Bad Boys 4 shouldn't ride — it should die

Heading into the theatre for Bad Boys: Ride or Die, I do not arrive unprepared. 

Aside from virtually growing up alongside the buddy-cop movies, I come with something bordering on a mania: as a young, explosions-obsessed child in the early 2000s, I once spent a summer rewatching Bad Boys II. At final count, I think I ended a two week period having watched what is perhaps the best car chase in cinema history (and yes, I've seen Bullitt) in the greatest action sequel outside of Transporter 2 no less than 16 times. 

So pulling up to the film's third sequel, there is the distinct chance the majority of Bad Boys watched hours sit in my lap. Which could make me either particularly qualified — or particularly biased — in declaring that while Ride or Die is not the worst instalment in the series, it's still compelling proof that the franchise should take the advice embedded in its own title.

And no, I don't mean "ride."

Its relative failure to live up to expectations is a surprising feat for a set of films that didn't begin as anywhere near prestige and never angled themselves in that direction either. From its outset, the Will Smith, Martin Lawrence-led story of renegade Miami cops operating on the fringes of both the law and the bayou hasn't been much more than an excuse to fill vans full of gasoline or throw speedboats at moving cars — with a screaming Michael Shannon locked inside.

And their critical reception, at least starting out, reflected that.

Unlike virtually any other too-long-running mega franchise, the earliest Bad Boys instalments hold critical reviews far below the reboots. According to Rotten Tomatoes, the two Bilall Fallah and Adil El Arbi-directed late addition films (Bad Boys For Life and Ride or Die) have average freshness ratings two and three times higher than the originals.

So as a critic coming into the "When you popped me from behind" movies actually dead-set on loving them for the non-serious fun they're supposed to offer, it's surprising to still be in the minority. After falling in love with these films that were widely panned for a lack of nuance and depth, seeing a flock of reviewers now fawning over what amounts to made-for-tv schlock boggles the mind. 

I guess, to quote another over-milked media property, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. 

After the debacle that was Martin Lawrence's sleepwalking performance in For Life though, Ride or Die can at least be called an improvement.

Still somehow employed by the Miami police department, our partners-in-law Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) are getting up there in years. 

Attending each other's weddings and family functions, they reminisce about shared memories with a bargain bin full of ancillary characters — whose presence and later reintroductions need to be explained away with at least a bit of awkward early exposition. 

But after a robbery here and shootout there, the boys are quickly embroiled in that staple of the law enforcement entertainment genre — a conspiracy that goes all the way to the top, casting them as renegade vigilantes forced to clear their own names while being hunted by their own agency. 

There's nothing inherently wrong with following genre formulas, and this one is an action favourite for a reason: just as how virtually every young adult novel casts its hero as an orphan to explain away why a parent doesn't simply step in to save them, late-stage law enforcement series from Mission Impossible, to Die Hard, Fast and Furious, James Bond, and even Indiana Jones need to shake things by removing the supercop infrastructure from the super cops they've created.