‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’ makes a good case for the buddy cops hanging up their guns

Review by Brian Lowry, CNN

(CNN) — For all the violence in “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” (and there’s plenty), the fourth entry in a near-30-year-old franchise, the movie feels like a safe space for Will Smith, a strategic retreat after a string of prestige roles and that unfortunate Oscar slap. The result has that calculated, tired feel about it, with a few moments of kinetic action but not enough to make the film play like anything more than a relic.

On the plus side, Smith and Martin Lawrence, now in their 50s, still credibly pull off their characters, although frankly, the most memorable action scene – so good it seems to have parachuted in from another movie – doesn’t involve them.

Everything else about this reunion, including their old-married-couple squabbling and the various callbacks to previous films, has a perhaps inevitably stale quality, from the strains of the familiar song to the bikini-clad background actors the camera scans by to reflect the Miami locale.

“Bad Boys” begins with Smith’s Mike settling down and Lawrence’s Marcus experiencing a near-death scare that changes his outlook – a comedic flourish that, like almost everything else, proves underdeveloped.

The latest threat, meanwhile, comes by way of a case their late captain (Joe Pantoliano) had investigated involving drug cartels and a ruthless killer (Eric Dane, here portraying the kind of stock villain that might as well be called McBaddie), exposing a web of corruption that forces Mike to reconnect with his son Armando (Jacob Scipio) and the buddy cops to go on the run.

Back in the saddle after “Bad Boys for Life” (Michael Bay having established the template on the first two movies), directing team Adil & Bilall don’t scrimp on action and stunts, and unlike the movie they helmed in between, the much-discussed and lamented “Batgirl,” at least this film is getting released.

That said, their efforts to bring a hyper-cinematic quality to the action yields a mixed bag, including a sequence that resembles a first-person shooter game. Despite all the blood, the comedy quotient in Chris Bremner and Will Beall’s screenplay also qualifies as being largely anemic.

The supporting players, similarly, have relatively little to do, including returnees Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig and Paola Nuñez, a fleeting cameo by Tiffany Haddish, and a puzzling, wasted role for Rhea Seehorn (“Better Call Saul”).

In a classic example of bad-guy dialogue, Dane’s character mutters after a failed attempt to eliminate Mike and Marcus, “These guys just refuse to die.” The fourth “Bad Boys” might not be enough to kill them, but it does suggest they should emulate much of the Florida population and, when it comes to the buddy-cop biz, consider retiring.

“Bad Boys: Ride or Die” premieres June 7 in US theaters. It’s rated R.

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