Bad Boys For Life

1995. Bad Boys comes out. It's fun, forgettable fluff full of Michael Bay's usual schtick. 2003. Bad Boys 2 appears after an 8 year hiatus and it's insane grand guignol excesses take everyone by surprise. 2020. Bad Boys For Life finally appears after years in development. Everyone expects a dead duck. Nothing expects it to be the best film of the franchise. It seems all you have to do to make a movie series better is get shot of the usual director. Huh.

Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) and Mike Lowry (Will Smith). Bad Boys For Life. Literally. Partners against crime for 25 years. A bond closer than brotherhood. They ride together, they die together. Well, until Marcus becomes a grandad and he wants out. Then a shocking attack drags him back in and himself and Mike find themselves up against a foe with a vendetta against Miami law enforcement. A foe that's closer to them that they think.

"You fucked a married witch!" The entire cinema burst out laughing at this line earlier. Just one of many crude, profane, hilarious moments scattered throughout Bad Boys For Life that made me happy to be spending time with Marcus and Mike again. Michael Bay may have created the franchise and riddled it with his trademark tics but it was this pairing that made it. Martin Lawrence and Will Smith are still great together, Smith taming down Lawrence's tendencies towards extreme silliness and Lawrence knocking the edges off Smith's latter day seriousness Chalk and cheese, forever bouncing off each other and bickering like a couple who been married way too long. In between the bouts of chaos and bloodshed the film slows down and really gets into the chemistry between them. They ain't boys anymore, they are aging men and their interplay with regards to this gives the film a touch of pathos that no-one expected to see. Also, how rare is it to see two men, best friends, tell each other that they sincerely love each other and not be followed by a joke. Little moments like this feel refreshing and it's easy tell Michael Bay isn't steering the ship anymore.

His horrible, rapid fire editing and hard to follow action style is missing too and co-directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah bring a welcome clarity to proceedings with gunfights and car chases shot in long sweeping takes. Imagine it, a Bad Boys film where you can actually make out what's happening and who's who and where's where. It's not a total change of style of course, the slo-mo is still slightly overused and the trademark low angle hero shots are still there but that all adds to the sense of overblown fun. Speaking of overblown, the climax is totally over the top. All hell breaks loose and i mean that literally. You'll half expect to see Willy Shakespeare's name in the closing credits. In a series of films renowned for it's bonkers action setpieces this feels like a step too far in silliness. The newer faces on show here (Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Paola Núñez) don't make much of an impact either but one gets the sense this introduction is more of an place setter for future installments than anything else.

One of my favourite things about this, and yes, im as surprised as you are that this was so entertaining, were all the returning faces from the past films. Joe Pantoliano, as enjoyable as always as Captain Howard. Theresa Randle, Marcus's wife and perhaps the only person Mike is afraid of (the spa scene is priceless) and even Reggie, the poor bastard who gets the doorway interrogation of a lifetime in Bad Boys 2 pops up in a cameo. Michael Bay even makes an appearance but thankfully it's only a fleeting one. It's nice to see the film not forgetting it's past while heading in a new and (slightly) more considered direction. I genuinely hope we get Bad Boys 4 ever next. And I hope it's without the hair dye and with the glasses.

In cinemas everywhere now. A very entertaining antidote to the seriousness of award season movies.