Film Review: ‘Bad Boys for Life’ Are Just Too Old For This

CHICAGO – “Bad Boys For Life” shows that maybe Will Smith isn’t too old for this kind of sh*t, but Martin Lawrence certainly is. This third installment comes 17 years after “Bad Boys II,” and 25 years after the original film unleashed director Michael Bay on an unsuspecting public. It aims to be just as bombastic as its predecessors, but without Michael Bay behind the lens and a lot more jokes about middle age, creaking bones and dying beards.

Rating: 2.0/5.0

The opening car chase sets the tone to come, with Bad Boy cops Mike (Smith) and Marcus (Lawrence) racing through the streets of Miami, endangering countless lives, and breaking dozens if not hundreds of laws … but not in the pursuit of drug dealers or other nefarious underworld types … they are instead heading to the hospital to witness the birth of Marcus’s first grandbaby, while the new grandpappy manages to dent up the Porsche while opening the door into a fire hydrant.

The story involves an old flame of Mike’s, a witchy woman Mexican drug kingpin (Kate del Castillo) with a vendetta against the cop for breaking up her family and sending her to prison during his first case after the police academy. So she dispatches her son (Jacob Scipio) to hunt down everyone involved in the case. After Mike is mortally wounded in an assassination attempt, he goes to Marcus with a plea for vengeance. “He put holes in me!” Mike says. “And you’re filling em with hate” Marcus responds. And surprisingly this ISN’T played for laughs.

“Bad Boys for Life” opens everywhere on January 17th. Featuring Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens, Kate Del Castillo, Jacob Scipio and Joe Pantoliano. Screenplay by Chris Bremner, Peter Craig and Joe Carnahan. Directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. Rated “R”