Will Smith repeatedly slapped in 'Bad Boys 4' as movie references 2022 Oscars Chris Rock slapgate

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: In a scene from 'Bad Boys: Ride or Die', Will Smith's character Mike Lowrey receives several slaps from Martin Lawrence's character Marcus Burnett.

The scene from the new movie appears to be an allusion to Smith's controversial Oscars incident from two years ago when he walked onstage and slapped Chris Rock in front of a global audience.

After the comedian joked about the actor's wife Jada Pinkett Smith's hair during the 2022 Oscars, Smith unexpectedly got up from his chair and surged onstage to slap Rock across the face.

Smith, 55, repeatedly yelled, "Keep my wife’s name out of your f**king mouth!" after hitting Rock.

Will Smith can't shake memories of highly publicized Oscars slap in 'Bad Boys 4'

One scene in the fourth 'Bad Boys' movie is similar to Will Smith and Chris Rock's altercation at the 2022 Academy Awards, however, Smith is smacked this time instead of Rock.

Mike, played by Smith, experiences a panic attack in the scene. In a sequence staged for laughter, his detective colleague Marcus (Martin Lawrence) gives him multiple slaps to help him overcome his emotional state.

Audiences at early screenings seemed to associate the humorous moment with the Oscars slap, as heard from their audible reactions.

Critic Owen Gleiberman called the scene "a kind of pop exorcism" and called it a "direct reference" to the Oscars moment in his review for Variety.

Gleiberman wrote, "And the film doesn’t sidestep his awkward moment of infamy. It makes direct reference to it."

"In the climax, Smith gets repeatedly slapped by his partner, who keeps calling him bad boy, and the scene acts as a kind of pop exorcism," he continued.

"It’s ‘punishing’ Smith, making cruel fun of his transgression, and just maybe, in the process, allowing him to crawl out from under the image of it," he added.

Critic Nick Schager for the Daily Beast brought up the incident in his article, characterizing it as a "tasteless nod to The Slap meant to rehab Smith’s image."

Schager stated that the "late meta joke about Smith’s Oscar scandal proves a predictable bit of self-consciousness and does less to enliven the proceedings than merely fulfill expectations."

"The best part of Bad Boys: Ride or Die arrives near the end of the film when Martin Lawrence slaps Will Smith in the face and yells 'bad boy!' What a shame that it’s fake," noted critic Johnny Oleksinski of the New York Post about the scene.

Smith apologized for his actions on the day of the Oscars, describing them as "unacceptable." The actor eventually resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which banned him from attending any of its events for 10 years, People reported.

What do the directors of 'Bad Boys 4' say?

Directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah recently told UNILAD that there were certain similarities between the movie and real life, without specifically confirming the meaning of the context.

They also confirmed that after the slap, the script was still being revised.

The directors said, "I think, you know, if you watch the movie you see that there are some parallels between what's happening in the movie and real life."

"There's almost like a meta experience that Will in the character of Mike Lowrey goes through with some themes," they added.

'Bad Boys: Ride or Die' opens in theaters on June 7.