ReviewBad Boys: Ride or Die movie review – Will Smith fails to impress in second film since Chris Rock slap

Will Smith returns in Bad Boys: Ride or Die, only his second movie role since he slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars – but the film is failed by poor writing

While Smith easily slips back into character, co-star Martin Lawrence is frequently caught mugging to the camera, and few of the comedy moments land well

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Will Smith in a still from Bad Boys: Ride or Die (category IIB), directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. Martin Lawrence co-stars. Photo: Sony Pictures

Published: 4:00am, 5 Jun 2024Updated: 5:03am, 5 Jun 2024

2/5 stars

When 2020’s Bad Boys for Life hit screens just before the Covid-19 pandemic closed cinemas across the world, it proved to be an enjoyably knockabout adventure, re-teaming the Miami police officers played by Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.

On the back of that success, inevitably, a fourth outing arrives, again directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, a Belgian-based duo of Moroccan descent. Sadly, Bad Boys: Ride or Die does not contain quite the same exuberance, despite several impressive action sequences.

Here, the plot twists around corruption within the Miami PD, as the late Captain Conrad (Joe Pantoliano) is accused of feeding information to Florida drug cartels.

Smith’s Detective Lieutenant “Mike” Lowrey and Lawrence’s Detective Lieutenant Marcus Burnett set out to prove his innocence.

However, when a set-up turns them into fugitives, with a US$5 million bounty on their heads, they are forced to team up with Mikey’s criminal son Armando (Jacob Scipio) to get the job done.