It took me a while, but I get it now.

Anyone who knows me knows that Bad Boys II is one of my favorite films of all time and I hold it up in my mind as a near-perfect movie. So I was beyond excited for Bad Boys 4 Life (which should have been the title of this movie). Well, while the excitement of the franchise returning carried me through the movie, I soured on it the more I thought about it. It wasn’t a bad flick, but it felt like a very utilitarian film, trying hard to fit within modern tastes and a moderate budget. Some of the secret backstories they revealed felt like a cynical way to complicate the series and add more threads to pull on in sequels, Fast and Furious style. Will Smith seemed to fit naturally back in his role as Mike Lawrey, but Martin Lawrence felt a bit off when trying to channel the energy and goofiness of Marcus Burnet. And the reliance on CGI and green screens in some scenes was so noticeable that it took me out of the experience often.

Bad Boys, with the release of the second movie, became a franchise defined not only by it’s charismatic leads but by the excesses of the filmmaking on display. Bad Boys 1 was more of a comedy than an action movie, and that was a necessity of it being one of Micheal Bay’s earliest movies. But he made up for that with the embarrassment of high-octane riches that was Bad Boys II. Throwing cars down the highway in the middle of a car chase. The camera sliding through the bullet holes in the middle of the gunfight with the Haitians. Ending the film by blowing up a mansion in Cuba. I had seen a million buddy cop movies, but there was no reason for the action in that one to be done on such a ludicrous scale. Yet, that scale is the defining trait that made that movie so special for me.

Bad Boys Ride or Die does not quite have action set pieces that surpass that scale, but what they lack in scale they finally make up for with sauce. By this, let me describe one seemingly insignificant scene. In the last 3^rd of the film, Marcus and Mike are on the run and they escape to the house of some allies. Turns out, there’s a couple staying there, and the witness that Mike and Marcus are “escorting” upsets them as soon as he enters. As Mike tries to straighten out the witness, and the couple is bickering on opposite sides of the room, Marcus sits on the couch with a bag of chips, watching it all happen in disappointment. These events are not special, hell, it’s not even a moment you’d even remember happening after the movie ends. But they show this moment using a single take, rotating the camera to show Marcus looking at both pairs while keeping Marcus in the frame the entire time. This is a cool shot, a shot cooler than the scenario really deserves. But that shot is what defines the entire film for me.

Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah seemingly read the entire script and came up with the most interesting way to portray every single action in the movie. Every action scene, and most of the other scenes too, have some crazy camera trick or visual flair that heightens the action. Gunfight in an art museum? Let’s use a bunch of slow motion and a lot of vibrant, exploding colors to amp up the proceedings. Talking to a prisoner? Let’s zoom into the conversation through the prison bars like a fly entering the room. Shootout in a bayou-themed amusement park? Let’s rig Will Smith up with a camera rig on his chest to literally show him shooting in first person. Someone having a heart attack? Let’s portray it as someone sinking in a psychedelic ocean in an extended dream sequence. Why? Because it’s cool! This movie is just so fucking cool, despite many of the action scenes being on the same level as the last film. But be it a higher budget to do everything on location, or a higher quality of CGI, this movie just has so much sauce it’s ridiculous, and it makes this the only other film in the franchise to fall in line with the cinematic stylings of Micheal Bay at his peak.

Nothing comes off as cheap and none of the actors have any dust left to shake off either. Martin Lawrence gives a performance here that finally feels like he’s the same Marcus I remember from the the first and second movies. Yes, he’s older now, and the movie directly engages with that fact, but I feel like he’s given funnier lines and more opportunities for physical comedy despite his age. Will comes back and delivers the same great performance he had in the last one, but expertly balances the Mike Lawrey swagger with the emotions of a man who now has quite a bit to lose. Sure, the panic attack trend in mainstream film might be a bit played out, but the film doesn’t rely on them for emotional highs, instead making fun of them a bit to contrast the action comically. Even the supporting cast is great, and it feels like all of them get a moment to shine, especially the MVP of the entire film, Reggie.

Now, I’ll admit, this movie isn’t perfect. They continue the trend from the last movie of inserting random new characters that are related to classic characters only for the sake of added drama and to leave pieces to play with in future sequels. There is a tightly packed section where all of the celebrity cameos take place, and it’s the movie’s low point. But at least the most egregious of those cameos dies in the most horrific way anyone dies in the whole film. Sometimes, aspects of the original two movies are brought up but are not acted on in a meaningful way, and it leaves me wondering why they reached for the nostalgic reference in the first place. And the ending, while satisfying, wraps up just a bit too quickly for me. I wish I saw just a bit of how Marcus and Mike transition from being on the run from the law to being accepted back into normal life.

But this movie is genuinely incredible. It’s a breath of fresh air for modern action films, as most of them, outside of the John Wick series and the Mad Max films, all feel so inspired by the MCU that they lack a vibe all their own. Despite the characters we remember and a plot we generally recognize, the filmmaking here carves out a niche for this movie that I’d be glad to see it continue down with future sequels.

My final thoughts on Bad Boys 4 Life were that while I was glad to have the series back, my hunger for more from the series was satiated, probably permanently. I didn’t even know they were making a fourth film until the trailer for it came out a few months back, and Bad Boys II is one of the most important movies in my life. But Bad Boys Ride of Die has not only restored my trust in this series to surprise and delight but also brought back my desire to see more of these. I’m sorry for ever doubting them in the last film, but I know now that the first Bad Boys movie in 17 years had to serve as a test. It was a test to not only see if this franchise is still relevant for modern audiences but also a test to see if Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah could be trusted with the series. Well, the last movie seemed to prove to movie studios that both of those statements are true. So, they all came back with a bigger budget to prove to me, and other hardcore Bad Boys fans like me, that these facts are indeed true.

So, yes, it took me a while, a little over four years, but I get it now.