Review: Bad Boys For Life (2020)

Bad Boys For Life does something really strange, which is pivot the Bad Boys franchise away from trash and towards something approaching respectability. It gets rid of the homophobia, sexism, and general misanthropy that was present in Michael Bay’s two films, and replaces them with jokes about age gaps and a surprising focus on religious morality. Does this improve the series? Not really, but it does reframe it and focus it more on the charisma of its stars than the virtuoso style of its director. Thus, Bad Boys For Life may not offer the same aesthetic delights as the last two films, but it’s no longer pure trash and satisfies many of the buddy-cop conventions that can make films of this kind so enjoyable.

It’s been 25 years since the release of Bad Boys and 17 years since the release Bad Boys II. In those intervening years—and even between those first two films—Will Smith eclipsed Martin Lawrence as a star, even if the first two films had Lawrence’s Marcus Burnett as the undeniable focal point of the franchise. Here, Will Smith finally gets the lion’s share of the story, which explores aging and contrasts the different responsibilities of Smith’s loose cannon playboy, Mike Lowery, and Lawrence’s comfortable family-focused Marcus. As in almost every buddy-cop film ever made, one character is brash, the other reserved, one commitment-phobic and the other a dedicated family man. They’re an odd couple, meant to balance the two sides of being a cop and the different ways that the pressures of the job can influence a person’s life.

Early in the film, Mike is almost killed by an assassin, and, in the shooting’s aftermath, Marcus retires, putting these two men on sharply diverging paths. Of course, Marcus doesn’t stay completely retired, as a recovering Mike enlists his help in tracking down his would-be-assassin and stopping the plot of a cartel matriarch (Kate del Castillo). There’s an investigation, shoot-outs, and an eventual stand-off on foreign soil, as in the last film, but unlike in either of the previous two Bad Boys films, the plot here actually matters. That’s because the plot is the avenue through which Belgian directors Adil & Bilall delve into the characters and make nearly every scene about aging and life choices.

In addition to the contrast between Marcus and Mike, there’s also a contrast between old policing methods (“bad boys style” as Marcus and Mike would put it) and new police methods, here personified by AMMO, a high-tech police division that favours surveillance and hacking over shootouts. With this contrast, the film is again playing into buddy-cop conventions, with the heroes considered old and out-of-date. Marcus and Mike favour brutality in their dealings with perps and they don’t follow the rules too well. The irony, which the filmmakers subtly highlight, is that the new school of policing also doesn’t follow the rules; they just violate people’s privacy instead of physically assaulting them. I think it’s a wash which is better, although Adil & Bilall and the screenwriters, Chris Bremner, Peter Craig, and Joe Carnahan, are clear to show that when the chips are down, the new guard of cops will happily take up arms to “do the right thing.” Michael Bay may not be directing the franchise anymore, but his libertarian ethos continues to hold sway over the politics of the franchise.

However, Bad Boys For Life does add an element to the franchise that wasn’t present when Michael Bay was directing it, which is an interest in religion and theological questions surrounding morality. Early in the film, after Mike is shot and on death’s door, Marcus rushes to the hospital chapel to desperately pray to God to save Mike’s life. He offers God his badge in exchange, saying that he’ll give up violence if God saves his best friend’s life. Mike lives and so Marcus holds up his end of the bargain, retiring from the police force. Once Mike ropes Marcus back into police work, Marcus remains hesitant to get violent. During one scene, he discusses the need to “turn the other cheek,” even as a violent suspect happily wallops him on both sides of the face. Marcus doesn’t want to break his promise to God and seems genuinely concerned about the moral cost of all the violence they’ve committed in the name of serving the law.

Of course, Marcus doesn’t remain a pacifist through to the end of the film—this is a Bad Boys movie after all—but it’s only a theological argument that gets him to once again take up the gun. Knowing that Marcus takes his newfound religion seriously, Mike convinces Marcus that he can be like David fighting Goliath, taking up the sling (in this case, the gun) to defend the weak against tyrants (in this case, criminals). Such an approach is jokey, but it doesn’t disrespect Marcus’s religious conviction. The film seems earnest in its theological focus, likely owing to the religious journey Martin Lawrence has gone on behind the scenes over the years.

All of this is new for the franchise and a genuinely shocking replacement for gay panic jokes and lusty subplots. The filmmaking style has changed as well. Filmmakers Adil & Bilall may have made music videos before this, much as Michael Bay did before becoming a feature filmmaker, but they don’t share his visual approach of hyperstylization. The camera isn’t moving constantly in Bad Boys For Life, and definitely not in the domestic scenes. The action scenes don’t try to overwhelm with painterly carnage and chaos. Instead, they favour wider-angle action with parallel tracking cameras and lots of explosions within the balanced frames. As well, the filmmakers have little-to-no interest in montage, which is distressing after the almost mosaic effect of the editing in Bad Boys II.

If you’ve thought that the main appeal of the Bad Boys franchise is the men at its centre, then Bad Boys For Life will surely seem like a great improvement on the previous two films, jettisoning much of those films’ problematic politics for more earnest investigations of aging and morality. But the film lacks Bay’s signature touch, and that feeling that you’re in the hands of a formal master, even if that master is reprehensible. Take your pick which Bad Boys you prefer.

6 out of 10

Bad Boys For Life (2020, USA)

Directed by Adil & Bilall; written by Chris Bremner, Peter Craig, and Joe Carnahan, based on a story by Peter Craig and Joe Carnahan, based on characters created by George Gallo; starring Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Charles Melton, Paola Núñez, Kate del Castillo, Nicky Jam, Joe Pantoliano.

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