It must feel elating for Adil and Bilall to have a well performing summer hit on their hands after their previous film Batgirl was canceled despite nearing completion for a tax write off. Boy, I’m sure somebody feels stupid. I’m sure one out of touch, art hating, incompetent, sleazy, assheaded, money grubbing, DICKHEAD, is feeling mighty silly right now.

I would not call myself the biggest Bad Boys fan by any means. Hell, even just a fan is a bit of a stretch. Yet I do gotta pay some respect to Ride or Die, because just enough works here to create a fun if not slightly forgettable buddy cop shoot-em-up.

Bad Boys: Ride or Die houses the same endearing banter between the lead stars that won the hearts of many over the years, while continuing to push the envelope with the series’ batshit action sequences. There are some mind boggling technicals at play here, delivering on the kind of high octane insanity that would even make Michael Bay blush. These sequences and the leads are what you’re here for, doing their best to make you forget you’re watching a pretty by the numbers story about police corruption and taking the law into your own hands. The positive elements ultimately made me a bit more forgiving to its faults, making an otherwise mindless movie into something you can actually kinda appreciate.

In Ride or Die, hardened detectives Mike and Marcus work to clear the name of their beloved fallen police chief after shady information leads the department to believe the chief was working with cartels. Their snooping brings them into the crosshairs of the malicious mastermind, who manages to turn every gang and even the police force onto taking them down. The titular bad boys will need to get their hands dirty in order to prove their innocence and save the ones they love. 

For a guy that, according to some people, nearly killed a man on live TV, Will Smith seems to be doing pretty alright. His reteaming with Martin Lawrence has not missed a beat, bringing about consistently fun arguing and comradery between the two. Rather than instilling any kind of deep and possibly melodramatic partner conflict, the film opts to give Lawrence’s Marcus a new lease on life after surviving a heart attack. His newfound belief in fate and his own perceived invincibility is pretty silly, but makes a good juxtaposition to Smith’s serious, more nihilistic views on life, in addition to his accurate portrayal of panic attacks! We’ve got another one, baby! Their dynamic is the bedrock of the whole film, and for what it’s worth, it does a fairly admirable job at keeping you entertained. There’s even some kind of interesting stuff between Mike and his cartel assassin son Armando being forced to work together and even creating somewhat of a bond. Unfortunately, none of the other side characters really make much of a mark, aside from maybe one or two okay lines. The villain, portrayed by Eric Dane, isn’t all that interesting in his motives, nor does he hold any kind of personal connection to our main characters. Gotta say though, there is a pretty memorable cameo by DJ Khaled, who gets crushed between two cars and explodes in under a minute. A fitting death for a man that won’t go down on a woman.

I was expecting the action to be bountiful here, but hot damn I didn’t know they were going to try to blow my mind in the process.  I had heard of Adil and Bilalls’ game beforehand, but seeing it in a theater is truly astounding. The camera is actively moving and soaring through each set piece, never usually settling for a dull shot composition. There’s some truly stellar uses of interior drone shots, seamlessly zipping around an enclosed space while allowing you to witness the carnage from angles you’d never think of. There’s a great shootout in an art gallery that best illustrates this, but not only do they introduce these interesting techniques, they find ways to continue to build upon them later in the film. Some of these transitions are insane, created with true editing wizardry and big brain camera setups. There’s a moment in the climax where the drone camera flies around, zooming towards a gun before seamlessly whipping around and giving you a first person view of the one firing the gun. Then the gun gets tossed and we follow the gun up close as it passes to the next set of hands, whipping around to show their face. It’s incredibly impressive, doing so much more to elevate the action beyond just throwing in more guns and more explosions.

While the action feels fresh and new, the story is definitely something you’ve seen before. Yeah, the plot is mostly just dressing to go around the action, but surely a film with bananas action could have come up with a more bananas narrative. It’s got all of your classic tropes; dirty cops, money laundering, crooked politicians, albino gators. It Looks like our directors are big fans of Annihilation with that last one. The film isn’t always concerned with being compelling, rightfully so, but the moments of characters talking about how they’re gonna hack something or how they can’t trust anybody really suck whatever energy was established beforehand. With this film going more over the top, I would’ve enjoyed a bit more subversions of the genre that played into the silliness. But for the most part, Ride or Die knows what it is and what we’re here for: shootouts, car chases, family BBQs…okay, I think I might have watched a Fast and Furious movie by mistake. The forth Bad Boys outing ups the insanity while sticking to the series’ roots, for better or for worse. Smith and Lawrence continue to shine with their back and forth, while the camerawork and VFX delivers on nutty action sequences that are not only impressive for the series, but the action genre as a whole. It teeters between cartoonishness and groundedness in a way that never betrays either realm, and while the story is about what you’d expect, I definitely did not expect to have as good of a time with this as I did. I do have one pretty glaring complaint here though, and I just can’t forgive this one. Why the hell is the third film in the franchise called Bad Boys For Life? Bad Boys 4 Life! You had it right there! The easiest layup in history and you blew it! 

It’s okay, you can still call the next one Bad Boys 5ever. That’s one more than 4ever.

RATING

MIAMI KNIGHTS

Ah, Miami, a city of sun and sin. Whether you’re relaxing on an overcrowded beach or drinking the worst hangover potions of your life in a club, you’re sure to be in for a trip you’ll never forget. I wanted to combine these two cornerstones of the Florida city that serves as the home of our titular bad boys into one concoction. The Miami Knights is a doozy of a frozen cocktail, packing the sweet and sugary while also managing to be quite refreshing. Think of it as a mixture between a pina colada and a bottom shelf club drink (but in a good way). If you’re looking to be extra stylish, trying building the drink in a layered fashion to reminisce on those beautiful Miami skies. It’s a double trouble kind of drink, but after four films we know how good it feels to have backup.

INGREDIENTS

• 1.5oz rum
• 1.5oz Kinky Blue
• 1oz lime juice
• 3oz cream of coconut
• 2oz pineapple juice
• Garnish: Cherry

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a blender, add Kinky, 1oz of cream of coconut, lime juice and 1.5 cups of ice, blending until smooth.
2. Pour into a glass (preferably a hurricane) and set it in the freezer. Save a little bit to top off later if you’d like.
3. Clean the blender, then add rum, the rest of the cream of coconut, pineapple juice and 1.5 cups of ice, blending until smooth.
4. Pour into glass in freezer, creating a layering effect. Pour remaining blue layer on top if available.
5. Garnish with cherry and cocktail umbrella.