The screenplay by Chris Bremmer, Peter Craig and Joe Carnahan offers buddy-cop greatest hits dialogue like “He dies last” “We had a deal,”; “If it’s the cartel, she’s gonna have serious backup”; and the ominous “One last time? One last time.” But Lawrence’s riffs almost always land.

They especially need to in the final quarter, when the movie sets the bar high for this year’s Dopiest Movie Plot Twist competition. It’s a moment that’s meant to enhance character and raise emotional stakes, and the movie takes it seriously for maybe a minute and 45 seconds before Lawrence’s character starts making light of it. This is as it should be. As for the action, the directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (taking over from Michael Bay, who has a coy cameo as a wedding M.C.) blow things up real good, and do so in ways that are more often buoyant than grisly.

Bad Boys for Life

Rated R. Bad boys, whatcha gonna do? Running time: 2 hours 3 minutes.