“Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” the fourth installment in the Will Smith-Martin Lawrence action-comedy series, is about a fight to redeem a tarnished legacy. No, not that one. The reputation of Conrad Howard (Joe Pantoliano), the beloved captain of detectives Mike (Smith) and Marcus (Lawrence), has been posthumously besmirched.
After his death, Conrad is framed as an informant for a Mexican drug cartel as a way to cloak more sinister corruption. Our detectives set out to clear his name. Of course, that’s going on here is for Smith.
“Ride or Die” was in development in 2022 when . The film was temporarily put on hold. Options were weighed.
But 2020’s “Bad Boys for Life” made a hefty $424.6 million before COVID-19 shut down theaters. Watcha gonna do? The result is the first movie Smith has made in that era defined as Post Slap.
Here he is, back in the driver’s seat and flying around the Miami waterfront with Lawrence riding shotgun. That’s to say: Smith is very much back in his element. “Ride or Die,” which opens in theaters Thursday, is an attempt to pretend there haven’t been any bumps in the road along the way.
More than that, this “Bad Boys,” coming 29 years after the original, would like very much to act as if nothing much has changed in not just the last two years but in the previous three decades. Some signs of age is creeping in “Ride or Die.” Marcus has a heart attack on the dance floor and Mike is suffering from panic attacks.
But with the ex.
