Bad Boys: Ride or Die – A Nostalgic Dance of Action and Age

Despite the violence in “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” the fourth installment in a nearly 30-year-old franchise, the film feels like a safe area for Will Smith, a calculated retreat following a string of prestige roles and that regrettable Oscar slap. 

The end result has a deliberate, worn feel to it, with a few moments of rapid action but not enough to elevate the film beyond a relic.

On the plus side, Smith and Martin Lawrence, who are now in their 50s, still play their characters convincingly, though the most memorable action scene – which appears to have been plucked from another film – does not feature them.

Everything else about their reunion, including their old-married-couple fighting and the countless allusions to past films, has a stale quality to it, from the sounds of the famous song to the bikini-clad background actors the camera scans by to reflect the Miami setting.

“Bad Boys” begins with Smith’s Mike settling down and Lawrence‘s Marcus having a near-death experience that alters his outlook – a comedy flourish that, like almost everything else, is underdeveloped.

Meanwhile, the latest threat comes in the form of a case their late captain (Joe Pantoliano) had investigated involving drug cartels and a ruthless killer (Eric Dane, here playing the type of stock villain who could as well be called McBaddie), exposing a web of corruption that forces Mike to reconnect with his son Armando (Jacob Scipio) and the buddy cops to flee.

Adil & Bilall, the directing team behind “Bad Boys for Life” and “Batgirl,” continue to deliver action and stunts in their latest film.

That said, their efforts to bring a hyper-cinematic quality to the action yields a mixed bag, including a sequence that resembles a first-person shooter game. Despite all the blood, the comedy quotient in Chris Bremner and Will Beall’s screenplay also qualifies as being largely anemic.

Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, and Paola Nuñez return, while Tiffany Haddish makes a brief appearance. Rhea Seehorn’s involvement in “Better Call Saul” is unclear.

In a classic example of bad-guy language, Dane’s character mutters, after a failed attempt to eliminate Mike and Marcus, “These guys just refuse to die.” The fourth “Bad Boys” may not be enough to kill them, but it does imply they might follow in the footsteps of much of Florida’s populace and consider retiring from the buddy-cop business.

“Bad Boys: Ride or Die” Released June 7 2024 in US theaters. It’s rated R.