Chemistry of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence still intact in cartoonishly over-the-top mess.
Arriving in theaters nearly three decades after Will Smith and Martin Lawrence proved to be a hilariously likable duo in the original “Bad Boys” and four years after the entertaining, midlife-crisis threequel, the bombastic and cartoonishly over-the-top “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” is one loud misfire.
It’s like we’re watching the Big Book of Action Movie Clichés come to life, with so many tropes and overly familiar characters and plot developments crammed into the mix that we half-expect Smith and Lawrence to stop in the middle of the shootout sequence in the obligatory Abandoned Theme Park to look straight into the camera and wink at us.
No such luck. Smith and Lawrence are seasoned pros who still have an easy, best-friend chemistry, and the directors Adil & Bilal deliver sparkling visuals of the sparkling Miami locale, but the screenplay for “Ride or Die” is a howler that awkwardly careens from sitcom-level banter to extended, blood-spattered mayhem to cheap melodrama.
“Bad Boys: Ride or Die” kicks off with Smith’s Mike Lowrey and Lawrence’s Marcus Burnett roaring through the streets of Miami (with an amusing detour at a convenience store) to Mike’s wedding to Melanie Liburd’s Christine, a physical therapist who gives a speech about how she fell for Mike even before she knew he was loaded. (Yes, Mike’s a detective lieutenant, but he comes from a wealthy family.
