Bad Boys: Ride or Die ★★★

LIKE most movie franchises, Bad Boys has become progressively weaker.

Unlike most movie franchises, the fourth instalment is better than the third.

Somewhat surprisingly, Bad Boys: Ride or Die is a significant improvement on 2020’s Bad Boys for Life which featured one of the most ludicrous plot twists of that movie year.

Considering the thinness of the buddy cop premise and ages of lead actors Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, you would be forgiven for not expecting a great deal.

But in Ride or Die there is still charisma apparent between them, a half decent storyline and some pretty good action sequences.

In the latest film, set four years later, detectives Mike Lowrey (Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) remain constantly bickering partners working the streets of Miami.

Mike is finally getting married but the reception is marred by Marcus having a heart attack.

With Mike struggling with his new responsibility and Marcus his mortality the pair also have to deal with the death of their veteran captain Conrad Howard.

The late Howard is then accused of being part of a drug conspiracy and the boys set out to prove his innocence.

Proceedings drag a little during the two-hour running time but the finale, set in an abandoned alligator-themed amusement park is well-staged and exciting.

Watched at the cinema.