Bad Boys: Ride or Die: A Mildly Entertaining, but Flawed Sequel (Blu-ray)

The Film:

It's hard to believe that the "Bad Boys" franchise has been running for just shy of 30 years. Back in 1995, the first entry marked a decent buddy cop film that provided plenty of thrills & a number of laughs, followed by a sequel in 2003 that, despite being rather stretched at nearly two and a half hours, managed to provide some fun excitement of its own. The disappointing box office return of that sequel (compared to its huge budget) may have delayed things for quite a while, but we eventually got a third entry, "Bad Boys for Life," in 2020, which, while financially successful, started to show a little more weakness in the series. Now we're faced with the latest sequel, "Bad Boys: Ride or Die," which puts MPD Detectives Mike & Marcus back into action for another big case that's once again quite personal. Will it be able to put the series back on track, or will it only cause it to slip even further?

Picking up a few years after the previous entry, the film begins with Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) marrying his physical therapist, Christine (Melanie Liburd). At the wedding reception, Mike's best friend & partner Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) has a mild heart attack, during which he has a vision of the late Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano). He recovers rather quickly, but during this time, we witness criminals planting evidence that ties Captain Howard to drug cartels, a story that soon breaks to everyone's shock. Having known the Captain for many years, Mike & Marcus fully believe that he's innocent, and with the help of Captain Rita Secada (Paola Núñez) and Mike's imprisoned son, Armando (Jacob Scipio), they set out to clear his name, once again putting their lives in extreme danger.

As mentioned, this is a franchise that had started off rather well with a pair of action-packed, amusing outings that featured characters who were just fun to watch. However, while the third film still had the same old likeable characters and started with an intriguing plot, it soon strayed into some pretty silly territory that had many viewers rolling their eyes. Not that the series hadn't already proven to be rather silly throughout its previous entries, but that was more so intentional, as opposed to plot developments that are meant to be taken seriously, and end up getting taken as the writers running a little low on ideas.

When it comes to "Bad Boys: Ride or Die," we're back to having a pretty solid plot that has our hero detectives trying to clear their friend's name, but sadly where this latest sequel ends up erring is in its attempt to add new character elements to its popular duo. After Marcus' near-death experience early in the film, he comes back a rather changed man, one who believes that he can't die. From then on, he becomes what I can best describe as a "goofball guru," trying to be enlightened and offer sage wisdom throughout, which unfortunately changes him from an amusing character into one that comes off as more annoying.

It does feel like a change that was somewhat hinted at given the running joke about calming down with therapy in the second film, but it really ends up serving no purpose for the character. Likewise, Mike develops completely random panic attacks in this entry after having been a cop for decades. It's another development that ends up doing nothing for the character, and when paired with Marcus' changes, it ends up feeling like the writers were a little desperate to bring something new to this duo, despite being completely unnecessary. These characters were already very well-liked as they were, so trying to throw in random developments like this that make them less engaging and serve no purpose was a rather inexplicable thing to do.

Overall, "Bad Boys: Ride or Die" ends up at about the same level as the previous entry, except where that film featured the same fun characters in a plot that had some issues, this latest sequel has character issues in a sturdier plot. It still has a lot of grand action, and the decent plot does carry it pretty far, but it really ends up making you wish that they hadn't tried to change what worked so well before. We can only hope that, if there should end up being another sequel, the writers will learn from these mistakes and set things back to the way they were, therefore giving it the best chance of finally getting this series back on track.

Video/Audio:

"Bad Boys: Ride or Die" comes to Blu-ray in a 2.39:1, 1080p High Definition transfer of excellent quality. The image looks perfectly sharp & clear throughout these two action-packed hours, highlighting its multitude of stunts & special effects. Likewise, the 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio is fantastic, giving you all of the dialogue, sound effects, and music in outstanding quality. Overall, Sony has done a wonderful job on the film's debut physical release, which will no doubt please the series' many fans.

Special Features:

Will & Martin Chemistry, Legacy & Laughs (4 Minutes)

Fights, Camera, Action (4 Minutes)

Outtakes & Bloopers (3 Minutes)

The Bruckheimer Legacy: Crafting Bad Boys & Beyond (4 Minutes)

Partners in Crime (5 Minutes)

Deleted Scenes (5 Scenes, 7 Minutes)

The Blu-ray comes with a somewhat limited selection of extras, totaling a little under 30 minutes, but at least there are some decent behind the scenes featurettes, focusing on areas like the film's main duo, the team, and the action sequences, all of which feature interviews with cast & crew.

Conclusion:

"Bad Boys: Ride or Die" contains a lot of exciting action, and the sturdier plot goes a long way towards giving it a decent boost, but some rather inexplicable character developments end up hampering it a little too much, ultimately putting this latest entry in the long-running franchise about on par with the previous sequel, which ironically had the opposite results regarding plot & characters.

Score: 3/5

Available on Blu-ray starting today.

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