{"id":44095,"date":"2024-06-07T16:01:23","date_gmt":"2024-06-07T20:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=44095"},"modified":"2024-06-07T16:09:05","modified_gmt":"2024-06-07T20:09:05","slug":"bad-boys-ride-or-die-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2024\/06\/07\/bad-boys-ride-or-die-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now Exclusively in Theaters.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had my problems with the \u201cBad Boys\u201d series in the past, but unlike the \u201cFast and the Furious\u201d franchise, it\u2019s been one of the most consistent series of action films ever released. The vision for \u201cBad Boys\u201d has remained very precise and direct without adding too much or taking too much away. The stakes get higher with every film, and through it all we\u2019ve stayed with Marcus and Mike only without adding on so much excess characters like \u201cLethal Weapon\u201d fell victim to. \u201cBad Boys\u201d has mainly been a vehicle for Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, sure, but at least it knows what it is and tries to deliver on more complex ideas and bigger stakes.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

When we meet Marcus and Mike this time, Mike has finally found a woman he\u2019s marrying, Marcus is a grandfather, and the pair of men are still grieving the death of their beloved Captain Howard. When we meet the pair, they\u2019re older and now are facing their own mortality. This is a huge juxtaposition from their time in \u201cBad Boys\u201d where they ran into gun fire and sped through a combat zone in a high powered hot rod. Now they\u2019re wiser, slower, and finding more and more reasons to be as careful as possible in their crime fighting mission.<\/p>\n

Where \u201cBad Boys for Life\u201d was very much about role models and how the loss of one indicates a big turning point for them, \u201cBad Boys: Ride or Die\u201d brings us down another pretty rough turn. Now their former Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano returns) is being accused of working with the cartel, and Mike and Marcus are hellbent on clearing his name and saving his legacy. To make matter worse, Marcus experiences a near fatal heart attack at Mike\u2019s wedding making the idea of mortality a grim and Earth shattering prospect for both men. \u201cBad Boys\u201d takes ideas that the \u201cLethal Weapon\u201d series toyed with but never really delivered on and it weaves them in to the series well.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The themes just mix with the direction of the newest sequel while Martin Lawrence and Will Smith\u2019s sense of humility and charisma make them two men experiencing a new chapter in life that is horrifying. Lawrence, in particular, is not only dealing with his health but he\u2019s also facing something of a mid-life crisis that makes him less considerate toward his own life and dwelling on what he\u2019s leaving his family. Mike on the other hand finally has found someone, and his often reckless loose cannon attitude forces him to think twice about how his new wife Christine would fare without him. This contributes to moments where Mike breaks down mentally, making their mission tougher.<\/p>\n

There are also a slew of great supporting turns from Ioan Gruffud, Jacob Scipio, and Rhea Seehorn, respectively. I especially enjoyed There’s also Vanessa Hudgens and Alexander Ludwig who are fun as Marcus and Mike\u2019s impromptu sidekicks. The writers are very good at actually giving these two real flaws and drawbacks that make them less the super powered gun toting maniacs from 1995. Now they\u2019re getting older, they\u2019re getting slower, and they have a lot to lose. \u201cRide or Die\u201d has its imperfections here and there (there\u2019s a weird sub-plot about Marcus\u2019 obsession with candy). But it\u2019s a damn good sequel and a really interesting, often bittersweet re-visiting of these two once dashing young crime fighters that are now men reaching a point in their lives where slowing down is inevitable.<\/p>\n

\u201cRide or Die\u201d may or may not be the last we\u2019ve seen of Marcus and Mike, but it\u2019s nevertheless a very good send off for these two underrated action heroes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now Exclusively in Theaters. I\u2019ve had my problems with the \u201cBad Boys\u201d series in the past, but unlike the \u201cFast and the Furious\u201d franchise, it\u2019s been one of the most consistent series of action films ever released. The vision for \u201cBad Boys\u201d has remained very precise and direct without adding too much or taking too […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[58,71,219,240,391,703,922,1087,1190],"class_list":["post-44095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-action","tag-adventure","tag-comedy","tag-crime","tag-gangster","tag-mystery","tag-sequel","tag-thriller","tag-will-smith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44095"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44099,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44095\/revisions\/44099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}