Bad Boys: Ride or Die - Still Fun and Entertaining Buddy Cop Action Comedy

As usual when a new Blockbuster movie was released, my wife and I were excited to see it. But in the past months, we were no longer that enthusiastic to immediately go to the cinema on the day of its release (except maybe on specific case). So we only went for another movie marathon yesterday and this was the first in our schedule. All right, let's dive into it now.

Brief Story Line

After the events of Bad Boys for Life, Detective Mike Lowrey (Will Smith - Suicide Squad, Gemini Man etc) and his partner Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence - Open Season, Blue Streak etc) were shocked to find out that the late captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano - Memento, The Matrix etc) was accused of corruption. With the help from their only trusted friends in Miami PD, Dorn (Alexander Ludwig - Night Teeth, Heels TV series etc) and Kelly (Vanessa Hudgens - Tick, Tick, ...Boom!, The Princess Switch etc), they tried to prove Howard's innocence.

Despite their reluctance, Captain Rita (Paola Núñez - Resident Evil TV series etc) and candidate for Mayor Adam Lockwood (Ioan Gruffudd - Fantastic Four, Harrow TV series etc) gave the approval for Lowrey and Burnett to gather more info from Armando (Jacob Scipio - Expendables 4 etc), Mike's son who murdered Howard. Their investigation would lead them to the involvement of Drug Cartel's team of mercenaries led by the ruthless McGrath (Eric Dane - Grey's Anatomy TV series etc). 

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

Like in their previous films, this one still used the same formula of two cop buddies who had been working for years fighting crime and things got personal for them. For such movies, the plot was never going to be extremely sophisticated or very intelligently done. But as long as it's easy enough to grasp and audience like me and my wife do not mind, I guess it did not really matter. 

The action was always the main attraction and just like its predecessor, they were quite awesome and entertaining. Should not be a surprise since it had same directors of Adil & Bilall (Black, Gangsta etc). It seem they were inspired by the Fast and Furious franchise with some rather defying logic actions but still fun and enjoyable. The scenes with First Person Shooter video game shots were a nice touch too. Only thing that I personally would have been more satisfied was a more powerful sound effect (I chose not to go to cinemas with Dolby Atmos as many times this year I was disappointed it did not have the effect despite its promotion). Nevertheless, even with standard system, it was still good.

Will Smith seemed very fit for his age with Martin Lawrence tried hard to counter his co-star. What he might be lacking on the action part was covered by his usual comedic traits. My wife and I were quite impressed with Jacob Scipio as well while the other younger cast looked quite capable as the support. In addition to those names above, there were additional cast such as Melanie Liburd (This is Us TV series etc) as Mike's new wife Christine, Tasha Smith (Empire TV series etc) who replaced Theresa Randle as Marcus' wife Theresa, Rhea Seehorn (Better Call Saul TV series etc) as Howard's daughter & US Marshall Judy and some popular US celebrities Like DJ Khaled, comedian Tiffany Haddish and few others. There were even a cameo appearance of famous director.

The comedy was pretty standard with the bantering between Marcus and Mike who have great chemistry together. Although I felt that it was not as hilarious as the previous one, it was still able to make us laugh a few time. There was also a twist in here which both of us were able to guess easily. It has a duration of 115 minutes without any mid or post end credit scene. Critics did not seem to view this as a terrible movie while audience looked appreciative enough. It seems the box office performance was not too disappointing either, so maybe it would be profitable enough.

Overall this was another action comedy movie that you could enjoy without overthinking. Nothing extraordinary on the script but the action and comedy was still a joy to watch. So if you like the Bad Boys movies, then likely you would like this latest installment too. But if you prefer greatly written movie with deep meaning and smart dialogues and you do not enjoy over the top action, possibly this would not be to your liking. For my wife and I, this was entertaining.

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars