On the week Bad Boys: Ride or Die passed $400 million at the global box office, the fourth chapter in Martin Lawrence and Will Smith’s crowd-pleaser franchise received a precious endorsement from none other than Stephen King.
The accomplished American author, who infamously provides commentary for everything from the current state of affairs to his favorite recent watches and reads on his X account, gave the 2024 summer action comedy blockbuster his seal of approval, calling it “a lot of fun.” He took the opportunity to spotlight comedy legend Martin Lawrence’s performance, saying he “always makes [him] laugh,” but the lack of love for Martin’s controversial co-star raised eyebrows among King’s followers.
While we doubt King omitted Will Smith from his review on purpose, the 55-year-old actor has been a bit of a sensitive topic ever since the now-infamous Oscars kerfuffle of 2022 where he slapped Chris Rock on stage. Bad Boys 4 has been Smith’s big return to the silver screen after the critical and commercial failure of Apple TV Plus’ Emancipation on the heels of the slap scandal. The comedy movie even went out of its way to make fun of the incident in its script, fully embracing its role in Smith’s career turnaround. And it’s working.
Not only has Bad Boys: Ride or Die become a box office hit, but it has also appeased audiences and critics. Lawrence and Smith’s chemistry on whose shoulders this franchise was built has obviously received most of the praise, but critics have also recognized and complimented director duo Bilall Fallah and Adil El Arbi’s commitment to the craziness that has come to define the action comedy series. Bad Boys 4‘s lukewarm 65% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes is cushioned by a much more favorable β and ultimately more important β97% audience score, proving the big majority of moviegoers are siding with Stephen King on this one.
Read We Got This Covered’s review of the film here.