Bad Boys For Life: Neon NZ Review

17 years after Bad Boys 2 exploded onto screens, the apparently final outing for Will Smith and Martin Lawrence's buddy cops series has arrived.

In all honesty, it may have been better to be shelved than to try to relive and recapture some of the former glories of the franchise.

In this latest, Mike Lowery (Smith, still looking flash as the Miami cop) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence, appearing in some scenes like he's struggling) are forced to reassess their lives when the past comes calling - and brings with it the Grim Reaper.

With one apparently last score to settle, the duo's forced back into a world not all of them want to be in...

Bad Boys For Life's elongated script drawing out moments doesn't help matters here.

It's rarely better than when both Smith and Lawrence are allowed to get back to their bickering best, but even that feels a little muted in parts, when really it should have soared higher because of the obvious chemistry between them.

Sure, there's a tale here of personal demons coming back to haunt and of looking to family and friends as being more important than your legacy, but Bad Boys For Life doesn't really build on that promise, preferring to go with racial stereotypes for the villain that's as outdated as ever in the current climates (but which some Trump supporters will adore, and those still smarting from Rambo's outing last year will groan at) and action that's solid but never spectacular.

As mentioned, Lawrence looks in parts like he's struggling to deliver a flat script, and where there should be comedy, there are, aside from one genuine laugh-out-loud moment from within a plane, warning signs of tumbleweeds lumbering into view.

Had 20 minutes of the Gemini Man style script been excised and the pace tightened along with some of it being beefed up, Bad Boys for Life would have been passable action movie fare.

As it is, it's less than memorable thanks to feeling stale and forced, and in parts more risible than it should be - instead of sending these bad boys off into the sunset, Bad Boys For Life has seen them hobble into retirement like some lame mules desperately in need of being put into pasture.