Will Smith has shared the first official look at Bad Boys 3 – officially titled Bad Boys for Life. Smith and Martin Lawrence team up once again as narcotics officers in Miami for the first time since 2003’s Bad Boys II.
In the Bad Boys franchise, Smith and Lawrence star as Detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett, respectively. In the first film, the two are forced to singlehandedly investigate a heist they believe is an inside job; in the sequel, they’re tasked with stopping a Cuban drug lord who is fueling an MDMA epidemic, while Mike conceals the fact that he’s dating Marcus’ sister – an undercover DEA agent named Syd (Gabrielle Union). Both films were directed by Michael Bay, and with Bad Boys for Life, Bay is passing the torch to the directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, who are also attached to Beverly Hills Cop 4. Bad Boys for Life will follow the two leads as they reconnect after a falling out in the midst of a hit put out on Mike and Marcus’ heads. Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Charles Melton, DJ Khaled, and Joe Pantoliano also star.
In anticipation of Bad Boys for Life, Smith posted a Boomerang photo on his Instagram featuring Lawrence and himself standing side-by-side with badges draped around their necks in a rundown apartment. Smith is holding a handgun, and he captioned the photo with the text: “FIRST LOOK! Theeeeey’re BAAAAaaaack! 🙂 @badboys.” The song playing over the post is P. Diddy’s aptly titled “Bad Boy for Life.” Though the photo doesn’t give away any specifics regarding the plot, it’s the first official shot of Mike and Marcus back on the job on screen for the first time in sixteen years.
Aside from their own personal struggles, Mike and Marcus will also be contending with a rival police unit who reportedly attempts to one-up the Bad Boys duo. The team is made up of Hudgens, Ludwig, and Melton’s characters, though it’s unclear how big of a role they’ll play in the overall story, considering Mike and Marcus already have plenty on their plate given the personal vendetta they’re dealing with.
While it’s no doubt exciting for fans of the Bad Boys franchise to revisit these characters again, it’ll be interesting to see how audiences will respond to Mike and Marcus’ relationship so long after the first film was released back in 1995. That said, as far as success goes, Bumblebee recently proved that trading in Bay as director for someone new isn’t necessarily bad luck for a franchise. Bumblebee became the most critically-lauded film in the Transformers franchise and considering neither Bad Boys nor Bad Boys II were exactly a hit with critics, changing the formula a bit for Bad Boys for Life could prove to be successful.
Source: Screen Rant
