Rated: PG
Directed by: Pierre Perifel
Based on: The Scholastic book series by Aaron Blabey
Produced by: Damon Ross and Rebecca Huntley
Executive Producers: Aaron Blabey, Etan Cohen and Patrick Hughes
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Craig Robinson, Anthony Ramos, Awkwafina, Richard Ayoade, Zazie Beetz, Lilly Singh and Alex Borstein.
‘We may be bad but we’re so good at it.’ Meet, The Big Bad Wolf (Sam Rockwell).
Mr. Wolf is part of The Bad Guys – a gang of villains who just love being bad and stealing stuff.
There’s Mr. Snake (Marc Maron): a master like Houdini at opening a safe… without hands…
Ms. Tarantula (Awkwafina), AKA Wizz: an eight-legged hacker;
Mr. Shark (Craig Robinson): a master of disguise, ‘I’m a destruction worker.’
And Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos) – he’s crazy and farts when nervous.
Natural selection has handed The Bad Guys the card of being feared – everyone’s terrified of them, so why not be bad?!
When Governor Foxington (Zazie Beetz) calls the gang out on TV as being sad and needing to fill a hole in their being with money which is never going to work because they just want to be loved… Mr. Wolf sees red and decides it’s time to steal the ultimate bad guy prize: The Golden Dolphin. A trophy given to the one citizen who’s done the most good.
Meet: Professor Marmalade (Richard Ayoade). A guinea pig and therefore nicknamed, ‘Pig’. He’s Mr. Snakes favourite food.
The storyline is setup as a heist movie for kids. And not just because of the animation (DreamWorks excelling again with their detail in fur). But because of all the lame dad jokes.
‘You’re good at this.’
‘I’m kind of a natural. Learned mostly from YouTube.’
There are some predictable twists in the plot with underlying main message of there’s ‘a flower of goodness in everyone, just waiting to blossom’.
But the tone of the film as a caper, with split screens and jaunty soundtrack, reminiscent of an Ocean’s movie, felt twee.
I know, a kid’s movie. But the, ‘One of these days their luck is gonna run out,’ and the meteor falling to earth that Pig/Prof sees as a heart, naw, yet The Bad Guys see as a butt… Well, that actually was pretty funny.
And the, naw does get turned on its head.
It just wasn’t surprising.
The attempt of being edgy and diabolical made the film less edgy.
I liked the characters and the fact, Mr. Wolf can taste the air and hear colour. But the lines of the characters didn’t always land making, The Bad Guys an OK watch but nothing over exciting.