Bad Boys For Life hit digital release earlier this week, the long-awaited sequel to the hit action franchise reteaming Will Smith and Martin Lawrence after 17 years. It was absolutely worth the wait – the movie is hilarious, packed with amazing action sequences, and surprisingly emotional for a buddy cop movie. Plus, the digital release comes loaded with over an hour of bonus features that are an absolute must-watch for fans, not the least of which is an alternate ending that changes a pretty huge element of the film’s climax.
It’s a robust offering of bonus material, including several deleted scenes, a gag reel, 6 in-depth behind-the-scenes featurettes, a breakdown of all the easter eggs and nods to the previous films, and a truly excellent parody audition tape featuring sports commentator Stephen A. Smith. There are some major spoilers ahead, so if you haven't seen Bad Boy For Life yet, you might want to check it out before reading any further.
The deleted scenes are mostly extended versions of sequences that are already in the film. Some notable ones include a longer version of the impressive oner that follows Mike (Smith) out of Captain Howard’s (Joe Pantoliano) office, down the hall and into the elevator. In this uncut version, the oner continues as Mike has a tense conversation with Rita (Paola Núñez) until the elevator opens up on the next floor and follows the two out into the AMMO team’s headquarters. Another one provides a funny prologue to the scene wherein Mike rushes into the spa to secretly drop Marcus’ (Lawrence) grandkid off – in the extended version, Mike runs into a woman at the front desk who recognizes him from a previous romantic encounter, and Mike absolutely cannot remember her name or where they met. A few of the other scenes offer a little more meat and depth to the film’s dramatic scenes. Every single one of them is worth watching, and they make me wish for a directors’ cut with all of them reintegrated back into the movie.
Of course, the most major deleted scene actually provides an alternate ending, which is basically a slightly altered version of the final action scene at the mansion in Mexico. In this version, Armando (Jacob Scipio) does not get shot by Isabel (Kate del Castillo) after stepping in front of Mike to stop the bullet. Instead, Rita appears on the stairwell and shoots Isabel dead before she can fire. Enraged, Armando picks up a gun and tearfully points it at Mike, who says “That’s enough, no more blood.” Then, just as in theatrical version, Marcus is knocked off the balcony by an explosion, and Armando ultimately decides to help Mike pull Marcus up rather than kill him. It feels like the scene was altered to the one that appears in the theatrical version perhaps in response to test screenings where audiences felt the villain turns against his mother too easily. Either way, it’s interesting to see how the climax was originally envisioned.
The Gag Reel is a brief montage of funny outtakes and bloopers. It mainly serves as a showcase of how charismatic all the performers are and how much they enjoyed making the movie. Smith in particular is a predictable bulldozer of charm - in one particularly memorable outtake, del Castillo and Smith are filming a scene in which she is supposed to be interrogating him while he is tied to a chair, and she accidentally puts her chair down on his foot. He tries to hold it together for a moment and then, very politely, tells her she's crushing his foot, and everyone on set breaks up.
The behind-the-scenes featurettes make up the bulk of the bonus materials, and they cover virtually every aspect of filming, featuring interviews with several cast and crew members, including Smith and Lawrence, the directors Adil and Bilall, and uber producer Jerry Bruckheimer. The information here is detailed and interesting, covering everything from the scripting to the stunt work and even a retrospective of the entire series containing behind-the-scenes footage from the first two films that I had never seen before. However, the definite highlight is that every featurette contains footage from an in-depth one-on-one conversation between Smith and Lawrence. The chemistry they have onscreen in the Bad Boys movies is 100% present in this conversation, and they trade jokes and stories and share insights about their experiences working on all three films. It’s a really awesome treat for fans of the series.
In the Easter Egg featurette, directors Abdil and Bilall walk us through every hidden reference to the previous films they snuck in. The two directors have such an engaging, goofy energy, and are such die-hard Bad Boys fans, that its easy to find their excitement infectious as they talk about sneaking in nods to the earlier Michael Bay films, including a cameo of Bay himself. (They stress that Bay directed that scene and not them, because nobody directs Michael Bay except Michael Bay.)
Finally, the bonus materials end with a short sketch starring Stephen A. Smith, in which he auditions for Smith and Lawrence for a role in the film. It was absolutely the last thing I was expecting to see, and it’s pretty dang funny, especially if you’re familiar with Stephen A.’s television persona.
Bad Boys For Life was already a must-purchase for me. Despite the absence of Michael Bay and the near 20 year gap since Bad Boys II, the movie is everything a fan of the series could’ve wanted, plus a surprising amount of emotion and drama. I would’ve been satisfied with just a copy of the movie itself, but the cornucopia of quality bonus material included means I cannot recommend this purchase enough. For fans of the series, it’s an irresistible package. I’m considering buying multiple copies and emailing them to random people to spread the good word of Mike Lowery and Marcus Burnett. For more on Bad Boys For Life, check out our extended Q&A with directors Adil and Bilall.