[REVIEW] ‘Bad Boys For Life’ Was...Kinda Bad

You go for an entertaining time watching things blow up, people getting killed and the two main characters, played by Martin Lawrence and Will Smith, ribbing each other.

The movie had all that and still somehow manages to disappoint.

By two-third of the movie, we started looking at our watches willing the movie to end already.

The movie starts with the much older Mike Lowrey (Smith) and Marcus Bennett (Lawrence) racing across Miami roads in a sports car; not chasing after a criminal, but attempting to reach the hospital in time to see Burnett's first grandchild. There were some funny moments, with Burnett showing his fear for the way Lowrey drives i.e like a maniac, and the latter teasing him about it.

Made 25 years after the first Bad Boys movie and 17 years after the next one, both the characters were shown to feel their age.

The only difference is Lowrey refuses to let that stop him, while Burnett longs to retire and stop living a life steeped in violence.

You will see plenty of comments about their age including their dinosaur approach to solving a crime to the point that it gets a little philosophical, but none of that really matters in the grand scheme of things.

It becomes a point of contention between the partners, which lasts practically the whole movie with a brief rift between the two.

Meanwhile, there's a pretty gruesome murder/break-out scene in a Mexican prison where cartel leader Isabel, played by telenovela star Kate Del Castillo. There was a slight hint of supernatural powers to her in that scene which was not seen much else for the rest of the movie, which was a bit confusing but that's just one of the many holes in the plot.

She uses her killing-machine son Armando played by Jacob Scipio (who brutally kills many including some bystanders when he blows things up but won't intentionally kill a civilian) to kill all involved in her incarceration and her husand/partner's death. Isabel seems especially keen on the death of Lowrey (you'll find out the reason towards the end of the movie). But he escapes the first attempt at his life.

This is where AMMO, an elite team of high-tech officers, comes in. Led by Lowrey's maybe, maybe not, love interest Rita (Paola Nuñez), the team investigates the spate of murders only for the main character to butt in and cause havoc.

Other members of the team include characters (whose names we can't even remember since they were too much in the background) played by Vanessa Hudgens, "Vikings'" Alexander Ludwig and "The Son is Also a Star's" Charles Melton. Will they figure out why the murders are happening, will the two main characters reconcile, what are the villains' stories? You'll have to watch the movie to find out.

Bad Boys For Life, directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (although Michael Bay does make a cameo) was released in Malaysia on 23 January 2020.