Martin Lawrence and Will Smith return for the fourth instalment of the Bad Boys franchise with this sequel to Bad Boys for Life from 2020, which was a small improvement on the bloated Bad Boys 2. Detectives Mike Lowrey (Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) investigate when their late Captain Conrad Howard is posthumously accused of being corrupt.
Back when the original film in the series was released in 1995, cop dramas generally and buddy cop movies in particular when still quite common. These days it is rare to see either and it is a genre I miss. That might explain why I enjoyed this film more than I anticipated. It starts a bit sluggishly as Marcus suffers a medical emergency, but when the plot proper kicks-in, it has a pleasing old school feel.
There are some action sequences that are well staged by directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. Smith and Lawrence sail through in roles that they are very familiar with, with the better performances coming from the supporting cast particularly by Paola Nunez as their boss, Ioan Gruffudd as a sleazy politician and Quinn Hemphill as an imperilled teen.
Coming in at under two hours, it does not outstay its welcome, and this is the best entry in the series since the original.
Rating: 7 out of 10