My Thoughts on "Bad Boys: Ride or Die"
I wasn't sure if I even going to get the chance to see this movie in theaters, or if I was going to have to watch it came on streaming or was released on Blu-Ray 💿. I said numerous times before that I wanted to see this movie in theaters, especially since I didn't get the chance to see other movies in theaters that I had plans on seeing such as Boy Kills World, Monkey Man 🇮🇳🐒, and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. If I couldn't see any of those in theaters, then hopefully I could see Bad Boys: Ride or Die in theaters. And if not that, then maybe, Twisters 🌪️.
But luckily, we have enough extra money 💵 to see Bad Boys: Ride or Die in theaters, and I'm glad because it was a really good movie. I really enjoyed it. I mean, I was expecting to like it, despite some of the mixed reviews and criticisms towards the movie that I had seen online, a lot of which I don't agree with at all. Like, I saw a lot of reviews of this movie complain about the style. The directors, Adil & Bilall, same directors as the previous movie, Bad Boys For Life, injected a lot of style in this movie just like they did Bad Boys For Life, if not more.
They use a lot of bright colors, a lot of neon colors, they do crazy close-up shots and POV shots, like there's a POV shot from a gun, as Mike and Marcus pass a gun along to each other. There's also the scene where we see from the inside of a watch ⌚️, like we're inside the watch ⌚️, and we're seeing through the glass.
Then of course, there's the jellybean and fruit punch scene where Marcus is eating some jellybeans as they're falling out of this glass bowl that got riddled with bullets, and he takes a sip of some fruit punch or soda or whatever kind of beverage that was, while he and Marcus are in the middle of a gunfight. A lot of reviewers, particular Korey and Martin, didn't like that scene, I didn't mind it, I thought it was kind of funny and creative. In fact, I think most of the humor in this movie works pretty well, like the majority of the jokes in the movie did land for me and the audience that me and my grandma were watching this movie with in the theater.
But, the point is that Adil & Bilall's style didn't bother me like it did some critics, and I thought it worked for this movie. Their style definitely helps distinguish their Bad Boys movies from Michael Bay's. I think they knew, when they came onto the franchise, that they were never going to top what Michael Bay did in those first two movies, especially the second one, Bad Boys II, and they knew that trying to replicate Michael Bay's style was a fool's errand. Peter Berg already tried that with Battleship, and it didn't work.
Adil & Bilall had their own style, and they just decided to use that for their Bad Boys movies. But, they still give Michael Bay a cameo, just like in Bad Boys For Life. I was wondering what Michael Bay's cameo in this movie would be, and it didn't disappoint. It was even funnier than his cameo in Bad Boys For Life. They even had him drive his actual car, which was the car that Mike drove at the beginning of the first movie.
Michael Bay just had him use his own car for that scene, and Adil & Bilall kind of sort of called back to that in a sort of way by having Michael Bay drive that same exact car, and having Mike bump into him on the road. This makes me curious what that Batgirl movie that they directed was like. Thanks David Zaslav for shelving that movie indefinitely so that the rest of us will never be able to see it and judge it for ourselves based on its own merits, and then writing off a tax write-off or whatever 🖕.
Another thing that critics about with this movie that I don't agree with after watching is some of the story decisions they decided to take with Mike and Marcus, the direction they took each of those characters in. Mike gets married 💍 at the beginning to this new character named Christine (Melanie Liburd), who was Mike's therapist. He's putting playboy days behind, and is settling down.
Marcus has a heart attack 🫀at the wedding 💒, and slips into a coma, and while he's in a coma, he has all of these visions of Captain Howard, and of the beginning of the universe, of evolution of life on Earth 🌎, he sees his own childhood, he sees his whole life up to that point unfold, and even he sees his past lives. While I do disagree with Korey and Martin's review of the movie for Doubled Toasted, they weren't kidding when they said that Marcus's visions of Captain Howard on that beach with the parrot 🦜 were like the afterlife scenes in Black Panther. And he comes out of this near death experience a changed man ♂︎. He loses his fear of death, becomes more risk tolerant, and becomes more enlightened, feeling as if he has a better understanding of the universe.
While Mike is experiencing a bit of PTSD from his experience over the years as a cop, and from his experience meeting his son and his son being the one who killed Captain Howard. He's having panic attacks while at work, but is in denial of it, and he's still trying to grapple with how to deal with his son, his illegitimate son that he had with Isabel Aretas, the head of a Mexican drug cartel 🇲🇽, and the person who he believes ordered the hit on Captain Howard.
Some people didn't like either of these because they felt that the movie didn't explore them enough, they felt that the movie kind of dropped these plot lines halfway through, and they felt that it made the movie feel overstuffed and unfocused. But, I never felt any of that while I watching. I thought that they paid off these two story arcs pretty well. I mean, Marcus's whole near death experience and him becoming this spiritually enlightened guru who operates purely on faith and has lost any sense of fear is mostly played up for laughs, and is mostly just meant to tell jokes, and have Marcus do and say funny things. But even that had a payoff by the end, as he kind of sort of reverts back to the scared and risk averse guy he was before. Plus, what's wrong with funny jokes? I thought that Marcus was hilarious in this movie. He is the main source of comedy in this movie, and lot of the best jokes come from him.
And as far as Mike's panic attacks go, they do address it throughout the entire movie, and they do pay it off. Towards the end of the movie, Mike misses his first chance to shoot the bad guy, former US Army Ranger 🇺🇸, James McGrath (Eric Dane) because he starts having a panic attack, and then later, when they're cover's been blown, and the bad guys all start shooting at them, Mike still has a panic attack, and is unable to shoot back at them, and it takes Marcus slapping him and giving him a pep talk that he finally snaps out of it, and starts killing the bad guys. So, the movie ends with him overcoming his panic attacks and his PTSD, at least long enough to save the day.
It's just like what Chris Bumbray said in his review of this movie for JoBlo, Adil & Bilall injected a lot of human drama into their Bad Boys movies, exploring the personal lives and inner conflicts of the two protagonists, and basically have them grow up. Which was in complete contrast to the more crazy, bombastic, immature, and comic book-styling of the Michael Bay Bad Boys movies. And I don't think many critics were ready for that, and kind of rejected it, but I didn't. I think it worked wonders for this film, especially when it came to making us sympathize with Mike and Marcus, and making us want to root for them despite their flaws. It endeared them to us even more than we were before.
Before this movie came out, and I found out what the plot was going to be from watching the trailers, I was wondering how they were going to tie it into the previous movies, especially Bad Boys For Life and have it fit and make sense within the continuity. Because they strongly implied that the reason why Captain Howard was assassinated was because he was investigating these dirty cops within the department. Despite the previous movie insinuating that he was killed because was involved in the case that was investigating the Aretas cartel. I wondering how they were going to make that work and having it make sense without contradicting anything.
Well luckily, they did explain it in a way that was satisfactory and didn't break the continuity or break the lore or anything like that. Basically, what this movie establishes is that Captain Howard was never on the Aretas cartel case. Isabel had no real qualms with him, and thus she didn't target him. The only reason why Captain Howard was added to the list was that he was investigating McGrath and the other corrupt cops in the department that were in bed with the cartels with him. McGrath convinced Isabel and the Aretas cartel to add him to list to prevent him from continuing the investigation and exposing their criminal activity to the world. Because Isabel and the Aretas cartel never had any personal beef with Captain Howard. They were just doing a solid for an associate of theirs.
Another prediction about this movie that I got right was that the AMMO crew would be the only cops in the department that Mike and Marcus would be able to trust after they started their investigation to try to clear Captain Howard's name, and were framed by McGrath for crashing that helicopter and killing the pilot and the US Marshals 🇺🇸 on board. They're the only good cops who aren't in league with McGrath and the cartels, or haven't tricked by McGrath's lies into believing that Captain Howard was a criminal, and that Mike and Marcus are criminals.
It is crazy to think how much continuity and callbacks are in this movie. This movie is more closely tied to Bad Boys For Life than Bad Boys (1995) and Bad Boys II were to each other. Each of the Bad Boys movies before this one were all stand alone adventures that didn't really rely on you watching the previous movie to really understand it. Like, you didn't watch Bad Boys (1995) first to understand Bad Boys II, and you didn't need to watch Bad Boys II to understand Bad Boys For Life.
Bad Boys: Ride or Die is the first film in the series that continues the story from the previous movie, and kind of relies on you having watched the previous movie to understand what's going in this movie that you're currently watching. But, it's not such a requirement that someone who didn't watch the previous movie(s) couldn't enjoy this one. I'm pretty sure my grandma didn't watch Bad Boys For Life or any of the Bad Boys movies before this one, and yet she still had a good time with it.
A lot of characters from Bad Boys For Life return in this movie. Like, nearly the whole AMMO crew returns in this movie, Armando comes back, even DJ Khalid's character from the previous movie, Manny comes back for a short appearance. He shows up to try to collect the bounty on Mike, Marcus, and Armando, as revenge for Mike interrogating him, and beating him up with a meat tenderizer in his butcher shop. He dies right away from he gets run by Marcus driving the van, and when the van gets lit on fire 🔥 by some of gangsters or criminals trying to collect the bounty, his body burns to a crisp. So, he dies from getting run over and being lit on fire 🔥.
There other characters from the previous Bad Boys movie that make a return in this movie also. Obviously, you got Marcus's family, we've seen them in all four films now, we've got to see Marcus's kids grow up and mature, and start families of their own, we got to see Reggie grow up, going from a quiet young teen who Mike and Marcus scared half to death to being a US Marine 🇺🇸. Speaking of Reggie, I'll talk a little bit about him more later when I talk about the action.
Even Fletcher, the paroled hacker from both Bad Boys (1995) and Bad Boys II finally makes his grand return after 21 years. Now he owns a nightclub/art gallery in Miami, and helped Captain Howard hide and protect the evidence he collected about McGrath and the corrupt cops in the Miami PD. It's too bad he dies, but it was nice to see him again since he was one of the most memorable characters from the first two movies, and he was absent in Bad Boys For Life, but was brought back for one last time in Bad Boys: Ride or Die. They even call back to one of the Haitian gangsters 🇭🇹 in Bad Boys II. The evidence they collected from the case involving Johnny Tapia, the ecstasy, and the Haitian gangs 🇭🇹 ends up being the thing the cracks the case about McGrath and the corrupt cops in the Miami PD.
Now, of course Bad Boys is an action comedy series, so while the comedy in this movie is great, it isn't the only thing that has to land in this movie, so what about the action? The action is amazing. It's well shot, well choreographed, and really creative, and a lot of it has to do with Adil & Bilall's excellent direction, the cinematography done by Robrecht Heyvaert, the editing done by Asaf Eisenberg and Dan Lebental, as well as the stunt team.
All of the shootout scenes in this movie are excellent, not a single one disappoints. Although I really did enjoy Bad Boys For Life a lot, I always felt that the action in that movie was a bit underwhelming and left a lot to be desired. And while their style of action is obviously nothing like Michael Bay's, they still significantly improved upon it in this movie to where I think the action in this movie does reach the level of the Michael Bay movies.
The big stand out scene for me, and probably a lot of other people, is the home invasion scene where Marcus's house gets raided by the bad guys as they try to take a hostage and Reggie defends the house and singlehandedly kills all of the bad guys. This scene was utterly badass. It pretty overshadowed every other action scene in the movie, and I think even the filmmakers knew it because even the characters in the movie were like, "Damn!" "Holy shit! Reggie can kick ass."
Of course Reggie kicked ass, he's a Marine, he was trained to do this, and we finally got to see him put his training to good use in one of these movies. This scene is even more rewarding if you've seen "Bad Boys II" and followed Reggie's progression in these movies. I mean, when we all first saw Reggie show up in Bad Boys II, did anyone think that years later, would see him go all John Wick on a group of bad guys? I doubt anyone was. But, I'm glad that they gave him a moment like this in this movie.
They gave him the last moment in the movie too because it's Mike and Marcus trying to do a barbecue outside in a park using a public grill, and Reggie asks if he can grill some chicken. At first they say "no," because they want to use the grill, but then they think about it for a little bit, and then they decide to let him use the grill because he saved Marcus's family, and they both know that he can kill them if he wanted to. Then after Mike and Marcus back away, and let Reggie have the grill to him, Reggie smiles at the camera and the credits start rolling. A brilliant ending if you ask me.
I also liked the scenes involving the albino alligator 🐊, Duke. You see, the bad guys made their base of operations out of an abandoned alligator park 🐊, and one of the star attractions of the park, a 14 or 15 foot albino alligator 🐊 named Duke still resides within the confines of this abandoned park. So, during the final shootout, Mike and Marcus fall through the floor of the park and end up in the underwater enclosure 💦 where Duke resides. Duke swims up to them, and while Mike is scared, and tries to tell Marcus to get away, Marcus has no fear.
At first, he tries to tame Duke, and get it leave him and Mike alone, but Duke wasn't having it, and bites Marcus's arm, leaving him severely injured and pretty much out of the fight. Of course, since Duke is albino, they do a joke where Marcus calls him racist, which was moderately funny. That was one of the jokes that didn't land as well as some of the other ones. I think the racism jokes in the scene with the encounter with the rednecks were a lot funnier than the one in this scene with the alligator 🐊.
But it did make some people laugh. I know because I was in the theater, and I heard people laughing when Marcus said the alligator 🐊 was racist for biting his arm. It's a joke that writes itself. I'm surprised that there hasn't been a shark movie 🦈 with a great white shark 🦈 where a black person got bit by the shark 🦈, and then black person said the shark 🦈 was racist. I mean, get it? Because it's a great white shark.
Then later, Rita kicks Adam Lockwood down into the water 💦, and he gets his comeuppance by getting eaten by Duke. I thought that these scenes involving Duke and the other alligators 🐊 were pretty cool. I mean, this whole series takes place in Florida, and it took them this long to feature some Florida gators 🐊. Better late than never.
One last thing I would like to touch on about this movie before I make my recommendation, and wrap it up is the music. The music is pretty good. They use the classic Bad Boys theme a lot. Not the actual song by Inner Circle that's this franchise's namesake (although that is in here), but the theme song that was composed by Mark Mancina in the first movie. They different variations of it throughout the movie, whether it's a "getting you bumped up" scene or an action scene or even like "we're cool" kind of scene like when Mike and Marcus are walking into a place like a couple of cool guys.
But going back to the "Bad Boys" song by Inner Circle, they actually do a redneck rendition of that song during the scene where Mike and Marcus encounter those rednecks in the forest and accidentally steal their clothes. That actually didn't sound too bad, I actually kinda liked it. The reason why they did that besides the fact there were rednecks present is that the rednecks see that Mike is wearing one of their Reba shirts, and they force him and Marcus to sing one of her songs for them at gunpoint. But of course, they don't listen to Reba, so they just start singing "Bad Boys," and then the rednecks start shooting at them, and they run away that's when the redneck version of "Bad Boys" starts playing.
Then of course, you have the original songs that were provided for the movie's soundtrack rap and hip-pop artists like "Tonight [feat. Becky G]" by the Black Eye Peas & El Alfa, and "Light Em Up" by Will Smith and Sean Paul, which makes the first thing that Will Smith has done a song for the soundtrack for one of his movies in 22 years, since Men in Black II. When was the last time Will Smith did a song for one of his movies? It's been a long time. I really like this song, Will Smith knocked it out of the park. I just wish that his segment was longer, like the way the song was structured, Will Smith sang the first half of the song, and then Sean Paul sang the second half. I wish they brought him back around to sing another part of the song, but for the part they did have him on, he knocked it out of the park.
"Tonight" is also a really great song too. I do like the Black Eyed Peas. I mean, I'm not like a huge fan of them or anything, but I do like a couple of their songs, and this one is another one of their bangers. They used this song in the trailers, and it worked great for the trailers, it's a song that's good at getting you hyped, they use it in the nightclub scene where Mike, Marcus, and Armando go to meet one of Mike's ex-girlfriends or something who's a crime boss. She owns this club, and has all of these guns, drugs, and illicit supplies. They play the song in that scene. And then of course, they play the song in the end credits, and it's a great song to cap the movie off with.
Which is a great segue for me to finally wrap this review up with a recommendation. I do highly recommend this movie, even if you're not a huge die hard Bad Boys movie. It's fun buddy cop movie that will keep you entertained from start to finished. I would still say that Bad Boys II is still my favorite, like everything in that movie was as close to being perfect as you could possibly get. The action was fantastic, the comedy was amazing, it has the best story, and it probably has the best villain of the entire series, Johnny Tapia, with Isabel coming in at a second. But, this movie does come pretty close to being my second favorite of the entire series, it is that good. So, if I were to rank them from favorite to least favorite, it would be Bad Boys II, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Bad Boys (1995), and Bad Boys For Life.
If you can see it in the theaters, see it, because it's a great movie to watch in theaters, a truly wonderful experience. But I'm sure if you'll still have a good time even if you wait for streaming, or Blu-Ray 💿, or 4K 💿. I don't really know what the future holds for the Bad Boys franchise, if they're going to make a sequel or not. This movie is a box office success, it made $378 million 💵 worldwide on a budget of exactly $100 million 💵, so it will get a sequel. As long as a movie makes money 💵 or if the studio still believes there's still money 💵 to be made, they will make a sequel. Even to something like Gladiator.
Yes, I did see the trailer to Gladiator II, and I think it looks fine. I probably won't watch it because I didn't even see the first Gladiator, and I don't really like Ridley Scott as a director, not lately anyway. His recent work has been hit or miss, with his most recent movie before Gladiator II was Napoleon, and boy was that a misfire if I've seen one, not that I even saw Napoleon. Talk about completely missing the mark, and alienating the one and only demographic would even be interested in watching a movie about Napoleon Bonaparte, history nerds. Also, the idea of making a sequel to Gladiator is just kind of baffling. Why even make a sequel to Gladiator at all?
I kind of wish they went with the original idea for the Gladiator sequel which involved Maximus time traveling to the modern day and to the future possibly. I'm not kidding, that was an actual pitch for a Gladiator sequel. At least that would've made for a bonkers movie that would been an interesting curiosity to witness. This Gladiator II just looks like a run-of-the-mill legacy sequel, only it doesn't have Maximus in it at all. It's about a former heir to the Roman Empire who's forced to become a gladiator after he's captured by the Roman Army, and is inspired by Maximus's story to oppose the current emperors.
I am glad that no body so far has made any racist comments about Denzel Washington being in this movie as a Roman general or anything like that. So far, no anti-SJW chuds that I know have called this movie "woke" for daring to have a black actor in a movie set in Ancient Rome. Most of the comments regarding Denzel's presence in the movie have been pointing out the absurdity of using a rap song in the trailer when there's a black actor. Like, a lot of the comments on the trailer talked about how funny and kind of racist it was that the moment a black man ♂︎ shows up, they start playing a rap song.
Anyway, back to Bad Boys. I heard a lot of reviewers say that a sequel to this movie could potentially focus on the younger AMMO crew members like Dorn (Alexander Ludwig) and Kelly (Vanessa Hudgens), and possibly Armando (Jacob Scipio) and even maybe Reggie (Dennis McDonald) in light of that really badass scene with him fighting off the bad guys in the Burnett residence. I'm not sure if that would work. I mean, the reason why people like these Bad Boys is the on-screen chemistry between Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in the roles as Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett. People go to see these movies for them. Would people even consider watching a Bad Boys movie without Will Smith and Martin Lawrence?
I mean, they're already kind of done that, albeit on TV (or streaming rather). This is something I didn't know about until recently, but apparently, they made Bad Boys TV show, not about Mike or Marcus, but about Marcus's sister, Syd. You know, the character that was introduced in Bad Boys II and was played by Gabrielle Union. Well, they gave her own show called LA's Finest, and Gabrielle Union reprised the role as Syd Burnett, with Jessica Alba being her co-star as Syd's new partner, Nancy McKenna. The show didn't last for very long. It only had two seasons and 26, and then was quickly cancelled in 2020. Probably because no one was really watching it, or because it was bad and no body liked it. So, they've tried doing a Bad Boys project without Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, and it didn't work out. What makes them think it'll work out a second time, but on the big screen? The risks of failure are even higher on that one.
Another thing I didn't know I didn't know until recently was that Bad Boys For Life is still the highest grossing movie in the series. It made $426.5 million 💵 against a budget of $90 million 💵, making it the fourth highest grossing movie of 2020, in a year with very few big movies since you know? The pandemic 😷🦠. It's really the only reason why it even got a sequel, and it's the same reason why this movie will probably get a sequel too.
BTW, do you want the highest grossing movie of 2020 was? Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train. Yes, an anime movie that's apart of a really popular and trendy anime series at the time was the highest grossing movie of 2020. It made $507.1 million 💵 worldwide against a $15.7 million budget 💵, which is a good box office take for any movie at any time, pandemic 😷🦠 or not. If that doesn't say anything about the state of movies in 2020, I don't know what will. We are definitely better off now than we were 4 years ago. If you understood that reference, extra points for you 👍.
Also, what's with all these retro VHS trailers/promos 📼? They did one for Bad Boys: Ride or Die, and then they did one for the new Beverly Hills Cop movie, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F? Why is this becoming so trendy all of a sudden? Are they trying to evoke nostalgia for the VHS era 📼 in the 80s and 90s? They kind of overdo the effect to where it doesn't really look like a real trailer or promo from the 80s or the 90s. It'd be like if they did a retro DVD trailer/promo 📀 for a movie that was sequel to a movie from the 2000s like Evolution or Paycheck or John Tucker Must Die just to milk people's nostalgia for the 2000s, and they did it in 480p since that the top picture quality available on a standard DVD 📀.
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