‘The Bad Guys’ Review: A Fun and Breezy Dreamworks Caper
Pierre Perifel’s The Bad Guys doesn’t hide its heist-driven inspirations and crafts a fun, albeit predictable, adventure for the whole family.
Dreamworks Animation’s recent work hasn’t been the greatest, and most of their movies were overshadowed by the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Croods: A New Age was released as most theatres around the world were closed, Trolls: World Tour made lots of money digitally but was quickly forgotten, and no one talks about Spirit Untamed anymore. The Boss Baby: Family Business was quite good, but The Bad Guys finally gives back Dreamworks to all of its animated glory. No other studio could’ve done an adaptation of Aaron Blabey’s childhood book series of the same name quite the way Dreamworks has done, which is the primary sign of a unique film studio. And even if it treads a plot we’ve already seen before, the animation style is stylish enough to hold our attention throughout.
Sam Rockwell plays Mr. Wolf, the leader of a team of criminals called…well…The Bad Guys, with Snake (Marc Maron), Tarantula (Awkwafina), Shark (Craig Robinson), and Piranha (Anthony Ramos) rounding up the team. The gang is looking to steal the Golden Dolphin from Professor Rupert Marmelade IV (Richard Ayoade), a guinea pig philanthropist whose good deeds to society are compared to Mother Teresa. After the heist goes horribly wrong and they are arrested, Marmelade suggests to governor Diane Foxington (Zazie Beetz) that, if he can show the world that The Bad Guys can be reformed as good, they should be pardoned. However, The Bad Guys have a plan of their own to steal the Golden Dolphin during Marmelade’s gala, not knowing that the gerbil has an evil hidden agenda of his own.
Most of the physical comedy involving The Bad Guys trying to reform themselves is hilarious, and the classic stretch-and-squash techniques of animation are on full display here for some good ol’ slapstick. It’s only when the film uses poison gas-like flatulence as a running gag that it falters (only one movie made farts funny: Steven Spielberg’s The BFG. The rest should just give up, even if it’s an age-old joke in cinema since the dawn of motion pictures).
In addition to Marmelade, we can also see any plot mechanics a mile away. Basically, if you’ve seen an animated film about redemption, you know everything that’s coming for you beat-for-beat. If the basic structure of the film is to make The Bad Guys become good, even if they want to stay bad…well…No spoilers here, but it’s quite apparent where the film is heading as soon as Marmelade takes The Bad Guys into his compound.
But it doesn’t matter if the film’s journey is good, and it’s great that it is. Sam Rockwell leads the film with his best impression of George Clooney (it almost feels like Clooney was Perifel’s first pick, and once he refused it went to Rockwell), and shares decent chemistry with the other members of the gang. His relationship with Marc Maron’s Snake is the most interesting of them all, as they develop a legitimate bond throughout the film that solidifies its emotional core.
Shark is the comic relief character of the gang, and Robinson’s comedic timing is as excellent as ever. He nails every moment that requires big laughs, and the calmer, dramatic moments during a running bit with Snake on a push popsicle. Rockwell’s relationship with Zazie Beetz’s Foxington is also great. Of course, the film will make them fall in love, but that’s not the most interesting part. The rest should be kept under wraps, as the best part of the movie involves Beetz’s character, which was not shown in any promotional material.
Aesthetically, it’s one of the best-looking animated films of the year. Not as staggering as Turning Red, but one whose style is so sleek and vivid that your eyes immediately widen from the film’s opening tracking shot to its hyper-stylized action sequences and impeccable physical comedy. The action sequences are a pure visual treat to see on the big screen, with car chases harkening back to the crime films of the 60s, such as Bullitt and The Italian Job, and martial battles so goddamn cool your eyes may melt at the sight of their multi-sensory overload. It’s great to see an animated film unafraid at being what any animated film should be: expressive. I never understood 3D animation’s quest for realism. We usually don’t watch animated films to see hyperreal characters doing “real” stuff inside a “real” world. We want to be transported inside a world we can’t have in real life, and see a whimsical adventure full of anthropomorphized characters stretching and squashing inside a kinetic fictitious world that treats its animals and humans as equals. That’s the beauty of animation, and The Bad Guys expresses it brilliantly.
Yes, it may not be the greatest film of the year, but The Bad Guys gets the job done. Its predictable story and gross fart-driven gags falter the movie a bit, but the film’s incredible style and impeccable vocal performances drive it home. The little kid at my screening was jumping up and down, likely having never seen something quite like this before. And, it’s true: you’ve never seen anything like The Bad Guys’ animation style: one that understands good crime cinema and celebrates it, while introducing young kids to its cathartic power. That should be good enough to be experienced on the biggest screen you can find.