Bad Boys
This goes without saying, but if you hopped onto Netflix this week and watched Bad Boys: Ride or Die without seeing the previous films first, you definitely need to check them out. You don’t need to watch the other three in order to enjoy Ride or Die, but they’re all a ton of fun and they give more context to the journey of Mike and Marcus in this new film.
Bad Boys and Bad Boys II came from Michael Bay and were staples of the action-comedy genre in the ’90s and early 2000s. After disappearing for nearly two decades, the Bad Boys returned with Bad Boys For Life in 2020.
Lethal Weapon
When it comes to buddy cop action-comedies, there is nothing quite like Lethal Weapon. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover teamed up to give movie fans the best on-screen duo — and one of the best action franchises — of the 1980s.
Like Bad Boys, the Lethal Weapon series has four films you can watch. Unlike Bad Boys, the latter half of the series isn’t nearly as good as the first two.
Men in Black
Will Smith is fantastic in all of the Bad Boys movies, but his turn as Mike Lowery is far from his best blockbuster role from the 1990s. That honor belongs to Agent J.
Men in Black is undoubtedly one of the best, most entertaining, and most well-crafted blockbusters of the last 30 years. It holds up so well every time you watch it. The characters are rich, the alien designs are fantastic, and it builds its own world with razor-sharp execution.
To top if all off, few duos can do it like Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. Those two are perfect foils for one another and their relationship actually grows in meaningful ways throughout the first three films in the franchise.
The Heat
If you want a great on-screen duo that bring totally different energies to a movie but compliment each other flawlessly, look no further than The Heat.
Paul Feig’s 2013 action-comedy stuck Sandra Bullock with Melissa McCarthy to form one of the most capable action-comedy duos of the 2010s. The only downside to this movie is that we don’t already have several sequels.
21 Jump Street
One of the biggest victims of the infamous Sony email hack was a crossover movie that would’ve stuck the stars of Men in Black with the heroes of Lord & Miller’s Jump Street films. Unfortunately that didn’t end up happening, but the fact that it was going to combine forces with a beloved Will Smith franchise tells you all you need to know about its action-comedy abilities.
Based on the hit TV series, 21 Jump Street sees Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill play young police officers who are sent undercover in a high school to try and stop a drug epidemic. It’s hilarious and action-packed, making for a great compliment to Bad Boys. The sequel, 22 Jump Street, is almost as good as the first, so watch them both if you can.
Midnight Run
Most great buddy comedies from the ’80s ended up with fairly long-running franchises. Midnight Run didn’t, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t one of the best entries in the genre.
From Beverly Hills Cop director Martin Brest, Midnight Run stars Robert DeNiro as a bounty hunter tasked with bringing in a notable mob accountant, played by Charles Grodin. The unlikely pair end up on a cross-country road trip that neither of them asked for and the end result is a fantastic action-comedy with infinite rewatch value.
Beverly Hills Cop
Speaking of Martin Brest and Beverly Hills Cop, it’s impossible to talk about action-comedies without bringing up the surprising smash-hit that changed the genre.
An action movie set in Beverly Hills and starring the young comedian from Saturday Night Live wasn’t a film that anyone expected to be a big deal. But Jerry Bruckheimer and a few others could see just how much leading man potential Eddie Murphy really had, and they made sure he got the chance to show the world.
Beverly Hills Cop also got the legacy sequel treatment that worked so well for Bad Boys, with Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F debuting on Netflix earlier this year.
