Like it really rough guy
You may remember The Bad Guys as DreamWorks Animation’s cross-species stab at introducing kids to heist movie tropes. Or you may not: the movie got positive but unenthusiastic reviews, made enough box office receipts to justify a sequel, and… I haven’t heard a single person mention it since. Three years later, that sequel is here. For the most part, it’s a success. This is a sequel that mostly follows the correct instincts: get weirder, amp the visual energy, have more fun.
The Bad Guys 2 is a bit lighter in the plot than the original. This shifts the movie’s focus towards its biggest strength: the outstanding animation and action sequences. Director Pierre Perifel keeps the caper bones but pushes every scenario a bit further to the outer limits: The shenanigans push farther than I expected. Many of the scenarios and images are pretty outrageous, almost subversive. I will not spoil the film’s wacky climax action set piece or its even wackier post-credits stinger, but even if I did, I’m not sure I could convey their kookiness — the film’s joy is its constant escalation.
After a fun Indiana Jones-flavored flashback prologue, the film’s story picks up where the first one left off, with the reformed crew trying (and failing) to make it straight. Mr. Wolf (Sam Rockwell) spends down time with Governor Diane Foxington (Zazie Beetz) while Mr. Snake (Marc Maron) gets cagey about his new routine and cheerfulness. The other three original Bad Guys, Ms. Tarantula (Awkwafina), Mr. Shark (Craig Robinson), and Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos) hang around, too. They’re applying for jobs and trying to get a break.
Their fortunes change for both better and worse when a slippery new thief called “the Phantom Bandit” starts grabbing headlines by using The ex-Bad Guys’ old tricks and calling cards (think Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief). Police Commissioner Misty Luggins (Alex Borstein) suspects the old crew is really behind the robberies, but reluctantly hires them them to track down the bandit.
This kicks off the movie’s string of wild chases, gags, and action sequences: A sting at a lucha-libre spirals into chaos. Later, the Governor recreates the iconic interrogation of Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs. Before long, an all-female trio of rival thieves — featuring butch leader Kitty Kat (Danielle Brooks), quick-talking Doom (Natasha Lyonne), and muscle Pigtail Petrova (Maria Bakalova) — hires The Bad Guys for “one last heist” that might redeem or ruin them.
Perifel and the animators give the film a caffeinated, sketchbook energy: thick outlines, speed lines, painterly smears. The character designs are mostly terrific fun (though a few of the humans are stuck in bean-mouth hell). The animators turn every chase and skirmish into well-orchestrated turmoil. The lucha sequence, in particular, is a micro-masterpiece, staged with breathless momentum and culminating in one of the cleverest uses of space and particle physics in an animated movie since Spider-Verse 2 and Puss in Boots 2. Just as great is the big, gravity-shifting climax, which has apocalyptic vibes, anchored by a central, golden image that makes use of shape and color that borders on abstract. (It also has a fart joke that spans several scenes, but such is the cost of watching movies marketed to the same audience as Dav Pilkey’s books.)
The shift away from character work and towards action is a pleasant change (especially given how mediocre The Bad Guys‘ script was), but it comes with a cost. The main crew arcs are a little undernourished. The script boxes in the ostensible emotional core of the story, Rockwell’s temptation to backslide into crime, into just a couple of scenes. Another theme that fits into the material, about the lines you’re willing to cross to protect the ones you love, only gets fleeting consideration. But, the writing only exists to provide sufficient stakes for the action, and in that regard it succeeds.
All in all, The Bad Guys 2 is a much more fun and vibrant experience than the original, which exerted too much energy on its “heist for kiddos” narrative. This sequel feels looser and more assured, like the franchise finally shrugged off its need to prove it knows its Ocean’s 11 beats and instead made its own kind of Spider-Verse kinetic joyride. If DreamWorks keeps upping the energy in this series, I would absolutely love to see a third. The box office intake was a modest success, and I expect this will have streaming legs, so I predict we’ll get The Bad Guys 3 that the crew have said in interviews they’d like to make.
Is It Good?
Good (5/8)
Dan is the founder and head critic of The Goods. Follow Dan on Letterboxd. Join the Discord for updates and discussion.