‘These two dudes are total opposites... it’s the yin and the yang that pulls it all together’
Will Smith and Martin Lawrence have reprised their roles of Miami detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett, more than 20 years after Bad Boys II. They explain to Laura Harding what inspired them, while the directors reveal what it was like to have their
It’s been 25 years since Bad Boys first burst on to the big screen, full of swagger, stunts andthatfamoussong.fresh Prince Of Bel Air star Will Smith and funnyman Martin Lawrencebothleftthe small screen behind and became bona fide movie stars after their performances as bad ass
Miami narcotics detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett, and the film was such a hit they followed it up with 2003’s sequel Bad Boys II.
Now they are finally back together for the long-awaited third instalment Bad Boys For Life, but it’s hard to deny that some things have changed.
The film opens in traditional style, with the duo racing through the streets of Miami in a 992-generation Porsche.
But it is revealed it isn’t criminals they are after, they are racing to the hospital in time to see the birth of Marcus’ granddaughter.
“We wanted to immediately embrace the fact that time has gone by for Mike and Marcus, as it does for everyone,” says Smith, who is now 51.
“The opening sequence with Marcus becoming a grandfather is new territory that launches these characters’ stories into another chapter.”
But while Mike thinks he is the same guy he’s always been, Marcus is starting to think it’s time to retire.
“These two dudes are total opposites in every way, but that’s why they work so well together,” Smith adds.
Lawrence, who is now 55, agrees. “It’s the yin and the yang that pulls it all together.
“Audiences wanted to see us together again because the two characters work so well together. But as Marcus says in the film, ‘This ain’t the same old song. This here’s the remix’.”
That remix comes in the form of someone from Mike’s past, who seems to want him dead.
“Mike tries to convince Marcus to join him for this final ride, but Marcus is done with all that, at least at first,” Smith says.
“I thought that was a great dynamic to explore: how friendships pull apart.
“When people aren’t willing to grow, they can divert from their friends’ pathway.
“You start to see a separation between Mike and Marcus in this way.”
And it’s not just their dynamic that is changing.
The old school pair also have to contend with the elite new police unit Advance Miami Metro Operations (AMMO), which has introduced high-tech investigative tactics to the Miami PD.
“It’s the Bad Boys versus this new style of policing,” Smith says.
“That was another aspect that really drew me into this story — Mike and Marcus know how to get it done by kicking down doors, but then these AMMO guys come in and show there’s a different way, guys.
“And you know Mike Lowrey loves kicking stuff,” Lawrence adds. “He doesn’t just kick the door open; he kicks it off the hinges.
“And now this new wave of cops comes in and wants them using non-lethal weapons.”
Exploring the impact of the passage of time, and how it feels to get older, was a key theme for the film’s Belgian directors Adil El Arbi (31) and Bilall Fallah (34) who were still children when the first Bad Boys films were in the cinema.
“Will didn’t want to make a third movie just a copy of the other ones,” El Arbi says. “He wanted to acknowledge what it meant for these two guys who were the bad boys.
“What does it mean when one wants to stay young and the other wants to just acknowledge the fact he’s older and wants to retire and that conflict between those two characters.
“I think that was a smart move from Will, to push the creators and the screenwriters in that direction, because it’s another theme we could take on.
“I was eight-years-old when I saw the first one, and after the second movie there were a lot of thoughts about making a third one. We were still teenagers, not even in film school, but it was always a running gag with me and Bilall, if they are not going to make Bad Boys, we are going to make that movie, right?” Fallah laughs at the memory. “I remember when I was on the playground playing as if I was one of the Bad Boys, I was really little. I think I’m the biggest fan. So when we were on set, it’s like you’re in a dream, it’s like it’s not real.
“You see Will Smith and Martin Lawrence and Jerry Bruckheimer (the superstar producer) on the set and we look at each other and we are like, ‘What the hell are we doing here?’
“But they gave us so much trust, so much confidence, they were really like our big brothers and it was just fun to make this movie with our heart and soul.”
They even got to direct one of their heroes, the film-maker Michael Bay, who directed the first two Bad Boys movies and has a cameo in this film.
So with attention inevitably turning to a possible Bad Boys 4, how could they possibly top that?
“That is difficult,” El Arbi admits. “There were so many surprises, so many unexpected scenes, that we want to have the same kind of unexpected scenes in the fourth movie, so that it doesn’t become just a sequel, just a copy or just a cash grab.
“We want to have a really interesting story that we can tell, we feel that with these two characters we can tell one.”
Bad Boys For Life is out on DVD and Blu-ray on Sunday and available for digital download now
ROCKETMAN
(15, 121 mins)
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video Executive-produced by Elton John and directed by Dexter Fletcher, substitute captain of Oscar-winning juggernaut Bohemian Rhapsody, Rocketman is a crowd-pleasing biopic that won’t go breaking the hearts of the singer-songwriter’s fans.
Scriptwriter Lee
Hall, who pirouetted to the Academy Awards with Billy Elliot, attempts to serve John’s competing personalities: moments of quiet introspection for the self-doubting introvert who is emotionally bruised by his childhood, and splashes of eye-popping spectacle
ELYSIUM
(15, 107 mins) Screening on Sony Movies on Sunday, May 24 at 9pm and Tuesday, May 26 at 11.30pm
SOUTH African writer-director Neill Blomkamp painted a bleak vision of the future in his superb debut, District 9, set in the slums of Johannesburg. His polished follow-up, Elysium, is even grimmer, imagining two distinct classes, whose chances of survival are directly linked to their bank balance.
A muscular and brooding Matt Damon plays a factory worker who is exposed to dangerous levels of radiation during an industrial accident. His only chance of survival is to for
for the flamboyant peacock who escapes reality with snorts of nose candy.
The polite amalgamation of Bohemian Rhapsody and The Greatest Showman achieves lift-off in spectacularly choreographed musical set-pieces that energise a briskly sketched opening hour.
Egerton is endearing and goes one better than Oscar winner Rami Malek by singing John’s songs rather than lip-syncing original vocals. When Los Angeles club owner Doug Weston (Tate Donovan) advises John to “put on a great show and don’t kill yourself with drugs”, Fletcher’s film straps on a feathered headdress and does its best to oblige.
cibly access medical facilities aboard a state-of-the-art space station monitored by Jodie Foster’s no-nonsense secretary of defence.
Elysium is an entertaining yarn, which unfolds at a brisk pace, punctuated by flashbacks to a romantic bond between the factory worker and a plucky nurse (Alice Braga). Damon (left) is an imposing physical presence while Foster slinks with lip-smacking relish through every frame. Action sequences are slickly orchestrated and Blomkamp brings together all of the surviving characters for a rousing slam-bang finale that proves one brave man can make a difference.