The Bad Guys 2 (PG)

Master pickpocket Mr Wolf and his crew comprising Mr Piranha, Mr Snake, Ms Tarantula and Mr Shark are struggling to be accepted as good guys after a lifetime of skulduggery on the wrong side of the law. When an all-female group of criminals offers the tantalising promise of 'one last job', Mr Wolf and associates come out of retirement to prove they still have what it takes to steal, scam and deceive with aplomb.

LondonNet Film Review

The Bad Guys 2 (PG) Film Review from LondonNet

It’s good to be bad in a tail-wagging sequel to the 2022 computer-animated comedy based on Aaron Blabey‘s series of graphic novels, which proved crime does pay for an Ocean’s Eleven-style squad of five anthropomorphic scoundrels led by Sam Rockwell’s debonair wolf. The original film’s pleasing amalgamation of Zootropolis and Despicable Me is more pronounced in The Bad Guys 2, which welcomes back Pierre Perifel to the director’s chair for a breathlessly staged heist, co-directed by JP Sans…

Screenwriter Aaron Blabey tethers his outlandish plot on terra firma and in deep space to a rare metal called MacGuffinite – a tongue-in-cheek nod to an object or person used in cinematic storytelling to brazenly sustain the narrative momentum. Enter into evidence any ancient artefact that cajoled Indiana Jones on a whip-cracking quest. In Perifel and Sans’s quick-witted caper, MacGuffinite’s addition to the Periodic Table sets in motion a predictable redemption so the eponymous scamps can snatch victory from the slavering jaws of “a 24-carat catastrophe”.

Heavily stylised visuals, which evoke the characters’ origins on the page, once again meld hand-drawn artistry with digital wizardry to stunning effect including an unorthodox space rocket launch that casually ignores the laws of physics. Queens of the jungle roar loudest and sit more prominently at the top of the food chain, actively determining the outcome of each outlandish action set-piece.

Master pickpocket Mr Wolf (Rockwell) and his larcenous crew comprising Mr Piranha (Anthony Ramos), Mr Shark (Craig Robinson), Mr Snake (Marc Maron) and Ms Tarantula (Awkwafina) struggle to be accepted as the good guys after a lifetime of skulduggery on the wrong side of the law. An all-female group of criminals led by vengeful snow leopard Kitty Kat (Danielle Brooks) engineers the audacious theft of a Lucha Libre wrestling belt from a packed arena and frames Mr Wolf and co for the robbery. “What if the bad life was your best life?” Kitty Kat taunts Mr Wolf.

She compels him to carry out one final job to protect the shameful secret of his sweetheart, Governor Diane Foxington (Zazie Beetz): deranged guinea pig scientist, Rupert Marmalade IV (Richard Ayoade), languishes behind plexiglass in a secure facility for Diane’s crimes. Alas, fiery-tempered police chief Misty Luggins (Alex Borstein) and her officers stand in the path of Mr Wolf and his associates.

The Bad Guys 2 is bolder and brasher than its predecessor but every bit as frenetically entertaining. A climactic heist is audacity on the scale of a deranged James Bond villain. Disappointingly, a protracted fart gag delivers the only laugh outside Earth’s atmosphere. Silence Of The Lambs-style shenanigans with Marmalade are a distraction but blatantly set up a revenge plot for another day.

– Kim Hu