While I found the original Bad Boys mildly amusing (nearly 30 years ago), the sequels have produced decidedly diminishing returns. This is the fourth in the franchise. For a while, Will Smith’s considerable charm compensated, barely, for Martin Lawrence’s astoundingly unfunny mugging. But Smith, post Oscar-slap, is getting harder to believe, especially when his character needs to display anger. Phoning it in. Lawrence, if possible is worse.

I’ll not go into the details of this fourth entry, mostly because I really don’t have anything to say (and I was fiddling with my phone most of the time). Suffice it to say that the BB movies are falling into the same hole as the Fast and Furious franchise, thinking fan service is enough and more is better. So, more car chases, nastier tough talk, bigger explosions, more gun- and horse-play, louder pounding soundtrack, more frenetic editing, and more video-game violence. Its unrelenting quest to be over the top makes it more exhausting than exhilarating. Overall, just sillier and still no discernable plot.

Gee, it looks like I did have something to say after all. Okay, no one walking in to this Bruckheimer multiplex fodder expects anything original or even very good. You know who you are, and you will not be disappointed. But you can do better than this. (115 min)