Both prior Bad Boys movies were directed by Michael Bay and specialized in gleeful spectacles of violence and profanity, as vice cops Lowrey and Burnett (Martin Lawrence) tore up the streets of Miami in pursuit of drug dealers and gangsters. Bad Boys for Life comes 17 years after his last go-round as Detective Mike Lowrey in Bad Boys II, and one could be forgiven for thinking fan interest in his high-octane, R-rated antics has waned. Read: How Hollywood became obsessed with de-aging its starsĮnter Bad Boys, his one remaining movie brand ( Men in Black was spun off without him last year, to little success). Smith’s celebrity hasn’t really diminished, but now in his early 50s, he’s been struggling to figure out his place in Hollywood. But his past decade has been rockier, dotted with flops ( After Earth), failed Oscar plays ( Concussion and Collateral Beauty), and poorly reviewed franchise films ( Suicide Squad and Aladdin). For years, his sheer star power could overwhelm any adversary starting with Bad Boys in 1995, he was the kind of marquee name who could make a hit out of nearly anything, a streak that continued for many years. Both Gemini Man and Bad Boys for Life deal with aging, with technology and crime-fighting methods evolving beyond tradition, and with the fragility of Smith’s onscreen image.

The parallel, intentional or not, is too glaring to ignore.

And in the climax of that movie, Smith also battles a (less literal) younger version of himself-a son he knew nothing of, who, much like the clone, was raised by villains. The film, directed by Ang Lee, was released last October three months later, Smith returned to cinemas in Bad Boys for Life, a long-awaited new entry in his buddy-cop franchise with Martin Lawrence.

Literally: He plays a retired assassin named Henry Brogan who finds out that he’s been cloned, and that sprightly double (created with de-aging technology) is now trying to eliminate his forebear. This story contains spoilers for Gemini Man and Bad Boys for Life.Īt the end of his 2019 action blockbuster Gemini Man, Will Smith battles a younger version of himself.

Bad boys 2019