Will Smith Shares Emotional Tribute to Bad Boys for Life Co-Star Martin Lawrence

Bad Boys for Life surprised a lot of people at the box office, and Will Smith is taking a minute to show his appreciation for Martin Lawrence on Instagram. The star talked about the chemistry between the two with clips from previous media interviews featuring the two together. It shows just how much time has passed between the first film and now. A lot of people in the comments love seeing Smith and Lawrence appreciate each other on this level. And now, it looks like we’re headed for another Bad Boys movie as the next one has already begun development. Smith told Jimmy Fallon about their approach to the series heading into Bad Boys for Life.

“What we tried to do, that was really critical and important to me, is not try to just do the old movies again,” Smith reflected on the Bad Boys franchise. “You had to take into consideration the time, had to take into consideration how the characters would have grown. And the reason it took so long is because I didn’t want to make it just as a cash grab. You know, ‘Hey, everybody loves sequels, let’s just do a sequel.’”

“I had fumbled a couple of my last sequels. You know, I wasn’t happy with the Men in Black sequel. It’s fantastic. Y’all gonna love it. Because I say that a lot,” Smith joked. “I’m going to keep it real: sometimes I say ‘y’all are gonna love it,’ and y’all not gonna love it. You know, ’cause sometimes I’ve seen it, and I know y’all not gonna love it, but it’s an expensive movie. But this time…it is so good.”

Comicbook.com’s Kofi Outlaw enjoyed this nostalgia trip and recognized how both of the actors really brought their A-game. He said, “Smith and (especially) Lawrence each step up to carry their respective new dramatic weight, and the friendship between Mike and Marcus deepens in ways we haven’t seen before. While the increased dramatic elements add substantive weight to the story (something Michael Bay never managed), it also slows the story down to a slow-burn pace. By the time that familiar Bad Boys swagger returns in full force, it’s well into the film’s two-hour run time; however, when that third act showdown arrives, Smith and Lawrence make it feel like they never missed a beat, let alone 13 years. Bad Boys for Life also takes the bold risk of throwing in some massive twists to the larger franchise mythos (if you can call it that), and manages to (mostly) pull them off cleanly, setting up a fresh new foundation that could help carry the franchise forward.”