The Bad Guys review

THE BAD GUYS: 

THESE GUYS MAKE “BAD” LOOK GOOD…AND SO IS THE LATEST DREAMWORKS FILM! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** ½ out of 4

UNIVERSAL PICTURES AND DREAMWORKS ANIMATION

Mr. Wolf, Mr. Piranha, Mr. Snake, Ms. Tarantula, and Mr. Shark are The Bad Guys

 

            A group of notorious criminals try to go good in The Bad Guys, the new film from DreamWorks Animation and follows in the footsteps of other animated features about villains becoming heroes like Despicable Me, Wreck-It Ralph, and even DreamWorks’ own, Megamind. The film is based on a series of children’s books and while I’m not familiar with the source material, you can see it through the animation and art style which has this very stylized, almost comic book-like feel to it. 

            I will admit, I haven’t been the biggest fan of some of DreamWorks’ latest releases (I think the last film they made that I really enjoyed was Abominable back in 2019), but I found films like The Croods: A New Age, Trolls: World Tour, and The Boss Baby: Family Business to be serviceable but easily disposable. This one however, I was curious to see when I first saw the trailers and it looked like a kids’ movie version of a Steven Soderbergh/Ocean’s heist film with a team of misfit animal criminals. 

            After seeing it, I can gladly say that I had a blast with these “Bad Guys”, this is a very entertaining film with a lot of energy and fast-paced animation, a good balance between genuinely hilarious jokes and silly humor for the kids, an incredibly funny voice cast, and a surprising amount of heart. In a month where big blockbusters like Morbius and Fantastic Beasts disappoint, I got to be perfectly honest, two of the best movies I saw recently were Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and this, and they’re both mostly marketed towards the family demographic so there you go. 

            The film follows five friends, Mr. Wolf (voiced by Sam Rockwell-Moon, Iron Man 2, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Mr. Snake (voiced by Marc Maron-GLOW, Joker, DC League of Super Pets), Ms. Tarantula (voiced by Awkwafina-Crazy Rich Asians, The Farwell, Raya and the Last Dragon), Mr. Shark (voiced by Craig Robinson-Hot Tub Time Machine 1 and 2, The Office, This is the End), and Mr. Piranha (voiced by Anthony Ramos-A Star is Born (2018), Hamilton, In the Heights) who have turned to a life of crime and pretty much made a living out of robbing banks, stealing belongings, and avoiding the police. However, on one fateful day when Mr. Wolf unintentionally stops an old lady from falling off a set of stairs and one of their heists goes wrong, the Bad Guys decide to do one of the most unthinkable acts ever…become “Good Guys” with the help of a guinea pig philanthropist known as Professor Marmalade (voiced by Richard Ayoade-The IT Crowd, Soul, Disenchantment) and a beautiful red fox governor named Diane Foxington (voiced by Zazie Beetz-Atlanta, Deadpool 2, Joker), but it won’t be easy to turn these villains that nobody loves into the heroes everyone needs. 

            The film also features the voices of Alex Borstein (MADtv, Family Guy, The Lizzie McGuire Movie) as Misty Luggins and Lilly Singh (Ice Age: Collision Course, Bad Moms) as Tiffany Fluffit. 

            Overall, The Bad Guys may not be on par with some of DreamWorks’ best films like Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, or How to Train Your Dragon, but in terms of delivering a fun and delightfully wacky romp for the whole family, it’s a near-perfect heist. The film is essentially a sendup to a lot of those Guy Ritchie and Steven Soderbergh heist films except for kids, and that’s not at all a disadvantage to it. 

            It starts with Wolf and Snake sitting in a diner that’s eerily similar to the diner from Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction and then it quickly leads into a bank robbery. What I find humorous is that they don’t spend any of the money they stole instead they’re hoarding it in their loft, all because the public labels them as “The Bad Guys”. 

            When they start their heists or car chases with the police, then it becomes what you’d get if the Looney Tunesgot a hold of a script for a Steven Soderbergh or Guy Ritchie film. Lots of slapstick, witty jokes, and some of the most energetic and fast-paced animation since Hotel Transylvania, which is showcased in great detail during the action sequences. 

            Some of the best gags came from Mr. Shark, who is a supposedly a master of disguise, but he puts on the most obvious costumes, and everyone falls for them. Not only does this shark put Bugs Bunny to shame but King Shark from The Suicide Squad would be very happy to hear that his plan isn’t all that crazy. 

            Also, it gave me one of the best lines I’ve ever heard in any news story, whether we’re talking in fiction or reality. The fact that you can judge a book by its cover and that all stereotypes are true, and change can never happen, despite it being during a more dramatic part of the movie, that line cracked me up and kind of sums up parts of the world in our modern society. 

            The animation is dazzling to look at and especially on the big screen, as previously mentioned it has sort of this stylized comic book vibe to the animation and art style. While the animation is in 3D some of the characters’ faces and movements have feel two-dimensional which gives it a unique look that perfectly fits the tone and style of the film. 

            The plot isn’t all that original, because we’ve seen this kind of movie several times before, to the point where I figured out who was going to be the big baddie in the end pretty early on, but like what all great capers do, it throws you for a loop a few times. What starts off as the Bad Guys trying to redeem themselves and learning to do good things suddenly turns into a movie where they have to get a powerful meteorite with mind control powers that comes right out of nowhere and it’s one of the craziest things I’ve seen in a movie since the wedding scene from Sonic the Hedgehog 2a couple weeks prior. 

            The voice acting is spot-on, Sam Rockwell is perfectly cast as this smooth, cocky wolf, Marc Maron as the snake also gets a lot of great lines and moments in the spotlight, Awkwafina is basically a tarantula version of her Ocean’s 8 character, and Craig Robinson is just as great as a dim-witted shark as he is a man with access to a time traveling hot tub. 

            The Bad Guys was a very pleasant surprise and one of the best DreamWorks films I’ve seen in a while. It gave me a cool caper, a movie where misfit bad guys become heroes, and a climax involving a bunch of mind-controlled guinea pigs that’s a lot more entertaining and fun than anything in Morbius, go seek this movie out whether you got kids, families, or just looking for a good time with some “Bad Guys”.