Bad Boys: Ride or Die

Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024) is the fourth in the series, and this time the two policemen are fugitives. Their late captain Howard is accused of having taken cartel money. Mike and Marcus do not believe it and start looking for proof. Before long both are charged and their badges taken. In this film the institution that protected them is on the other side. Marcus has a heart attack early on and is clinically dead for a short time. When he comes back he believes he cannot die, and it changes everything about how he behaves: the most fearful becomes the most reckless. Most of the humour comes from that. Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah directed; they made the third one as well, having taken the series over from Michael Bay. There is a visual innovation: in some gunfights the camera is mounted on the weapon, on an arm, or behind a bullet. Small cameras let the shooting flow as though in one take. Michael Bay appears in one scene. It was Will Smith's first large commercial film after the incident at the Oscars and was treated as the measure of his return; it did well. The plot is thin and some connections do not land without the earlier films. The rhythm between Martin Lawrence and Smith carries the series and has been the same for close to thirty years. It runs 115 minutes. Good for: action comedy, followers of the series, and summer films. Less good for: the story is thin, the violence is constant, and the earlier films are required.