Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024)

Thankfully, Michael Bay left the Bad Boys franchise after 2003's truly appalling Bad Boys II. A sequel to 1995's original seemed inevitable, but eight years is a long time to wait for one, and what we eventually got was absolute toilet, of the lowest order.

So to have a third one, Bad Boys For Life, seventeen years later, was something of a huge surprise. I'd like to know who was chomping at the bit for a part III, and even though I can barely remember any of it, the fact that Michael Bay wasn't on directing duty meant that the film was nowhere near as terrible as the second installment.

To now have Bad Boys: Ride or Die, seems to be the ultimate exercise in flogging a dead horse. The thing is, money talks. And this fourth, utterly needless part in what is now a quadrilogy, will without doubt make money. Why people want to spend money to go and see this is the big question, but if you liked the first three films, there's no doubt you'll get something from this.

Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are back as partners and best friends in the Miami Police Department, and Ride Or Die sees another old face returning from beyond the grave- Joe Pantoliano's Captain Howard, who died in part III. It seems Howard was onto something big when he was taken out, a case that involved him hunting down corruption within the department, and he left some cryptic clues for Smith's Mike and Lawrence's Marcus to figure out- which they begin to do after Howard's name is dragged through the mud and blamed for the corruption.

Marcus has a heart attack early on at Mike's wedding, one that's hard to sympathise with considering the amount of crap he eats and drinks, but that's not really the point here. The fact that they're now both old (in real life well over the mandatory retirement age for a Miami Police Officer) is the joke, as well as the fact that Marcus now supposedly has supernatural abilities for seeing the future. This joke gets old the second it begins, and much of the film is wasted as we have to wait for him to spout more bullshit whilst bullets fly over their heads.

Mike and Marcus are helped in their quest to clear Howard's name by a couple of younger officers, and more pertinently, Mike's 'bastard' son, Armando (Jacob Scipio) who is in a high security prison. I'd completely forgotten Mike had a son, and had no recollection whatsoever that he was a main villain in Bad Boys For Life, which probably tells you how disposable it was.

But. Bad Boys: Ride Or Die is easily the least obnoxious of the four films, and the least offensive. I was mildly entertained for its two hour duration, and despite the fact it threatened several times to lose my patience completely, it never delivered the final nail in its own coffin. This is genuinely something to be applauded, and Michael Bay's absence from proceedings (bar a three second cameo) no doubt helps these matters.

The final confrontation at an abandoned alligator amusement park, that inevitably features an ancient blood thirsty alligator is enjoyable and never irritating; again, something that is to be celebrated. So, despite the fact that the fourth (and surely final) installment of this series is, obviously, rubbish, the fact that it has its moments and is far from terrible is almost impressive in itself. 5.4/10