The film is directed by a full time visual artist and part time director, Jeff Fowler. It is written by Pat Casey and Josh Miller who I would say are insufficiently experienced. A combination of such an unversed crew, can be hazardous.
First of all, it is good to have Jim Carrey (as Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik) back in a wholesome role and in a large scaled film after 6 years. In between, he was a part of two small scaled films, in 2016, which didn’t receive as much appreciation critically or monetarily. Surprisingly, he wasn’t in his fullest form in Sonic The Hedgehog too. Yet, it seemed like he tried.
I also realized that it might have been a burden on the actors when your story isn’t uncommon or out of the box. But, it was a team effort when they [James Marsden (as Tom Wachowski), Tika Sumpter (as Maddie Wachowski), Natasha Rothwell (as Rachel) and Adam Pally (as Wade Whipple)] equally distributed the responsibility among all and performed high-spiritedly.
The winner of the film is undeniably Ben Schwartz who voiced the animated character of Sonic. His voice gave the perfect liveliness to the character, which is how it originally is. Energetic. Furthermore, there was a bit of comedic dialogue given to Marsden and most of it to Schwartz & Carrey, which I feel should’ve been more on the whole. The score by Tom Holkenborg is quite alright, too.
I don’t understand why are the lead cast and producers insisting on promoting the film so much. It had been a hit film series! Well, it could be because the director has changed. And a director duo, Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah, from Belgium had been hired.
Initially to release in February 2017, this film took a lot of postponement. When Michael Bay (the director of the first two parts) was dropped out of consideration to make this third installment, Joe Carnahan was in conversations to make it. However, he just ended up being one of the writers alongside, Peter Craig and Chris Bremner.
The plot, not being a fresh new concept and the monotonous “blast from the past”, is covered up by some great cinematography Robrecht Heyvaert, superlative dialogue and marvelous performances by the cast. Honestly, I didn’t find Bad Boys (1995) to be so fascinating. There was too much dialogue (especially given to Martin Lawrence) which made it really frustrating at on many occasions. But here, it was equally balanced. The perfect amount of comedy and action blended together.
We are in that time and era where we, as audience, have been spoilt with such beautifully crafted action films where we hardly notice the background score because it is integrated so well with the film’s sequences. And the background score here was minutely kiddish. The background music starting before the scene itself, made it seem like Lorne Balfe is new to the business. Moreover, the supporting cast, Vanessa Hudgens (as Kelly), Charles Melton (as Rafe), Alexander Ludwig (as Dorn) and Paola Núñez (as Rita) were much needed to add a new-aged zest.
I am thrilled for Will Smith as he finally hits the bulls eye after two really below average films during the winter, last year. He is one of my favorite actors in Hollywood and he proved this, yet again. Martin Lawrence, unfortunately, seemed really restrained, making me realize that it’s really been 17 years since the last Bad Boys film released. But his monologues were really funny, as usual. It was really fun to watch a few of the actors from the original Bad Boys (1995). Theresa Randle (as Theresa Burnett) and Joe Pantoliano (as Conrad Howard) being a couple of them, were delightful.
Apart from Smith, I think the show stopper has to be the actor who played the second antagonist after Kate del Castillo (as Isabel Aretas), Jacob Scipio (as Armando Armas). His confidence, action, dialogue delivery and the complete presence were incredible. Castillo’s vicious look and performance actually portrayed fear. Furthermore, there still were palpable glitches in the visual effects in this flick, which reminded me of Gemini Man and was the main reason I disliked that film.
I loved how the the screenplay was written in a way where the old, technology-less cast (Smith and Lawrence) were forced to brew together with the new cast (Hudgens, Ludwig, Melton and Núñez) to have an access to the advance tech, in order to accelerate things faster. Watch Bad Boys For Life for the action, the comedy, a nice direction and Will Smith. Also, DJ Khaled was nowhere required in the film. Maybe there were favors being exchanged?
The interesting cast was the green signal for me to watch this film alone. Let alone the fact that it was of the animated with a spy genre. But are the stars of Will Smith in his favor, especially after his big failure Gemini Man? Let’s find out.
As you all are aware how much I still love animated films in this day and age. Still, not every film succeeds on the basis of a happy ending or by giving an inspirational message. Unfortunately, this is one of them. Critically speaking, there are better stories out there which have won hearts. One main feature of a cartoon film is that it consists of each aspect equally, action, comedy and drama. More often, it’s the comedy quotient which is comparatively higher. Stories are always predictable in any animated film. It’s how you direct (Troy Quane & Nick Bruno), the background score (Theodore Shapiro) and the smallest of details which matter.
Fortunately, the flick is inclusive of comedic scenes, but not enough. There are action scenes, but not enough. The chemistry between Will Smith (Lance Sterling) and Tom Holland (Walter Beckett) is great. The background score is superbly thought of and composed. The direction is okay. Ben Mendelsohn (as Killian) voices a brilliant antagonist. Rashida Jones (as Marcy Kappel), Karen Gillan (as Eyes) and DJ Khaled (as Ears), Masi Oka (as Katsu Kimura) and Reba McEntire (as Joy Jenkins) aid the lead actors really well.
In fact, even the rest of the supporting cast did really well. However, there was the X factor missing, which decides the film’s critical success, according to me. I feel there was a lot lacking as I mentioned above. It is based on a short film Pigeon: Impossible by Lucas Martell, wherein, he shows a unique concept of how pigeons are really considered insignificant. Screenplay writers Brad Copeland and Lloyd Taylor tried to incorporate this into a 102 minute big scale film. Appealing yet not convincing.
While I write my views about Spies In Disguise right now, I checked the film’s worldwide earnings simultaneously, and found out that they haven’t even reached the original budget amount of the film after 17 days of it’s release to break even. I think this alone proves that people who have seen the film “worldwide” aren’t recommending it to their friends and family. As I wouldn’t do to you.
