MIAMI.- It is no secret to anyone that making a film It is half art and half business, although sometimes the balance tips more on one side. Regardless of the production scheme, making a feature film is expensive due to the amount of talent involved, equipment, locations, meals, time dedicated exclusively to the project, media tours, permits, etc. Like any other industry, the entertainment industry will always want the greatest amount of benefits for the money invested, even though this is often detrimental to the artistic value of the final product. That is why when a story is profitable and has the potential to have multiple sequels, studios want to squeeze it out until the last installment (many times, moving away from that essence that made it unique in the first place). This is precisely the case of Bad Boys: Ride or Diethe new chapter of this franchise so loved and that poses an irreconcilable dissonance between what it tells and how it tells us.
The story begins with two events that completely change the lives of our protagonists: Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) gets married and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) suffers a massive heart attack. This causes both of their attitudes towards work to change radically, transforming Mike into a more cautious guy and Marcus into a more risky one (reversing the formula that used to sustain the first deliveries). Things get complicated when the memory of Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano), his late boss, is vilified after a suspicious death that could link him to a powerful drug cartel. This causes Mike and Marcus to embark on a mission that will end up leading them to uncover a huge case of police corruption that could cost them their careers and their lives.
Written by Chris Bremmer (Bad Boys for Life, The Man from Toronto) y Will Beal (Gangster Squad, Aquaman), Bad Boys: Ride or Die, follows in the footsteps of its prequel, emphasizing the paradigm changes that the protagonists suffer thanks to their age. The big difference is that now the duo begins to live the dynamic of an odd couple (typical of Buddy Cop Movies) going to two extremes: Mike begins to suffer panic attacks when he is aware of his vulnerability (thanks to the death of his boss) and Marcus acts as if he were a carefree teenager who believes himself to be immortal (due to a psychedelic vision he had during the heart attack that he suffered). This allows this installment to follow in the footsteps of humor and self-parody of Bad Boys for Life, but completely differentiating itself from her in terms of tone. Unfortunately, the dynamics between these polarities end up transforming into a series of jokes and misunderstandings that do little to allow us to delve deeper into the protagonists (where the heart of the franchise has always been). In parallel, the development of the main conflict of the script seems like a kind of homage to the action movies of the 90s (with all the in the tropics that we have seen a thousand times: police corruption, blaming heroes for crimes they did not commit, drug cartels, one-dimensional villains, expository dialogues, etc.) where the important thing is not Mike and Marcus but the convoluted situations in which they end up and that They serve as an excuse to create moments where the only common thread is action. However, as is already your trademark, Bad Boys: Ride or Die It also has a lot of comedy, but this does not always emerge organically in the concatenation of scenes, but through small sketches isolates that serve to include several cameos of celebrities or product placement which, in most cases, end up taking us out of the film and contribute little or nothing to the main plot.
Main attraction of the film
Without a doubt, the main and indisputable attraction of Bad Boys: Ride or Die is the direction of Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (Bad Boys for Life, Ms. Marvel, Rebel), who raise the bar on their previous work by creating all kinds of mind-blowing sequences. From hand-to-hand fights with firearms to John Wickconflicts whose resolution surpasses the laws of physics throughout Fast & Furious, games with the camera perspective (with the snorricam and emulating the first person in the best style FPS), drones who go through shootouts with complex choreographies, time lapses from Miami, to dreamlike moments that border on psychedelia: this feature film has it all. Its Achilles heel is in the moments of the plot where the action is null (such as conversations or other innocuous interactions) in which, in order not to slow down the pace, its directors abuse visual overstimulation with violent changes between shot values, angulations and camera movements that end up giving Bad Boys: Ride or Die he feeling by one VIDEO of Reggaeton directed by a Gen Z. Risky choice that revitalizes the franchise with a more modern visual language, but that sometimes ends up being to the detriment of the story (because the film feels as if it were a series of vignettes concatenated with B-Roll of the city more than a plot that develops naturally, taking us from point A to point B without much fuss).
This urban music video aesthetic is enhanced by the cinematography of Robrecht Heyvaert (Bad Boys for Life, Ms. Marvel, Rebel) which, in many scenes, uses lights mixing multiple colors creating a look almost perennial nightclub (and in locations as diverse as a hospital, a mini market or an abandoned park). Of course, where Heyvaert shines like the directors is in the action sequences where the aesthetics of each frame are never lost despite the enormous amount of things that happen in it and with the camera moving non-stop. Adding to this dynamism is the editing by Asaf Eisenberg (with extensive experience editing live television programs and series) and Dan Lebental (Bad Boys for Life, Spider-Man: Far from Home, Ant-Man, Thor: The Dark World) that play with frame rates (accelerating or dilating some moments to create tension or comedy) and maintain an electric editing rhythm, jumping from one shot to another all the time. The sum of all these parts makes Bad Boys: Ride or Die have a certain hypnotic speed from which it is difficult to take your eyes off (like when we do scrolling in social networks).
The film’s performances are another controversial point. On the one hand, Will Smith is much lower profile and more serious than in other installments, which means that he does not shine as much as before. At the other extreme, Martin Lawrence is excessively histrionic, which sometimes works very well (the best jokes in the film are courtesy of him), but at other times borders on the ridiculous (the worst moments in the story are also due to him). . At the same time, the duo that forms the protagonists continues to be as fresh as the first day, although the development of the script is to the detriment of going deeper into them. Eric Dane fully fulfills his role as a generic and one-dimensional villain, the bad thing is that his presence is diluted in the plot: his presentation is epic and every interaction he has with the protagonists is full of conflicts, but his arc closes in one. way that is not exactly the most original. As in the last installment, Alexander Ludwig and Vanessa Hudgens are funny, Jacob Scipio is still a bad-ass who steals all the action sequences in which she stars and Paola Nez begins embodying a somewhat cliché character in her dynamics with her boss Ioan Gruffudd, but ends up gaining strength towards the end of the story. The one that shines in each of her moments and that is one of the pleasant surprises of Bad Boys: Ride or Die It’s Rhea Seehorn. Although she embodies the typical character who embarks on a relentless search and hides her emotionality behind cold actions, she is the only one who is in the right tone throughout the film (and whose motivations and actions are congruent with everything that happens).
Bad Boys: Ride or Die, is a living example of how a weak script in the hands of skilled directors can be fun, but never memorable. Although it has interesting action sequences (something difficult to say in a post-world)John Wick) and a rhythm much closer to modernity than to the classics Buddy Cop Movies, the story develops like the Sunday cinema that we all grew up with on television (without much depth or twists to add some spice to the script). Despite this, the film flows without any major setbacks and fulfills its mission of inviting us to the cinema to disconnect from everything, have a good time and let ourselves be carried away by the action without putting too much thought into the rest. If the prequel explored the decline of two tough guys who face the ailments of age, this installment focuses on the need to enjoy life with the spontaneity of a child and without letting fear and past mistakes paralyze us. . Both lessons that, although they are deeply buried in the subtext and do not develop as we would like on screen, at least serve as an excuse to reflect on some truths inherent to human nature (something we will always be grateful for).
The best: the versatility of its directors to play with multiple resources in their staging and build fast-paced action sequences. The violent rhythm that the film has from beginning to end. The chemistry of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. Rhea Seehorn’s appearances.
The bad: The multiple cameos he has are not articulated within the story. The script is the weakest of the entire franchise. The little subtlety of product placement. Martin Lawrence is sometimes too histrionic and Will Smith too low profile.
