REVIEW:
Despite a number of flaws, the Bad Guys is still a pretty enjoyable movie. That’s because, let’s fact it, bad guys are more fun than good guys. These are the characters that intentionally get into mischief and cause trouble. And if they were all bad, doing things just for the sake of evil and destruction, then we wouldn’t want to follow them at all. We wouldn’t be able to relate to them as characters. But instead, like every Sony or DC superhero movie about a villain turned hero (Suicide Squad, Harley Quinn, Venom, Morbius, Kraven the Hunter,) these Bad Guys are caught in between being bad and good, and as the movie goes on, that change over happens more and more.
But let’s back track for a moment and talk about those original flaws of the film. The movie opens with a fun restaurant conversation about how Snake hates birthdays. It’s him and Wolf, two best friends sitting at a diner table chatting, and at the end of their conversation, we pan away to see nobody serving them or even working at the diner. All of the employees are all terrified and hiding behind things. From there, these characters go to a bank, where they just walk in and rob the place with everyone standing out of the way. And here lies the problem. They are robbing a bank to get money. But wherever they go that the could spend the money, like the diner, everyone just runs away. So they never actually have to spend money. Which means they don’t need money and don’t need to rob a bank.
So then there’s the question of why these characters are so feared. Do they do other things besides rob people? Do they harm people? It seems not. Now the good thing is, the movie is very much about stereotypes and how they are wrong, and how people just assume that snake, for example, is bad because he’s a snake. They never give him a chance. With that in mind, the premise of this movie is that this team of characters works together to generally pull off huge heists and robberies, Ocean’s Eleven, Mission Impossible, or National Treasure style, while avoiding the people that do actually go after them, the cops.
And like those live action heist films, the movie focusses on one heist in particular, and one artifact to steal. A meteor in the shape of a heart (although the movie has a lot of fun with a repeated joke that it looks like a butt.) Now if the movie was just about this heist, than it would feel like every other heist movie. But instead, it’s actually about the characters’ rehabilitation. And that becomes pretty interesting, as a professor takes them under his wing to put them through a sort of sensitivity training.
There’s also a storyline about the mayor of the town, a Fox, who had a colorful past. In fact, we get more backstory about her than most of the characters on the actual team. And that’s fine, because the movie cleverly addresses the fact that a fox and wolf are not that dissimilar, at least when it comes to stories about villainous animals and public perception of these creatures. One can’t help but think of Zootopia, another great animated film, where the main character is a clever, trickster of a fox.
And speaking of these characters, the fox in that movie, and the wolf here, the voice talent casting is spot on. Sam Rockwell as the cool, calm, collected wolf is perfect, just as Jason Bateman, playing the snarky, seen-tt-all Fox in that movie, was there. The other cast members are hit and miss. Marc Maron as the snake is also smart and creative casting. But then there’s Anthony Ramos as the Piranha and Craig Robinson as the shark, characters that are just okay. Zazzie Beats from Atlanta, rounds out the name cast members, and she’s also pretty good, like those first two.
The movie works, because it is a fun take on a team of villains. Think of it like Suicide Squad the animated version. And the back half of the film is covered in twists. There’s one after another, Wild Things-style, to the point where it borders on there maybe being too many twists, but never quite crosses that line. The story here isn’t great, but it is fine, and somewhat different. Especially in terms of the rehabilitation material. And then there’s the action. What they can do with animated movies and are doing with animated movies these days is a blast. Here, we get fun scenes like the characters have to ride around in super powered cares or motorcycles (at least they act like they’re super powered,) while firing little circle electronic vehicle controllers onto every car or van or truck being driven by mind-controlled guinea pigs. It’s a lot of fun. And so is the movie. This one isn’t anything exceptional, but it is still a good time.