All 4 Bad Boys Movies, Ranked (original) (raw)
Will Smith and Martin Lawrence pointing guns in opposite directions on the poster for Bad Boys: Ride or Die
Image via Sony Pictures Releasing
Published Jun 9, 2024, 3:00 PM EDT
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If you told someone in 1995 that Bad Boys, as a movie series, would still be going in 2024, they might have had trouble believing you. Granted, compared to some other long-running action movie franchises that have been going for a couple of decades or longer (looking at you, James Bond and Fast & Furious), there aren’t an exceedingly high number of Bad Boys films, with a total of four. Still, they’ve retained a certain kind of feel and energy, all blending action, comedy, crime, and thriller genres, and all four movies so far have been defined by a focus on the dynamic between Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.
The two play rebellious Miami Police Department detectives, consistently causing chaos and destruction but nevertheless staying employed because they tend to execute the jobs they’re given. Having four films spread out over 29 years does help in ensuring they all feel distinctive enough, even if there are reliably formulaic elements revisited again and again. It’s not the greatest of film series, nor the most consistent, but there’s fun to be had here for fans of comedic action/crime movies. All installments of the Bad Boys series to date are ranked below, starting with the Bad and ending with the decidedly not Bad.
4 'Bad Boys: Ride or Die' (2024)
Directors: Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah
Will Smith pointing an assault rifle on a dock while Martin Lawrence stands next to him in Bad Boys: Ride or Die.
Image via Sony Pictures
Not to rain on the Bad Boys: Ride or Die’s parade too much (it performed well initially, at least), but it does feel like the least interesting and most tired entry in the series yet. Watching it feels a little like watching another disappointing fourth movie released recently, Expend4bles, the existence of which everyone seemed to forget about in a matter of weeks. Bad Boys: Ride or Die might be mindless fun in the eyes of forgiving, longtime fans of the series, but it doesn’t feel like it’ll have staying power. It’s incredibly hard to imagine a filmmaker like Edgar Wright ever referencing it, for example, the way he referenced Bad Boys II in Hot Fuzz.
The third Bad Boys movie shook things up a little, and unsuccessfully injected a few new characters (both good and evil), some of whom show up here and remain uninteresting. There’s an almost soap opera nature to the plot continuing on from the third film, what with Smith’s character, Mike, having some past demons coming back to haunt him throughout. Lawrence’s character, Marcus, also undergoes a spiritual change of sorts following a near-death experience, but there’s little humor or emotion mined from such a thing. Elsewhere, everyone in the movie feels like they’re on autopilot. The nicest thing that can be said about Bad Boys: Ride or Die is that some of the action in the climax is inventively shot, but it’s otherwise dull and tiring to watch, and not in a clever way, where it feels like it’s being insightful about the main characters growing older and more tired. It’s just bland, and the series either needs to call it quits, or embrace some kind of refresh/refocus going forward.
Release Date
June 7, 2024
Director
Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah
Watch in theaters
3 'Bad Boys for Life' (2020)
Directors: Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah
Will Smith as Lt. Mike Lowrey and Martin Lawrence as Lt. Marcus Burnett walking side by side in Bad Boys for Life
Image via Sony Pictures
Threequels can be alright sometimes. Even when it comes to action movies, look at something like the Die Hard series, where most would agree the third entry is the second-best, behind only the borderline-perfect first movie. There’s a little spark to Bad Boys for Life early on that makes it seem promising, and there are risks taken narratively, which makes it more admirable than its follow-up, Bad Boys: Ride or Die. While Marcus nearly dies at the start of that fourth film, here, it’s Mike who has a brush with death, coming even closer to dying. Another significant character is permanently killed off, establishing stakes, and there’s a plot twist later on that’s… ambitious, to be charitable.
Some might prefer the word “silly” over ambitious, though, and even if Bad Boys for Life doesn’t entirely jump the shark, it at least hops over a moderately large fish. The mean-spirited humor from the earlier two films is dialed down in a way that might’ve made Bad Boys for Life more palatable to critics, but it also results in things losing their edge. The series is called Bad Boys, and if the main characters are to lose some cool/attitude as they grow up, then fine, but it’s a bridge too far to make the film lose that sense of grit, chaos, and borderline nihilism. Bad Boys for Life is rather tame and disappointingly clean, lacking genuinely surprising or successful comedy. It is sort of competent as a barebones action-thriller movie, but it falls short of delivering some of the (admittedly sometimes nasty) goods the first two movies delivered.
Release Date
January 17, 2020
Runtime
124 Minutes
Director
Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah
2 'Bad Boys' (1995)
Director: Michael Bay
Martin Lawrence and Will Smith in Bad Boys (1995) directed by Michael Bay
Image via Columbia Pictures
The divisive Michael Bay was behind the first two Bad Boys movies, and it could well be thanks to him that they’re also the best of the bunch. The original was even Bay’s debut feature film, and feels appropriately aggressive in just how 1990s it is, with the sense of nostalgia probably helping it feel a little more charming. It’s also fairly modest, compared to where the series would eventually go, as there’s perhaps more of an emphasis on comedy over action here, owing to the smaller budget Bad Boys had compared to its sequels (it was made for about $23 million).
It gets kind of farcical, deriving its comedy from the fact that Mike’s a lady’s man and Marcus is a family man, yet the case they’re tackling involves them having to pretend to be the other for a significant amount of time. It’s not as bombastic as later Michael Bay movies, but hints of his later style are seen throughout, with both Smith and Lawrence instantly having great chemistry, the pairing ultimately elevating the decent (though not amazing) script. It was also a significant movie within Will Smith’s filmography in particular, marking the first of many times he excelled in an action film.
Release Date
July 18, 2003
Runtime
119 Minutes
Director
1 'Bad Boys II' (2003)
Director: Michael Bay
Martin Lawrence, Gabrielle Union, and Will Smith holding fire arms in police gear as Marcus Burnett, Syd, and Mike Lowrey in Bad Boys II.
Image via Sony Pictures Releasing
It might be a stretch to call it one of the best action movies of all time, given there are shortcomings present in Bad Boys II. Ironically, the most prominent of those shortcomings is that it’s a bit too long, clocking in at close to 2.5 hours, all the while every other film hovers around a more digestible/logical two-hour runtime. Some might also find the crude humor present in this sequel to be tacky, but it does at least make Bad Boys II memorable. Critics shredded it at the time, but anyone wanting bombastic action and frequent humor (some of it hitting, some of it missing) will find more of both here than in any other Bad Boys film.
The budget got significantly larger for Bad Boys II, and while a good chunk of that money likely went towards Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, on account of both being bigger stars by 2003, it’s plain to see that the action scenes also benefited from extra money being at play. It’s Bay doing his over-the-top thing, but the best action scenes here are ludicrously entertaining, especially an extended and destruction-heavy car chase near the end of the film’s first act. Smith and Lawrence are at their funniest here, too, the latter’s character accidentally getting high on ecstasy near the film's end while the pair also antagonize (soon-to-be recurring character) Reggie in the film’s funniest moment. The film opens with the pair violently taking down a bunch of KKK members, people flying through the air and Marcus also getting shot in the butt in ultra slow-motion. That energy is maintained for the rest of the film. If you’re on board with that opening 10 minutes, you’ll have fun. If you think it’s all stupid in a not fun way, turn around and do not proceed further. Anyone fortunate enough to get on the same strange wavelength as Bad Boys II might well agree that it represents the series at its wildest and anarchic best.
Out-of-control, trash-talking buddy cops Marcus Burnett and Mike Lowrey of the Miami Narcotics Task Force reunite, and bullets fly, cars crash and laughs explode as they pursue a whacked-out drug lord from the streets of Miami to the barrios of Cuba. But the real fireworks result when Marcus discovers that playboy Mike is secretly romancing Marcus’ sexy sister.