‘The Bad Guys 2' review: Sequel serves up another round of good times for all ages

San Francisco Chronicle​

4 days ago

Three years ago, DreamWorks Animation struck gold with 'The Bad Guys,' a zippy, genre-savvy romp that ran Aaron Blabey's hit kids' books through a Tarantino-meets-'Looney Tunes' filter.
With its painterly animation, jazzy energy and ensemble of charming anthropomorphic rogues, it absconded with a cool $250 million worldwide and, more importantly, carved out its own identity in a sea of CGI sameness. In other words, a sequel was inevitable.
Enter: 'The Bad Guys 2.' Out Friday, Aug. 1, the second installment doesn't so much reinvent the wheel as give it a few extra spins. While it doesn't quite recapture the spark of surprise that made the first outing such a pleasant detour from franchise fatigue, it still delivers where it counts: the chemistry of its cast, the frenetic pacing and the kind of anarchic spirit that makes it easy to watch (and rewatch, if your kids have anything to say about it).
Sam Rockwell is back as the voice of suavely scruffy Wolf, still trying to steer his crew of reformed criminals — Snake (Marc Maron), Piranha (Anthony Ramos), Tarantula (Awkwafina), and Shark (Craig Robinson) — toward the straight and narrow. Their last adventure ended with them saving Los Angeles and putting the kibosh on the evil machinations of a guinea pig gone rogue (voiced with madcap glee by Richard Ayoade).
Complicating matters is the arrival of a daring new thief (or, perhaps, thieves?) known only as 'The Phantom Bandit,' whose M.O. feels suspiciously familiar. Suddenly, Wolf and company are back under suspicion, forced to prove (again) that they're the good guys now (or at least, trying to be).
Pierre Perifel returns to the director's chair for 'The Bad Guys 2,' and he again leans into the first film's distinctive visual style with a sketchbook-meets-storyboard aesthetic marrying Blabey's book illustrations with a heavy dose of Saturday morning mayhem. It's slick without being sterile, lending the action scenes an undeniable sense of snap.
What helps all of this land, as before, is the voice cast, who seem as dialed-in as ever. Rockwell remains a rock star. Still channeling his inner Clooney, the Oscar winner mixes effortless cool with just enough comic exasperation to keep the proceedings grounded. Meanwhile, Maron's Snake finds fresh notes of curmudgeonly charm while playing off his unlikely love interest, a bird voiced by Natasha Lyonne (who's having a busy few weeks between this, 'Smurfs' and 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps'). Zazie Beetz also returns as reformed thief turned governor Diane Foxington, whose complicated history with Wolf gives the film a bit of rom-com sizzle.
It's somewhat of a bitter irony that in a movie overflowing with talking animals and high-tech heists, the most implausible element may be a politician worried about the optics of their criminal past catching up with them.
The plot threatens to collapse in the third act as the gadgets, double-crosses and giant space magnets start to pile up, and the film sometimes feels content to coast where it could've soared, leaning on formula when it might have pushed further. That said, screenwriters Yoni Brenner and Etan Cohen know how to balance stakes and humor, maintaining a winking self-awareness (the precious substance the various characters are pursuing is called 'McGuffinite') while maintaining sincere themes of redemption, identity and second chances.
Much like 'Shrek' or 'Puss in Boots,' 'The Bad Guys' has quietly become a dependable franchise for DreamWorks: funny, fast-moving and just edgy enough to keep both kids and their folks invested. With Blabey's 'Bad Guys' books now pushing past 20 volumes, there's no shortage of material left to mine. And if future installments stick to the same high-energy blueprint, this series could be stealing hearts for years to come.
Let the bad times roll.
Zaki Hasan is a freelance writer.