‘Bad Boys for Life’ brings the fun and the guns

Posted on February 14, 2020

By MARK VIOLA

So, let me get this out of the way right here in the beginning. I have never seen “Bad Boys” or “Bad Boys II” starring Martin Lawrence and Will Smith as two Miami Police detectives. In my defense, I was only 14 when the first movie came out, and I couldn’t buy a ticket to an R-rated movie. To put that in perspective, the first movie hit theaters so long ago, Lawrence got top billing.

By the time the sequel came out in 2003, I was had just graduated college and didn’t get around to seeing it.

Pretty much everybody had given up hope that a third movie was ever going to be made, including director Michael Bay. But now, nearly 17 years after the second film, we finally have “Bad Boys for Life,” directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (“Gangsta”).

Considering it is now the highest grossing installment in the franchise, I figured I would give “Bad Boys for Life” a try, completing my catch-up from my bout with the flu. While I obviously can’t compare the new film to its predecessors, I can say that the movie is a very fun action comedy, with Smith and Lawrence playing older, although not necessarily wiser, cops now with decades of experience.

Subscribe to our e-Edition and read the rest of the story. Already a subscriber? Click here to sign in.