Bilall Fallah, working with Adil El Arbi, makes action we can follow and gives familiar stars room to be good company. We are less persuaded by the crowded plots: capable, energetic direction can only carry so much unnecessary story.
Fi1m perspective
The pursuits in Bad Boys for Life (2020) let us see where people are and what threatens them. That should be routine, but Bilall Fallah and directing partner Adil El Arbi deserve credit for keeping the action clear. They also understand the pleasure of letting two familiar leads spend time together. We rate them as capable action directors whose judgement about how much story an evening needs is less dependable.
The Belgian crime films Image (2014), Black (2015) and Gangsta (2018) came first, with the latter two set in Brussels and Antwerp respectively. The move to Hollywood makes sense for directors already drawn to gangs and energetic action. Television work on Snowfall (2017) preceded Bad Boys for Life; Ms. Marvel (2022) later extended their franchise work, while the musical drama Rebel (2022) continued their Belgian filmmaking. That back-and-forth is worth keeping in view when the police sequels threaten to define them.
Robrecht Heyvaert, a regular cinematographer for the pair, gives Bad Boys for Life the clarity its pursuits need. Editors Dan Lebental and Peter McNulty sustain the momentum inside those sequences, though the intervals between them drag. We warmed to Will Smith and Martin Lawrence here because their affectionate sparring makes the friendship worth spending time with. The attempts to add weight are less convincing, and the crime plot is more work than it needs to be.
Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024) is busier and less satisfying. Martin Lawrence and a handful of well-built set pieces keep it watchable, but Chris Bremner and Will Beall's screenplay piles a corruption plot, a prison break and a family reunion around them. Fallah and El Arbi keep things moving without making those complications matter. Try Bad Boys for Life for the chases and the leads, provided an overworked crime plot is not a deal-breaker.
Biography
Bilall Fallah is a Belgian film and television director of Moroccan descent. He frequently works with Adil El Arbi; the pair are credited as Adil & Bilall.
They met while studying film at LUCA School of Arts in Brussels and began with short films before directing features including Image (2014), Black (2015) and Gangsta (2018). Their Hollywood debut was Bad Boys for Life (2020), followed by Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024). They have also directed episodes of Snowfall (2017), Ms. Marvel (2022) and the film Rebel (2022).
