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Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
After 17 years, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence join forces once again as Detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett for a third Bad Boys film.
The two characters face the obstacles of growing older and adapting to a new world while solving a case linked to Mike’s past. Bad Boys for Life adds in a new supporting cast of actors and actresses including Paola Núñez, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Charles Melton as the AMMO tactic unit with Kate del Castillo and Jacob Scipio as the two antagonists.
Michael Bay leaves the director’s chair for this film, having spearheaded the previous two movies — which is beneficial considering his overwhelming filmmaking style. (Although, he is still involved in some way.) Belgian filmmakers Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah replace Bay and do the best work in making this sequel come to life.
Robrecht Heyvaert’s cinematography and the film’s musical soundtrack and comedic aspects are good, never getting in the way of the overall plot and narrative of the story.
Smith and Lawrence continue to do wonderfully in the roles of their respective characters, with Núñez and Hudgens doing magnificently in this action flick as its newcomers. The development of the film’s characters shapes their patience as they face the test of time. Lowrey and Burnett’s interactions with each other never cease to have the audiences on the edge of their seats, such as during scenes taking place in a vehicle or one particular scene aboard an airplane. The pacing isn’t too slow, neither too brisk; every scene is crucial to the progression of the story.
Overall, Bad Boys for Life perfectly and reasonably conveys its theme — of not redemption per se, but rather second chances — in such a way that almost everyone gets what they desire by the end of the film while also setting up a potential fourth film if it were to ever be picked up. It breeds new life in its secondary characters. Some are presented as peculiar, but Joe Pantoliano’s character keeps his composure as Captain Conrad Howard. This third film in the franchise can be lauded primarily for its plotline and character dynamics although acceptably recycling elements from its prior two installments.
7.8/10
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Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
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