By: The Don

WARNING SPOILERS

“Kickass Finale That Misses It’s Mark”

One of the best dynamic duos returns to the big screen after seventeen years! Yup, seventeen years we have been waiting for the third installment, and that it was a thrilling, action packed film, but it misses the mark with a predictable story.

The film is about Mike Lowry (Will Smith) being hunted down by the vengeful wife and son of a Mexican Drug Lord that is hunting down all those who were responsible for his trial and imprisonment. Mike and Marcus (Martin Lawrence) join the Miami PD’s elite tactical team AMMO after Mike gets shot and forces Marcus out of retirement to take down the ones hunting down the dynamic duo. The story gets cheesy, but it makes up with the action-packed scenes that we are used to seeing in the Bad Boys franchise.

We see a few familiar faces from the past Bad Boys films that brings back that Bad Boys feel such as: Joe Pantoliano as the furious yet comedic as always Captain Howard to the past director Michael Bay making a quick cameo to meeting new faces such as the drop dead gorgeous Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, and Paola Nunez to Kate Del Castillo as the stunning yet deadly villian to even DJ Khalid making a short appearance. The cast was phenomenal and it was great to see a much more larger cast that connected on screen.

The cinematography was beautiful. From seeing the breathtaking ocean and tall skyscrapers of downtown Miami to the dangerous yet attractive streets of Mexico City, directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah did a great job with the camera angles and direction to capture the best scenes.

The jokes were both hit and miss. The scene where Mike and Marcus were fighting a gigantic guy high on narcotics and Marcus trying to use his calming and OOSAH techniques to “de-escalate the situation” was my favorite. Another was the typical Marcus not being careful with Mike’s brand new Porsche sports car door on a fire hydrant. A lot of the jokes felt stale and just did not fit the narrative of the story, which kind of threw us off during the film.

Overall, it was a great action-packed and shoot-em-up film. The story was disappointing but there is a saying that, action movies are not to be watched for a story, but for fun, entertainment, and watching shit blow up and this film has a lot of it, but not like the second one. If I had to put in order my favorite Bad Boys films, I would say Bad Boys 2 (2003), Bad Boys For Life (2020) and Bad Boys (1995). I say give it a chance and but expect stale jokes and an inauthentic plot.

VERDICT

7.0 out of 10