The buddy cop franchise starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence is back this summer. Check out the first trailer for Bad Boys: Ride or Die below. Smith plays Mike Lowrey and Lawrence plays Marcus Burnett, two cops who work together well when they aren’t driving each other crazy. It’s not quite the Odd Couple, but the franchise has had a successful run, with sequels Bad Boys, Bad Boys II, and Bad Boys for Life featuring the duo coming back for more.
The latest sequel co-stars Joe Pantoliano, Vanessa Hudgens, Paola Núñez, Ioan Gruffudd, Alexander Ludwig, and Tasha Smith.
But wait, aren’t we forgetting something?
Yes: the two-season series L.A.′s Finest, which from 2019 to 2020 delivered a raunchy, action-packed spinoff of Bad Boys. Smith and Lawrence weren’t there, but they didn’t need to be. Gabrielle Union reprises her role as Syd Burnett (sister of Lawrence’s character), a former DEA agent turned L.A. detective and Jessica Alba (Dark Angel, Fantastic Four) as ex-U.S. Navy intelligence expert, now detective Nancy McKenna. They were wisecracking partners in the Bad Boys mold. Take a look at our review of the series here at borg.
The series really does have it all: a stellar ensemble cast that includes Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters, Law & Order), as Union’s father; Ryan McPartlin (Chuck’s Captain Awesome) as Alba’s D.A. husband; Zack Guilford (The Last Stand) and Duane Martin (Scream 2) as fellow detectives “the Bens;” Sophie Reynolds (Gamer’s Guide to Pretty Much Everything) as Alba’s stepdaughter; Barry Sloane (Longmire); and Alba’s real life brother Joshua as her on-screen brother Nico, along with Jake Busey (Starship Troopers), D.J. Cotrona (Shazam, G.I. Joe: Retaliation), Orlando Jones (Sleepy Hollow), Kelly Hu (Arrow), and David Fumero (Magnum P.I.). It also had great writing, strong production value (explosions, car chases, and over-the-top shoot ’em-ups at drug kingpin compounds), great music, and it full embraces the original.
So check out the movies, but don’t forget the series. And here’s the trailer for the latest:
Look for Bad Boys: Ride or Die in theaters June 7, 2023. Stream the movies on Vudu, Amazon, and other streamers now, and catch up with L.A.’s Finest on the free platform Tubi.
C.J. Bunce / Editor / borg
