What would a Bad Boys premiere in Miami be without Inner Circle, the Grammy-winning band that helped put reggae on the map in South Florida. Bad Boys: Ride or Die had its red carpet splash in that city on June 5 and it was attended by the movie’s stars, Martin Lawrence and Will Smith.

The fourth installment in one of Hollywood’s most successful franchises, opens June 7. There are great expectations that the Sony Pictures project will, like its predecessors, be a global hit.

Brothers Roger and Ian Lewis, who founded Inner Circle in Kingston 56 years ago, attended the premiere at Silverspot Cinema along with Bernard “Touter” Harvey, who has been in the band since 1974.

Smith and Lawrence return as police officers Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnette. They were joined at the premiere by Jacob Scipio, who stars as Lowrey’s son Armando, Joe Pantoliano, and co-director Bilall Fallah.

Also making the scene were DJ Khaled, Fat Joe, LeLe Pons and Swae Lee.

Bad Boys, the song, was released in 1987. It gained traction in the United States during the early 1990s as the theme song for Cops, a popular reality show on the fledgling Fox network.

Sony Pictures picked up the uptempo track for its first Bad Boys movie in 1995. It has also driven follow-up movies in the series — Bad Boys II, released in 2003 and Bad Boys For Life, which came out four years ago.

Those films have grossed US$65,807,024, $138,608,444, and $206,305,244, respectively.

– Howard Campbell