The boys are back, and everyone’s feeling it.

Miami police detective Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) is finally settling down, while his partner Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) is trying to get away from his wife to sneak foods his doctors have forbidden due to his health. Following a near-death experience, Marcus claims to have a renewed outlook on life, believing he cannot die due to a vision of the late Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano) telling him “a storm is coming.” Someone is setting up the late police captain and systematically eliminating anyone who could exonerate him by planting even more damning evidence, creating a trail of breadcrumbs leading to Mike’s incarcerated son, Armando (Jacob Scipio). With a looming election and suspicions of corruption, the bad guys use their connections to set up the detectives to take the fall before the truth can be exposed: there’s a leak inside the Miami police department… and anyone not with the perpetrators are potential targets.

After the well-reviewed R-rated Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga that (checking my sources) “failed to ignite the summer box office with a franchise sequel nobody asked for” on Memorial Day weekend 2024, here we are weeks later with the industry championing exactly the same idea… only this time with baggage from “the slap heard ’round the Oscars.” Skipping over all of that, Bad Boys is essentially everything that made the Lethal Weapon franchise work: buddy cops working outside the system, looking like they’ve been run through the wringer by the end, and unrealistically getting away with maximum destruction of property in the name of entertainment. It also has the same Achilles heel, being the stars are getting (quoting Roger Murtaugh) “too old for this shit.” Even super-producer Jerry Bruckheimer isn’t held in the same regard after a few underperformers, meaning the glue that holds Bad Boys together falls entirely on the infamous banter between Mike and Marcus… but will audiences at last show up for it at theaters?

Directors Adil El and ArbiBilall Fallah (who took over from Michael Bay in 2020) return with their follow up to Bad Boys For Life, the current highest grossing installment of the franchise and one of the last films released before the pandemic closed theaters. With everything that’s changed in the four years since, Ride or Die does incredibly smart things with its storyline, not the least of which is embracing its main characters as being in their fifties. Even as Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny leaned into Old Man Indy, our Bad Boy heroes are neither immortal nor bulletproof; could they actually be (gasp!) mere human beings?! Rather than treating such restrictions as a crutch (or shoehorning a Shia LaBouf character in as an obvious replacement), Ride or Die builds believability into the story to go in new directions, shifting some of the heavy lifting to other characters doing their part without abandoning the main characters. This cleverly lifts the entire production, not only in terms of action and adventure but in raising the stakes and the ensuing hilarity, as good as the original 1995 introduction but also the funniest of the franchise.

Will Smith and Martin Lawrence slip into their characters like broken-in jeans, utterly comfortable and confident as if no time passes between installments. It might also be the best place to stop, but these things tend to run themselves into the ground as long as the box office receipts hold up ; are you listening, Fast and Furious? As the plot also harkens back to previous installments, a few classic characters make an appearance, including some bonus time with Joe Pantoliano’s Captain Howard. Vanessa Hudgens and Alexander Ludwig return from For Life, along with newcomer and “Better Call Saul” alumni Rhea Seehorn as a U.S. Marshall with a familial connection. The directors reportedly scoured the internet in search of potential new techniques, including a rig for an actor that can both film the actor in an action sequence before whirling around to provide a character POV shot without special effects ; while Ride of Die isn’t the first film to integrate a video game-inspired first-person shooter sequence, the camera rig to get the live shot is far more interesting than the result (for all you film nerds out there).

Fans of the Bad Boys franchise will find much to love, but it’ll take more than the fan base to draw the expected box office needed to “save it.” Fortunately, even without having seen any of the previous installments, Ride or Die is exactly what it claims to be, a great time at the movies and meant for the shared experience… even if it isn’t the high art of George Miller.

Bad Boys: Ride or Die is rated R for strong violence, language throughout, some sexual references, and introducing “Reba McEntire gunpoint karaoke.”

Three skull recommendation out of four