their 30’s.
Now here we are and Lowery is in his 50’s and still doing the same thing. He is still in the same job, one that he appears to be very very good at but not showing much growth as a police officer or a man. Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) has grown up, he is a grandfather now and just wants to retire; Lowery doesn’t want to give up the only life he knows.
The film follows a similar trend to the two previous films. Someone is doing something bad but following police procedure won’t get the job done so Lowery takes matters into his own hands and takes a much looser definition of the law to find out information.
Michael Bay directed both Bad Boys and Bady Boys 2 and his kinetic and frantic cinematic style is still the filmic language deployed in this film. The action scenes are slick and flashy, explosion, bullets and blood are the order of the day. It’s a very well-shot film however I had a revelation after one action scene that has made me reconsider all of the films.
I think Mike Lowery is a sociopath. After one shoot out he just casual admits to killing people, he shows no remorse, no sadness, no empathy. Looking at his other relationships with this disregard stains all of them. His calls Burnett a quiter for retiring and is angry at his decision. The love interest in the film is by all accounts amazing and Lowery doesn’t seem to care. There is definitely innocent bystanders killed by some of his actions and they aren’t given a moments notice.
Lowery was portrayed as his paragon of masculinity, powerful, funny, smart, could beat up anyone in a fight, slept with lots of women but Burnett ultimately is the better man, he puts others in front of his needs, he protects his family, he cares, he works on improving himself. These lessons ultimately help Lowery overcome the opponent but I wonder if that message will be lost in all the blood, bullets, and mayhem.
Jan 21, 2020
Luke McMeeken-Ruscoe