Martin Lawrence and his zingers steal the ‘Bad Boys for Life’ trailer

The bad boys are back in town — and will be in movie theaters this January.

Sony Pictures Entertainment on Wednesday dropped the explosive trailer for Will Smith and Martin Lawrence’s “Bad Boys for Life,” the long-anticipated follow-up in director Michael Bay’s action-comedy franchise “Bad Boys.”

The film, which has endured setbacks for years, is now directed by Belgian filmmakers Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. The cast boasts a bevy of rookies to the franchise and the police force, including Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Charles Melton, Paola Nunez, Kate Del Castillo and Nicky Jam — who completely butcher the “Bad Boys” theme song at the end of the trailer.

Fans last saw Smith and Lawrence’s buddy cops Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett on the big screen in “Bad Boys II,” way back in 2003. Now they’ve teamed up “one last time,” they say, to take on a new foe and maybe rebrand themselves.

“I’m done, Mike. I’m tired,” an exasperated Burnett tells Lowrey. “You want your legacy to be muscle shirts and body counts?”

(Cue the muscle shirts, explosions, gunfire and body counts.)

Though they’ve aged a bit, Smith and Lawrence still have the same wit and short-fused police captain (Joe Pantoliano) that made the 1995 and 2003 films so memorable (and busted the myth that films led by black actors don’t travel well). Martin delivers the best zingers in the hijinks-filled trailer, including gems about cops pulling themselves over, and about being in HD.

Let’s see if lightning can strike a third time, 16 years later, and whether all the best lines aren’t spoiled by the trailer.

“Bad Boys for Life” busts into theaters on Jan. 17. Watch the trailer — which is loaded with adult language — on YouTube.