The second trailer for Bad Boys for Life, the third installation of Sony’s Bad Boys franchise starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence was dropped yesterday and oh boy was this a wild ride!
This long-overdue installment to the Bad Boys franchise showcases Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) teaming up again for the last time when someone made an attempt on Mike’s life. This time is different though, as the two won’t be going on their own with Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano) assigning Mike to a new unit comprised of young upstart cops played by Alexander Ludwig (Hunger Games, Vikings), Charles Melton (Riverdale), and Vanessa Hudgens (The Princess Switch, Spring Breakers) as what seems to be a movie-long, generational-based comedic banter ensues.
The trailer shows quite a bit of content from the movie without really revealing a lot story-wise. This is good though, as trailers now have seemingly grown out of the tell-all trailer phase of movie-making.
We begin with a Need For Speed/Grand Theft Auto-esque chain of sequences with amazing cinematography and color command even though the orange and teal color grade that Transformers started way back which actually works in this trailer, primarily because of the hints of neon in it. The trailer also shows that after all these years, Smith and Lawrence still have the same level of chemistry that they had when they first started with these characters, which is expanded with their characters seem to diverge paths with Mike still working in the police force and Marcus having seemed to have retired.
This is the part of the trailer where Mike is signed off to a new team of young cops that starts the whole ‘you’re old we’re young’ canned comedy in which if executed correctly can be a great laugh. This added facet makes for a great avenue for the Marcus side of humor in this film with his seemingly dumb and random moments that have honestly grown stale in the previous movie.
The trailer also seems to have a couple of nods to other films via their comedic banter as Mike after being tasked to join the young team snarkily says “AMMO is a High School Musical boy band with guns” a funny nod to Hudgens being one of the stars of Disney’s High School Musical franchise. The other one is when Marcus tells Mike “Family is the only thing that matters. I can’t let you go in on a suicide mission alone“, a seemingly subtle nod to Suicide Squad where Smith starred alongside Margot Robbie. This is interesting to an degree as it has a similar flavor to the Fast & Furious franchise with having a strong emphasis on family in action movies.
Will Smith also seems to be actually trying in this film for once. The actor has been criticized by people mostly online because the actor usually seems to not give a 100% in some of his recent performances, and it sure looks like he’s 100% in it on this movie, at least based on this new trailer.
Bad Boys for Life will still have an R rating, with new directors Adil El Arbi and Bilal Fallah manning the helm after director Joe Carnahan left the project due to creative differences with Smith but will still be credited for his writing alongside Chris Bremner. A new rendition of Diddy’s track of the same name serves as the trailer’s song as well. The movie will premiere on January 17, 2020.