Bad Boys: Ride Or Die Review

Bad Boys: Ride Or Die is the latest film in the long running Bad Boys franchise of films. This one comes directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. This film stars Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens and Alexander Ludwig.

I always have enjoyed these Bad Boys movies. They’re fun action comedies. With this movie, I was surprised when I started seeing ads for it because I was unaware there was another one being made. But I was excited to see it at the cinema because sometimes, you kind of need a movie like this that’s a light action comedy to watch. Once it finished I left the cinema feeling good and happy with it.

In this film the Bad Boys are on the run and there’s criminals coming after them. The story is okay, it’s not the high point of a film like this. It could be much better definitely. The movie is filled with moments where a character will deliver some exposition to keep the audience from not being lost with all that’s going on and this is something I don’t like in any movie. The story should unfold and the audience should be able to follow along without the exposition moments, but it’s common in modern films these days to do it.

Where the story is lacking, the main actors are good enough to make it work. Will Smith is pleasant in this film, I liked his performance and it’s always nice to see him on the big screen. Martin Lawrence seemed to have a lot of the big moments and a lot of the funny moments too. I would have liked to see a bit more screen time from Vanessa Hudgens and Alexander Ludwig. Some more could of been done to develop their characters and give them more impact.

This movie sort of feels like Fast 5 (2011) where there’s some attempt being made to bring in some new characters and take this franchise to a different place than the movies in the past. It does work and I could see that if they could do something more with either Vanessa Hudgens or Alexander Ludwig in a future movie again, then there’s something to build on.

One more thing worth mentioning is that for fans of the Bad Boys films, this movie probably will be a joy to watch. Audiences will get a nostalgia feeling and also something new out of these characters. These characters are definitely likable and even if the story is kind of bad, somehow it works still. I had a good time watching this film and am happy to recommend it for fans. Just one note, for newcomers, I recommend watching the older films to get to know the characters first before watching this one.