Ride or Die’ on Netflix, another noisy battle leaning on Will Smith and Martin Lawrence’s Comic Chemistry – DNyuz

Bad Boys: Ride or Die (now streaming on Netflix, in addition to VOD services like Amazon Prime Video) activates the action-comedy formula you love or love to hate: Will Smith and Martin Lawrence slice it up as they shoot the bad guys. This is the point in the review where people mention The Slap and how the film could be an important part of Smith rehabilitating his image – so far it seems so good, considering it was a theatrical hit, making $388 million internationally grossed – €“ then goes on to say that this is the second film in the franchise for director team Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, who famously helmed the film. on the shelf Batgirl film between the two. They’re absolutely ready to take over Michael Bay’s role as over-director extraordinaire, and have managed to create yet another noisy mess that will please the fans and make the rest of us choose to “die.” œdrive.†Â

BAD BOYS: RUN OR DIE: STREAM IT OR SKIP?

The essence: Marcus (Lawrence) and Mike (Smith) are late. They speed through Miami in Mike’s Porsche and what with one thing and another – and there are so many things and more in this plot – they end up on the business side of a heist and, much more worryingly, embroiled in a hopelessly unfunny, nasty callback of a Skittles joke. Why, you may ask, are they late? Surprise: Mike’s wedding! Our playboy friend is finally settling down, so he now has someone he cares about who can be kidnapped by bad guys and rescued in the third act. But this first act isn’t about him. No, Marcus suffers a heart attack in the middle of the wedding reception, prompting a near-death experience that leads him to meet their beloved late police boss Conrad Howard (Joe Pantoliano) in the afterlife, prompting Marcus to believe he’s not going. to die even while walking through traffic or diving into an alligator pool. Which of course he will do in the hope of making us laugh. (Godspeed, crowd, godspeed.)

Marcus’ recovery also causes his wife (Tasha Smith, replacing Theresa Randle in the role) to declare him a vegetarian, officially no longer eating snacks, which gives rise to further product placement opportunities, for example the following one-liner: ‘I I think you’re going to be Ding-Dongless.†When do we get to the plot that inspires our dynamic duo protags to shoot bullets at bad guys and dodge explosions? Hopefully never, because a character comedy could be a refreshing twist for this franchise, but unfortunately it’s just a dream. Some mean penisheads accuse Conrad of drug cartels’ dirty work in an attempt to shift the blame away from himself – or something like that – and Marcus and Mike aren’t happy about their old boss’s name being dragged around. the sloppy, especially after seeing him so emotionally invoke the film’s title in a posthumous video: “You’re my bad boys,” he says. Sniff sniff honk, so moving! So they work to get to the bottom of this, which of course requires shooting bullets at bad guys and dodging explosions.

And so our boys get into trouble. Mike even has a panic attack halfway through, but that’s a subplot that has to wither and die among the 300 other subplots involving: Mike’s ex and current police boss Rita (Paola Nunez). Future Mayor Adam Lockwood (Ioan Gruffudd). A Miami PD hacker (Alexander Ludwig) and a Miami PD gun lady (Vanessa Hudgens). Mike is imprisoned, ex-cartel son Armando (Jacob Scipio). Conrad’s US Marshal daughter Judy (Rhea Seehorn) and her daughter Callie (Quinn Hemphill). Primary villain James McGrath (Eric Dane). Reggie (Dennis McDonald), Marcus’ tough US Marine son-in-law. A returning cameo from John Salley and a new cameo from Tiffany Haddish. Am I forgetting someone? Random criminal #5? The product placement wrangler? The biggest maniac involved in this movie, who also designed the set for the bad guys’ headquarters? Jerry Mathers as… The Beaver? Either way, let it be known that this will all get more violent before it gets less violent.

What movies will it remind you of?: In the cop-related action-comedy franchise wars of the 80s and 90s, Beverly Hills cop is a lot > Bad boys. Note: Don’t be surprised if the financial success of recent Bad boys films inspire the long-discussed people Rush hour 4 in production.

Performances worth watching: Lawrence is considerably more inspired here than a sleepy Smith – but more compelling is the way the film places McDonald at the center of his best action scene, suggesting he could play a major role in a fifth film. Bad boysif only the world could get this damn thing.

Memorable dialogue: I don’t think “I’m pretty sure my soul has a dick, Marcus” is on par with “…and a few skittles,” but it’s certainly less about blatantly representing a brand.

Gender and skin: No.

Our opinion: The rapid fire back and forth between Lawrence and Smith is the Bad boys trademark, and let it be known, it feels significantly toned down here. In fact, their most inspired (relatively speaking) conversation doesn’t occur until a showdown at a barbecue, when they bicker over who gets to man the grill. It certainly seems like fans of their comedic chemistry – the fuel for this otherwise routine style-over-substance cops-and-robbers franchise – will be disappointed. Smith simply doesn’t seem to be in the mood, and Lawrence compensates by piling on the silliness at every opportunity. Maybe it’s the screenplay, which stumbles through an overly convoluted plot, fraught with who-cares soap opera drama. Or maybe it’s the fact that Bad boys for life marked a (relatively speaking) new return for the duo, and Ride or die seems content to leverage his predecessor’s goodwill.

On paper, such a softening of the Smith-Lawrence bluster – which I find occasionally funny, but mostly annoying – should be welcome. But Bilal and Adil are so enamored with their own quasi-clever method of composing action scenes that they compensate for their leads’ lack of verbal unpleasantness (yes, relatively speaking) with their own brand of visual unpleasantness: rolling drone cams, first -person-shooter POVs, CGI helicopter wrecks, highly edited edits. Their method seems convenient at first, then evolves into indulgent, and eventually becomes annoying. A third-person set piece that’s a cross between ground action and security camera POVs is inspired, exciting even, but it feels like the only piece of spaghetti they throw at the wall that actually sticks.

That is to say Ride or die is overwritten and overdirect to the point of being tiresome. It just made me feel exhausted, not in a fresh-from-a-refreshing-workout kind of way, but in a fresh-from-getting-groceries-the-day-before-Thanksgiving kind of way. It’s loud and tiring, the laughter and excitement are not enough. Those who expect more of the same will get it, and more than enough; these films have never been known for their minimalism and restraint. Inevitably, bad movies judge themselves with their own dialogue, and in this case it feels like Smith bellowing, “Stop this stupid shit!” certainly as a call to take a bow on this exhausted franchise.

Our call: SKIP. Enough already!

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The post Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’ on Netflix, Another Noisy Fracas Leaning on Will Smith and Martin Lawrence’s Comic Chemistry appeared first on Decider.