Whatcha gonna do?
Let's be clear, before this goes any further - everyone wanted 'Bad Boys For Life' to be good, and the likelihood now is that it will be.
That said, the fact that no reviews were online with only two days to go before the movie's release isn't always a good sign. Moreover, the fact is that sequels - especially those that have such a long period of time between them - rarely tend to be as good as the original. Imagine our surprise, then, when the first reviews for 'Bad Boys For Life' landed online and they're all surprisingly positive.
As of writing, 'Bad Boys For Life' currently has a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and many of the reviews are praising its embrace of '90s action. For example, Leigh Monson's review on Birth.Movies.Death describes it as "funny as hell and the action is great. What more can you ask for in a 'Bad Boys' movie?" What indeed? Bilge Ebiri's review in Vulture calls it " slick, serviceable junk", but also praised the final 30 minutes or so for allowing Martin Lawrence's character to "perk up and start talking glorious shit to his co-star." Fantastic stuff. You just love to see it.
The Guardian scored the movie at 3 out of 5, while ScreenCrush and Uproxx scored it at 7 out of 10. The negative reviews, of which there are two so far, describe the movie as "a bland brew of sub-Bay attempts at action sequences", while the other from the Chicago Tribune calls it "the sort of shiny, energetic mess audiences won’t mind."
All in all, it sounds like the best possible version of a legacy sequel you could have hoped for with a movie like this. Our full review of 'Bad Boys For Life' will be online later tonight, so keep an eye out for that.