Bad Boys for Life

I probably saw Bad Boys on HBO back in the '90s, and it was fine, enjoyable enough. I'm pretty sure Alex and I watched Bad Boys 2 on DVD sometime not long after it came out (possibly the same night we watched SWAT and House of 1000 Corpses, and holy shit, that night was dire as viewing experiences go), and even in my younger days, I knew it was a stupid piece of crap. Just dumb and lazy as shit. Michael Bay, everyone! So I was not placing much hope in the third movie, that came out last year or the year before.

But, it's actually pretty funny. I laughed a lot. At things I was supposed to be laughing at, no less! As Alex told me beforehand, it gets a lot of mileage out of the fact these two are old now (relatively speaking). It's been 17 years since the last movie. Martin Lawrence is decidedly not in shape. It actually reminds me of Lethal Weapon 4 a bit, right down to Will Smith getting his ass whooped by a younger asskicker. Except instead of Jet Li beating Mel Gibson's ass (something I think we can all get behind), Mike is getting beat by some guy who clearly rips his jeans to make them look worn, and wears stupid little leather boots. I'm sorry, the guy's motorcycle outfit was just goofy. Anyway, this movie is much better than that movie. Low bar, I know.

The whole part where they're supposed to be hurrying to meet an old informant who fears for his life cracked me up. Mike being embarrassed to be seen in a Nissan Quest, them ruining a spa day, the whole bit with the eventual damage to the car. Will Smith can deliver a good outraged line, even if the fact that his gradual fall at the hands of Time is an unpleasant reminder of my own encroaching mortality.

The humor helps a lot, because while the action sequences have their fair share of ridiculous nonsense, they aren't that great. Partially because the two leads can't do the sort of stuff they used to (or their characters can't, anyway). And I didn't really care that much about the team of young hotshots that act as backup and keep popping up. The climactic final fight scene in the decaying hotel, during a rainstorm, except the hotel ends up on fire, for some reason made me think of the end of a Resident Evil game. Not sure why, neither of the RE games I played ended with fights in circumstances like that, but there was something about how it looked.

Not sure about the part where Marcus swears to God that if Mike pulls through, Marcus will renounce violence, only to later basically decide, "Nah, God wants me to shoot these guys." Granting that Mike's argument that God sent Marcus that .50 caliber machine gun in his time of need was pretty funny.

Anyway, by leaning into comedy, rather than absurd action set pieces, it made the stupidity more tolerable, and it was a surprisingly enjoyable viewing experience.