In short
The movie makes propaganda of vulgarity, alcohol drinking, obscene lexicon, violence as the main means of solving problems. The main positive character is presented as a person with low moral qualities, who is inclined to act rashly and aggressively. Sometimes he behaves as a child, sometimes as a maniac. But as he has defeated the main villain, in general the audience’s sympathies are on his side.
In detail
After watching Bad Boys for Life I have a strong impression that simplification of content in genre ‘action movie’ continues to build up hard. And the thing is not just about common destructive settings as bar scenes, vulgar humour, admiration of cars, plenty of violence and obsession with someone’s own coolness; the thing is that the plot itself and the attitude of the characters are the height of stupidity and absurd. I have such a feeling that nowadays Hollywood movies are made on principle ‘the sillier and more obscene, the better!’.
A woman arranges a bloody murder of a prison warden and a medical team in order to escape the prison. Having got out she meets her son Armando and tells him that he must revenge for the death of his father, a famous Mexican drug lord. So that he should kill everybody who was a part of 20-years-ago events. Her son who absolutely accidentally happens to be a super-professional killer, starts by himself to shoot different high officials, including making an attempt on the main character, a detective Mike Lowrey. After that the latter gets to hospital for several months.
The elite team of the American police cannot get on the trail of Armando for half a year. The latter absolutely openly arranges carnages in the major cities in broad daylight (they even do not try to follow the surveillance cameras to find out from where and where his motorcycle goes). When Mike finally leaves the hospital, he and his partner Marcus quickly reach out to informants and through them to the main killer. Closer to the final the movie transformed into “Santa-Barbara”. Mike find out that the killer who is being searched by everyone is his son by his only “love” of a lifetime that he put in jail 20 years ago as she was a mad sadistic witch. In the final scene the witch is killed, and Mike saves his son and, according to the emotionality of the scene and tonality of talkings, he does not condemn him morally. But all the latter did was chopping everybody everywhere throughout the movie. With pain in his heart for his blood and soul, Mike still puts Armando in prison for crimes committed, but promises to visit regularly! Happy ending!
Idea settings in the movie
Since the plot itself does not cause anything but rejection, we will go through some typical moments. Such movies are often created for the sake of such “settings” to have a certain influence on lovers of “public executions” (some time ago people gathered in the square to see how the next criminal was being got on the scaffold, and today you can go to the cinema for a thriller or a horror movie to enjoy a bloody spectacle…):
- Alcohol is an integral attribute of any important events in the lives of the characters: a child’s birth is an excuse to get drunk; you want to talk to a friend – a bottle will help you; a villain has been defeated – go immediately to the bar to celebrate; you recover from injuries – alcohol is the best medicine; a wedding celebration – a toast to the health of the young, etc. In general, certain alcoholic products are present in the frame for about 10-15 minutes of the entire duration of the movie. Through this obsessive emphasis on this topic, viewers are trained to a similar lifestyle with regular self-poisoning with alcohol. As the German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin said “There is no better way to create idiots than alcohol.”
- If you are an adult man and a successful professional in your business, it is quite natural to constantly swear, flaunt your coolness and regularly make jokes on toilet topics. And what else can discuss two best friends except their achievements at an intimate front?
- The main character must be an upstart and loner, and preferably reckless, impulsive and arrogant. Only then he will be successful in all things. “Armando, he’s the same age, crazy like me, merciless like me and pushy like me” says with a serious look the main POSITIVE character of the movie, whom the audience seems to like. It turns out that being crazy and ruthless is kind of a good thing… Another time he also teaches “in the fight against the criminal it is important to be a criminal a little bit!” In fact, the image of such characters transmits the message that any methods are good on the way to achieve your goal.. But in life, unlike movies, such an ideology does not lead to anything good.
- Violence is a great way to solve all problems. Why should you turn on your brain when you can just kill someone you do not like or who stands in your way? And in the 21st century hitting fingers of an uncooperative accomplice with a hammer is still the most reliable method to find out some important information.
- You are the master of life, and you can freely drive through crowded streets at high speed, putting dozens of pedestrians at risk just because you like it, or because you want to please your friend, quickly taking him to the hospital to meet his first grandchild. A friend is much more important than a possible accidental death of a passerby. The described logic of behaviour is again represented by the POSITIVE character of the movie.
- It is the best way to fill numerous small scenes that last just a couple of seconds and have nothing to do with the plot with half-naked women’s bodies in swimsuits, glasses, cigars or pornographic sites and scenes with perversions. After all, these are excellent complements to the general message of the movie on degradation!
- For a complete set it would be good to reveal the mother theme. In the movie, the word “mother” is always heard, but it is tied to the most ruthless character, who kills everyone in cold blood, even her son, when he gets in her way. For two hours the word “Mother” has been used dozens of times to call a real fiend of hell, which unwittingly builds extremely negative associations with this holy word for every person. It is fair to say that there are several bright scenes in the movie that describe the joy of giving birth to a child. But they always alternate with other episodes in which the “mother” instructs her “son” whom and how to kill.
- The creators of the movie have thoroughly mocked believers putting such concepts as religion, God, karma and so on in an idiotic light (all gotl – from Buddhists to Christians). This message was revealed through Marcus’s behaviour, who at some point decided to give up violence and think about the man’s mission, but, of course, nothing came of it. In general, the story gives the impression that God approves of any methods of violence and does not even give people the opportunity to solve conflict situations in any other way. These are movie authors’ ideas about our universe, which they broadcast to a mass audience.
Is there something good in the movie?
Yes, it is. The main characters constantly sing Bob Marley’s song “Bad Boys” and there are such lines:
Why did you have to act so mean don’t you know
You’re a human being
Born of a mother with the love of a father
Reflections come and reflections go
I know sometimes you want to let go
I know sometimes you want to let go
But the movie creators apparently decided to go on a different path and agitate the audience in the direction of degradation, giving a very clearly understood name to their picture: “Bad Boys for Life”.
Source: Film reviews on KinoCensor
Translated by Xenia Shmonina