Stream It Or Skip It?

The Bad Guys 2 (now streaming on VOD platforms like Amazon Prime Video) picks up right where its predecessor left off: What if the titular guys are no longer the titular guys? You may recall from the 2022 hit that the five anthropomorphic-animal supercriminals reformed their ways, and anyone wondering what the Now What is, well, here you go. The sequel reunites the creative principals – director Pierre Perifel adapting Aaron Blabey’s bestselling kid’s book series, with voicework by Awkwafina, Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron and Alex Borstein, among others – and winds up being just as enjoyable, if not more so, for audiences of all demographics, even if it never quite sheds its, for lack of a better word, Dreamworksiness.

The Gist: OK, so we don’t pick up exactly where the first movie left off: Jump back five years, when Bad Guys mastermind Wolf (Rockwell, going full metal Clooney) leads Shark (Craig Robinson), Tarantula (Awkwafina), Snake (Maron) and Piranha (Anthony Ramos) on a quest to snatch a one-of-a-kind sports car from an Egyptian billionaire. And as Wolf gleefully guns it in his new auto we smash-cut to the present day, where he putt-puttzes through Los Angeles in a perclunkety jalopy held together with rubber bands and a few rapidly deteriorating strands of hope. He’s trying to find a job, see, and it’s the “previous employment” section of the applications that are tripping him up. Who wants to hire a guy famous for being a master criminal? In a rather audacious and/or desperate move, he applies to work at a bank. That he robbed. Thrice. Shocker – the interview goes poorly.

“Everybody who needs a chance has to start somewhere,” Wolf pleads. He’s really embracing the good guy thing these days. He at least has a sympathetic ear in Governor Diane Foxington (Zazie Beetz), who’s also a reformed thief known as the Crimson Paw, but that’s a secret to the world at large, lest her political career go kablooey. Diane and Wolf might be a thing (read: they sure seem to want to kissyface each other), but they pump the brakes because a pol dating an ex-con inevitably has negative repercussions. Meanwhile, a new criminal is making a name for themself: the Phantom Bandit. Police chief-turned-commissioner Misty Luggins (Alex Borstein) is flummoxed. The Phantom Bandit is stealing some of the Bad Guys’ signature moves, so our protags are worried about taking the fall. Then a light bulb blinks to life: What if they help Commish Luggins solve the case? I mean, they know all the ins and outs of stealin’ stuff. She isn’t thrilled, but she needs the help. Bad.

Then, another light bulb: Is Snake secretly behind the rash of criminal activity? He’s the only ex-Bad Guy who’s in a good mood these days. So Wolf and Shark and Tarantula and Piranha follow him around and figure it out – Snake has a GIRLFRIEND. Ewwww! Her name is Susan, she’s a raven, and she has the voice of Natasha Lyonne, so how could anyone not love her? But! She’s secretly not Susan, but rather Doom, a member of the Bad Girls, led by scheming snow leopard Kitty Kat (Danielle Brooks) and rounded out by warthog Pigtail Petrova (Maria Bakalova). They’re secretly amassing a special metal called (get this) MacGuffinite, which – well, let’s stop there. But we’ll just say their diabolical scheme is the maddest thing since Chairface Chippendale tried to carve his name into the Moon. And of course you know, that’s saying a lot.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Chairface is a reference to The Tick, my friends. The Tick! The original animated series. (Crickets) ANYway, The Bad Guys movies are essentially Ocean’s 11 filtered through the Dreamworks Animation machine, begging comparison to the Minions/Despicable Me movies or other youth-lit graphic novel adaptations like Dog Man and Captain Underpants – although the Bad Guys’ level of sophistication is a notch or two higher. Oh, and there’s a doozy of a Silence of the Lambs reference here, for all the kiddies in the audience.

Performance Worth Watching Hearing: Anyone else yearning for a Maron/Lyonne sitcom after watching The Bad Guys 2? Or an August-November rom-com? Make it happen, people. 

Memorable Dialogue: Wolf, given hope that he’ll finally land honest employment: “No one’s ever given me money on purpose before!”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: The Bad Guys 2 at last answers an eternal question: What if you fart in a spacesuit? OK, so Jackass might’ve solved that one a while back (vomiting is a likely side effect), but it wasn’t technically a spacesuit so we’ll let it slide. And yes, the Bad Guys end up in space, which might seem like an act of filmmaking desperation (see also: the 10th Friday the 13th movie, Jason X) but in this case, it’s just anything-goes zaniness, as screenwriter Etan Cohen and Yoni Brenner go way out there in their attempt to give us a spy/cop/heist spoof. There are enough fart-in-a-spacesuit instances to suggest they may have constructed the entire plot around the gag, which is a commitment to silliness that deserves a nomination for the Looney Tunes Award for Exaggerative Comedy in a Cartoon, Feature Category.

The first Bad Guys was Good Enough! With an exclamation point signifying that it’s fun! The sequel improves on that Good-Enoughness, bumping it up to Enjoyable for the Whole Family – it’s a bit tighter, a bit funnier, and a bit more memorable. The action can be a bit too hyper and hectic for my taste, but the movie is light on its feet, never takes itself too seriously and builds to a twisty and entertaining climax. It bullseyes Dreamworks Animation’s apparent M.O., which emphasizes accessible tones, clever comedy and simple-but-effective themes – in its depiction of reformed criminals, Bad Guys 2 sometimes brushes agreeably and lightly against ideas about redemption and rehabilitation. Not that we necessarily walk away talking about that; around these here parts, farts are more valuable currency.

Our Call: I laughed a lot at Bad Guys 2, and I wager you will too. STREAM IT.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.