In my search for a decent action film in the current catalog of films on Netflix I am afraid I am largely coming up empty-handed. Bad Boys For Life was only recently added to the Netflix lineup and while I had fond memories of the first Bad Boys film I didn't even make it through the horrible second one. Michael Bay is absent from the team on this one and after watching it I can't say that I really noticed the difference because just like the first 2 films this one relies very heavily on fast-paced and rather unrealistic action for entertainment.
I wish I could say that this film was good but unfortunately it kind of seemed as though they have likely milked this story-line for all it has. By the time the movie was over I was glad it was finished, and I am hopeful that they don't make another one even though this one managed a pretty decent numbers at the global box-office.
It might be hard to imagine, but we are a full 25 years from the release of the original film and you can certainly see that this is the case as far as Martin Lawrence's physique is concerned. I'm not trying to come down on the guy too hard because he has seen a dramatic downturn in popularity in the last decade and probably made enough money in the 90's to last a dozen lifetimes.
Martin is looking like he could probably film Big Mama's House today without a great deal of help from the costume department. Will Smith on the other hand has looked after himself a bit better. Both men are in their 50's so I suppose I shouldn't come down on Lawrence too hard but it seems to me that he would have received a great deal of prior warning that the film would happen and could have done a bit more to slim down a tad.
Enough about fat Martin: The story behind the film really isn't terribly important but it has to do with a revenge plot that is organized by some Mexican crime family that the Bad Boys had taken down in the past. This family decided to come to America and kill everyone that was involved in the original bust and death of the head of the crime family.
The comedy is supplied in the usual Bad Boys fashion but with a twist because detectives Mike Lowry (Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) are now older than a lot of their team and they are picked on for not being up to speed with modern technology. Their brash, do whatever they want to anyone in order to solve the case style of police-work is still in place and I guess that is funny at times although it would probably be considered offensive in today's times. It also is not terribly realistic.
As is typical with a lot of these sorts of films, you have to suspend reality in certain situations such as how dozens of people are firing automatic weapons at Lowry and his team yet none of them ever get hit. This sort of lack of realism is pretty typical in your stock standard Hollywood action film, which is precisely what this is.
The end result, as is true with most action films is extremely predictable, with just one twist as to who the end enemy is being the only real surprise (I'm intentionally not spoiling it.)
I feel as though this film is watchable but not terribly great either. The fact that it was released during a time of year normally reserved for studio duds (January) is a tell-tale sign that the Sony probably felt the same way about it and I would imagine they were quite pleased that they quadrupled the 90 million dollar budget.
Should I watch it
It's mindless entertainment with some pretty crazy and fun action sequences. The story is not very compelling and the comedy aspects of it were just ok. I would say it is an average film and for Will Smith fans this might be a decent way to spend 2 hours.
