Bad Boys for Life

The Bad Boys Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) are back! However, the years have not failed to leave a mark on the cops. Marcus is determined to retire and enjoy a well-deserved retirement. Mike, on the other hand, wants to continue making the streets of Miami a little safer for years to come. Before that can happen, however, Mike is gunned down by a stranger. After he has just jumped from the brink of death, he wants revenge. He wants to put the shooter behind bars - or better yet, in a body bag - at any cost. But Marcus refuses to stand by his side. And so the former super-cop must join a small squad of rookie cops to track down the perpetrator - a perpetrator closely tied to Mike's past.

Seventeen years after their last big-screen outing, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence reprise the roles that made them superstars of modern action cinema in 1995's Bad Boys for Life. Michael Bay, director of the first two installments, is only involved here with a small cameo appearance in the film, handing his director's chair over to Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. However, they have largely adopted Bay's visual style, so that even after seventeen years, real Bad Boys feeling comes up very quickly. Also in terms of brute action and humor is here on proven. However, the whole thing is not quite as fast-paced as in the predecessors. Especially in the first half, there are definitely scenes that a little shorter probably would have worked better.

That the two main characters - and especially Martin Lawrence as Marcus - repeatedly flirt with their age, provides some fresh air. One of the most amusing moments in the film shows counter-cuts of Mike heading off to work in his usual cool, while Marcus enjoys retirement in his TV chair. But fear not: Bad Boys for Life is not a retirement comedy. Yes, things are a little quieter and there are fewer frantic cuts and more dialogue scenes. But the two directors also let it really crack again and again and prove that especially Will Smith does not belong on the action siding.

Even in the last third it really goes to the point and the already very solid entertainment value clearly shoots up. And in the end it's clear: The makers have given the fans (almost) exactly the film they had to wait almost two decades for. Not every gag fits, not always the pace is right, but all in all Bad Boys for Life is more than solid action cinema of the old school. At the end you're even happy that there's a little hint in the credits that it might continue if it's successful - but this time maybe with a little less waiting time than last time! Routine and not exactly surprising, but still absolutely worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp