That sound you might be able to hear is police officer Danny Butterman shouting with unbridled joy. Why should one of Sandford's finest be so excited? Because the first trailer for Bad Boys For Life, which returns Will Smith and Martin Lawrence to the beat as detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett, is online. courtesy of the YouTube channel belonging to one Willard Carroll Smith Jr.
While other peoples' reactions might be a little more muted, it appears that the third Bad Boys (finally targeting screens after years of development stumbles, director changes and name switches) is in keeping with what you'd expect: flashy sports cars, lots of bullets flying and a villainous plot that's really just an excuse for our heroes to stop the criminals while destroying lots of property.
Director Michael Bay might not be marshalling the madness (those duties have been handed over to Black directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah), and the script looks to be a frankensteined blend of work from Joe Carnahan (who was on to direct at one point), Chris Bremner, David Guggenheim and Anthony Tambakis, but there are a lot of familiar elements – the duo squabbling, Joe "Joey Pants" Pantoliano's Captain Howard getting swearily frustrated at their antics and – plenty of set pieces.
New this time are more references to the fact that the leads (Marcus in particular) are aging, and a bunch of fresh-eyed cop recruits including Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig and Charles Melton.
Bad Boys For Life screeches on to screens on 17 January.