{"id":12670,"date":"2025-07-30T22:54:26","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T02:54:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=12670"},"modified":"2025-07-30T22:54:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T02:54:26","slug":"the-bad-guys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/07\/30\/the-bad-guys\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bad Guys"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Bad Guys <\/strong>(2022)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 100 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (action, rude humor)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Pierre Perifel\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Etan Cohen\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Daniel Pemberton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 22, 2022 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Anthony Ramos, Craig Robinson, Awkwafina, Richard Ayoade, Zazie Beetz, Alex Borstein, Lilly Singh.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $97.2M (US)\/$250.4M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0So I went into The Bad Guys<\/strong> thinking it was going to be just another kiddie computer-animated movie featuring anthropomorphic animals a la Madagascar and Zootopia. I\u2019m not going to ask how many of these can they make since you and I already know the answer. I figured it would be cute at best and insufferable at worst. I never expected it would actually be any good. Much to my surprise, that\u2019s exactly the case here.<\/p>\n

\u00a0For me, the first sign that The Bad Guys<\/strong> wasn\u2019t going to be quite what I expected was the first scene. I couldn\u2019t believe it. It was a direct reference to Quentin Tarantino\u2019s masterpiece Pulp Fiction. Two of the main characters, Mr. Wolf (Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) and Mr. Snake (Maron, Joker), are sitting at a booth in a diner. It\u2019s two friends having a conversation complete with the requisite jabs and needling. One subject that comes up is eating guinea pig. After a few minutes, they get up and leave to commit a crime. Okay, that part is straight out of Reservoir Dogs, but you get the point.<\/p>\n

\u00a0After casually robbing the bank across the street, they lead police on a high-speed chase (played to a jazzy Lalo Schifrin-esque score) while Wolf introduces us to the rest of the gang; master of disguise Mr. Shark (Robinson, Hot Tub Time Machine), hacker Ms. Tarantula (Awkwafina, Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) and the muscle of the bunch Mr. Piranha (Ramos, In the Heights).<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cThe Bad Guys\u201d, as they\u2019re known, are a feared criminal collective notorious for their brazen thefts of valuable objects and flagrant disregard for the law. Their leader Mr. Wolf is swagger personified. Charismatic and cool, he\u2019s the lupine version of Danny Ocean (the George Clooney one). Obviously, this detail will fly right over the heads of little viewers, but that\u2019s a large part of the unique charm of The Bad Guys<\/strong>. It\u2019s surprisingly sophisticated for a movie ostensibly aimed at children. They\u2019ll love it, no doubt. It\u2019s colorful, energetic, funny and exciting. It\u2019s accessible without being condescending. Save for a few fart jokes, it\u2019s not a childish affair.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It breaks down like this. The Bad Guys<\/strong> is a heist flick and a remarkably hip one at that. The gang sets out to steal The Golden Dolphin Award before it\u2019s presented to philanthropic guinea pig Professor Marmalade (Ayoade, the IT Crowd) at a gala ceremony. While waiting to strike, Wolf inadvertently saves an old lady\u2019s life while trying to rob her. She praises him for his good deed; it makes his tail wag. He\u2019s never felt this way before. Is this what it\u2019s like to be a good guy? This is where he begins to question his life choices.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Predictably, the heist goes south and the whole gang is arrested. Wolf convinces Governor Foxington (Beetz, Joker) to allow Marmalade to reform them, turn them into good guys. It\u2019s just a ploy, of course. They\u2019re just going to play along until the opportunity arises to try again to steal the award. What they don\u2019t know is their rodent mentor has nefarious plans of his own.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Based on the children\u2019s book series by Aaron Blabey, The Bad Guys <\/strong>is the feature film directorial debut of animator Pierre Perifel whose credits include Monsters vs. Aliens, Shrek Forever After and all three Kung Fu Panda movies. From the start, you can tell he has a clear idea of what he wants to do and how he wants to do it. His intention, as I see it, is to deliver a CA movie that\u2019s not like the hundreds of others that came before it without alienating either audience- i.e. kids and adults. It\u2019s cute, but not overly so. It\u2019s funny, but not silly (until the end). It has plenty of action and excitement. The animation, largely inspired by Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, is lively and colorful. Perifel even sees fit to lay out the entire opening sequence in one long, single take.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Perifel draws us into the criminal underworld of the animal kingdom by way of stylish characters with distinct personalities. Snake is a sarcastic sort with a cranky exterior that\u2019s just a fa\u00e7ade. Shark is the enthusiastic one who loves to get into character. Never mind that it\u2019s always obvious he\u2019s a great white shark. Tarantula, resourceful and speedy, shows why it\u2019s useful for a hacker to have eight arms. Piranha, all fight and flatulence, is a scrappy little fish. Perifel has lined up an incredible roster of talent give voice to the characters. Each and every one does a great job, especially Awkwafina who I just love. Will somebody please cast her as the lead in a comedy?<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Bad Guys<\/strong> gets a little ridiculous near the end with the introduction of a nemesis that feels more James Bond than Elmore Leonard. His plan is pure kiddie movie nonsense, but it\u2019s fine. Things have been so good to this point, it earns the right to play directly to the kindergarten crowd in the finale. In addition, it has a positive message about second chances and redemption. Well, you knew there had to be one of those in there somewhere. Again, it\u2019s fine. The Bad Guys<\/strong> works. I found it very entertaining. I love the whole hip vibe it has going. It makes for agreeable and cool entertainment.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Bad Guys (2022)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 100 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (action, rude humor)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Pierre Perifel\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Etan Cohen\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Daniel Pemberton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 22, 2022 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Anthony Ramos, Craig Robinson, Awkwafina, Richard Ayoade, Zazie Beetz, Alex Borstein, Lilly Singh.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $97.2M (US)\/$250.4M (World) Rating: *** \u00a0So I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12680,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/The-Bad-Guys-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12670"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12682,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12670\/revisions\/12682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}