If you haven't watched this movie, be warned, spoilers abound in this article. What you learn here from this point onward is your responsibility.
To continue, this latest installment of the franchise, 17 years after Bad Boys II (2003) continues with our lead actors reprising their roles as the dynamic duo. We see Mike Lowrey (played by Will Smith) with his supercar again teaming up with stress free practicing Marcus Burnett (played by Martin Lawrence).
The movie starts off with the escape of Isabel Aretas (played by Kate del Castillo) from a mexican prison. She being the widow of a cartel kingpin, she vowed retribution to those responsible on her husband's death. While in the comforts of Mexico, she uses her son to carry out her orders in Miami, Florida.
Meanwhile, Marcus is elated to be a grandfather and mulls the idea of him retiring any time soon. Mike scoffs at the idea of him retiring as he thinks they are bad boys for life. Mike has been single all this time so he can't understand what Marcus' mind is going through. While celebrating Marcus' being a grandfather with their police collegues, Mike was brutally gunned down via a drive by shooting. This put Mike in a coma for months and Isabel reprimanded her son for targetting him first. While Mike was in that state, Armando (Isabel's son played by Jacob Scipio) continues killing the people responsible for his father's death.
When Mike finally wakes up, he learned that Marcus was already retired. No words of encourage from Mike can entice Marcus to return to being a cop. So Mike pursued the case on his own, much to the chagrin of their Captain Howard (played by Joe Pantoliano). The latter seeing that Mike is doing his own investigation to his own shooting, he gave Mike the "consulting" capacity into the assigned elite team lead by Rita Secada (played by Paola Nunez). They were making headway when suddenly Captain Howard was assassinated by Armado with Mike beside him. The death of the Captain was then instrumental in the return of Marcus into the force. Bad boys for life indeed.
With the tandem back in full swing, they were able to confront Armando and his gang but failed to arrest him. This failure was then used to shut down the operation of Rita's elite team. Also during the chase, Mike surmised that Armando was his son. It turned out, Mike had a fling with Isabel and that her husband was not capable of bearing children. Mike then is confronted with this dilemma.
Seeing no other way to demand justice for the things Armando has done, Mike proceeds to follow Armando to Mexico alone. Marcus followed him on the plane and both then went after Armando and his mother Isabel. Unknown to them, the whole elite team including Rita also followed suit promising to back our heroes.
The final confrontation in Mexico happened in an old building called Hidalgo Palace and as usual of the bad boys routine, a fire fight ensued. In one of the moments here Mike managed to tell Armando that he is his father. Armando couldn't believe it until Isabel confirmed it. Isabel then instructs Armando to kill Mike but the latter was still confused, Isabel then tried to shoot Mike hitting Armando instead. Isabel tried again to shoot Mike but was instead preempted by Rita who shot her instead leading to her death in the fires below.
Mike and Marcus then escaped the burning building bringing along Armando who survived the chest wound earlier. The team survived as well and went back to Miami with Rita promoted as Captain thereafter. Mike and Marcus then was assigned the elite team formerly headed by Rita.
Mike then visits his son Armando in prison, offering him a chance to redeem himself for which he agreed.
The bad boys franchise is known for its gun slinging, car tumbling, bone cracking situations and this movie is almost at par with them. Although it doesn't have the excess in action in them as this is not Bayhem (Michael Bay). Still you will appreciate the directors trying to emulate the first two films so as not to antagonize its fans. Michael Bay is really into the action sequences much to that it decreases the focus on its villains and story plot. Surprisingly this third film is a lot better in terms of villains and story line.
In the previous films, the villains were so corny or cartoony that you immediately they are the anti heroes who just like to gun people down for the heck of it. There was no direct connection to Marcus and Mike and it was all coincidental. In Bad Boys for Life, there was a deep connection between Mike and Isabel. The two had an illicit relationship that bore a son, and it was Mike's undercover work that got Isabel behind bars and lead to the death of her cartel husband. Isabel hid the truth from Armando and the viewers (thats us) begin to identify with Mike's dilemma on this newfound truth.
We all know Mike being the single for all this time, with his Porsche and flashy sense of fashion, after 17 years, he is now facing the next life of fatherhood. He is not invincible anymore and it gave him a new purpose in life. Although it wasn't made certain here what his new purpose is, except maybe to help his son, but we felt a shift in Mike's character in the movie.
Will Smith is still impeccable here with his performance and we liked him here unlike the shabby acting he did (or was it his CGI younger self) in Gemini Man. He was so so performance in Independence day but here, he was comfortable as Mike Lowrey and delivered his character to a respectable level.
We can also say Martin Lawrence (after a long hiatus in movies) continued to deliver his comedic timing to perfection along with Will Smith. They look good together on screen and their chemistry shows. The back and forth jokes and sarcasm was perfect in most parts making these two fun to watch. Other characters were okay to watch as well, but I can't help it if some of them didn't shine. I owe it to the script and it wasn't their fault if they were not given ample scenes to showcase their characters more.
A new character, Captain Rita Secada, seemed to stand out among the newbies. Her character had a past with Mike Lowrey and seems they will expound on this in future installments. We can dare say that a sequel is in the works as the last scene shows Mike showing up in Armando's prison cell. That is a cliffhanger worthy of a next film. We shall expect a Mike, Marcus and Armando show with a romance angle with Captain Secada.
