“Bad Boys: Ride or Die”: The Surprise of the Season
The fourth installment of the Bad Boys franchise is capturing the audience’s attention after a year of box office disappointments.
Summary
The film follows another adventure of Miami detectives Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence), who are attempting to clear the name of their late captain, Conrad Howard (Joe Pantoliano), after he is accused of conspiracy. The only one who can identify the person responsible for Howard’s death is the one who received and carried out the order to execute the captain: Armando Aretas (Jacob Scipio), Mike’s son.
It turns out that Captain Howard was not tied to the drug cartels himself, but was too close to uncovering a big case of corruption within the department before his death. Mike and Marcus end up involved in a tricky situation to get their witness to a safe place before the corrupt officials can get rid of all of them for good.
A Safe but Effective Production
I must say, I’m not a fan of this franchise (I’ve only ever seen these films in passing), so I have no ties to the characters or the story. While the plot of Bad Boys: Ride or Die references events from previous installments and brings back many characters, it is not necessary to be familiar with them to understand the new film. Everything you need to know will be explained to you as it goes; you should have no trouble following it.
The script is not the best, but I suppose that is to be expected in this kind of movie. The focus is on the action and, of course, the jokes. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence have an unmatched chemistry, which makes them a great team. Lawrence’s performance was the one I enjoyed the most. I found him funny, even though I must confess that this film’s type of humor is not really my cup of tea.
The supporting characters are fine; they don’t really have a lot of screen time. Maybe if you are more in tune with the franchise, you will find some development I didn’t see, but as I said, apart from Mike and Marcus’, other storylines are not explored in depth.
Box Office Success
Surprisingly, the film is exceeding all expectations in a year that has proved to be disastrous for the box office.
With a production budget of $100.000.000, Bad Boys: Ride or Die surpassed that number at the global box office on its opening weekend. The movie is now finishing its second weekend in theaters with $214.000.000, its only competitor being Inside-Out 2, which was released last Thursday.
It should be considered that Despicable Me 4 is coming next weekend. Which means that probably this and Inside-Out will hold the most attention, but I believe Bad Boys has done well enough for its financial situation to be relatively unaffected by the new additions. Profitability seems to be certain this time around.
Why is it Working?
That is the big question. What is Bad Boys doing that other movies are failing at?
In general, I’d say Bad Boy feels like the kind of film you can find on cable TV every other Sunday afternoon. And I believe that’s the point. Maybe that is precisely why people are so willing to pay a ticket for this but not for other films that could be considered of better quality and, therefore, more deserving. It’s simple; it feels familiar.
There is no further message in it; you can turn off your brain and have a fun time—something we all need sometimes, and that has become hard to find. In short, some old-school nonsense with silly jokes and plenty of explosions. That is what the audience wants.
Hollywood, you’d better be taking notes.
