Bad Boys For Life Trailer: Will Smith And Martin Lawrence Ride Together Again

It's almost impossible to believe, but after close to 20 years, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are back together again. And while they certainly are ride-or-die friends, we're betting they probably won't die together in the new Bad Boys movie, Bad Boys for Life.

To those of you who still don't believe the pair are back in the proverbial saddle for the long-awaited third installment in the Bad Boys franchise, the first official Bad Boys for Life trailer is here to prove that the movie is very much in the pipeline — and very much on its way to a theater near you soon. From the look of things, the self-proclaimed bad boys are set to deliver another action-packed adventure that'll rain no end of fire and bullets over the streets of Miami.   

The trailer drop is certainly exciting but not surprising, as we've known for some time now that Bad Boys for Life was on the way. Those who've been paying close attention to the film's ever-shifting production status know that the fact that Bad Boys for Life exists at all is a minor miracle in its own right. While the producers behind the Bad Boy film series have been trying to get a threequel made since the Michael Bay-helmed Bad Boys II scored $273 million at the worldwide box office way back in 2003, Will Smith's superstar status and Martin Lawrence's, ahem, "issues" forced the project to the fringes for about a decade. But it's 2019, and Hollywood is clearly completely out of fresh ideas, so Bad Boys 3 is upon us.

Truth be told, there were a lot of reasons to not make a new Bad Boys movie, and most of those reasons remain valid. The one good reason to deliver a third Bad Boys flick has always been the undeniably infectious chemistry between Smith and Lawrence as Detective Lieutenant Michael Lowrey and Detective Lieutenant Marcus Burnett, respectively. That chemistry is what likely kept producers talking about Bad Boys for Life in spite of it's on-again, off-again status of late.

For those who weren't keeping track, Bad Boys for Life was very close to being made a few years back with Joe Carnahan (Narc, The Grey) writing and directing. Studio heads were so taken with Carnahan's screenplay, they even green-lit a fourth film at the time. Just when things were looking good for the Bad Boys team, however, scheduling conflicts complicated the production schedule, Carnahan left the project, and the film was removed from the Columbia-Sony release schedule altogether. 

Over a year passed without any fresh news on the status of Bad Boys for Life, and many fans began to think that the franchise was dead and buried for good. Lawrence seemed to confirm that fact himself in the wake of Carnahan's departure, so it was a welcome surprise to all when Will Smith officially announced Bad Boys For Life was on again late last year. Now through production, the first tangible proof that Bad Boys For Life will indeed see the light of multiplexes has arrived. 

Even with the glorious new trailer, we still don't know have a ton of info on the film. What we do know is that — despite his departure from the director's chair — producers decided to keep the bulk of Carnahan's screenplay, though he's now sharing a writing credit with Chris Bremmer. Either way, that's good news, as Carnahan's writing style always seemed a perfect fit for the world of Bad Boys. 

With a first look at the trailer, Smith and Lawrence appear to be in vintage form quipping back and forth like they've been doing it on the regular in the 16 years since Bad Boys II. As far as who they're facing off against in Bad Boys for Life, it seems there's a vengeful Albanian mercenary running amok in Miami, and they're tasked with bringing down the baddie and his crew. 

But does anybody really care who the bad guys are in a Bad Boys movie? Most of us are there for the chippy dialogue, the badass explosions, and the hand-wringing vitriol spewing from the mouth the great Joe Pantoliano, who plays Captain Conrad Howard, the bad boys' boss. For the record, all of those elements feature heavily in this first trailer, so it appears Bad Boys is still very much Bad Boys. And it certainly looks like Bad Boys for Life directors Adil El Arbi and Billlal Fallah (tasked with bringing some Bayhem to the series in lieu of Mr. Bay himself) are putting some seriously stylish touches on all the big-budget bombast. 

Luckily, the wait to find out if Smith and Lawrence can still bring the buddy-cop funny to the farcical action world is almost over. Bad Boys for Life is slated to hit theaters onJanuary 17, 2020. The only question that remains is, "What ya gonna do when they come for you?"