‘The Bad Guys 2’: Another Satisfying Family-Friendly Heist With Lovable Antiheroes

Alci Rengifo

Some of the better animated family films offer plenty for their young audiences and just enough for the adults. “The Bad Guys 2” continues a lively big screen adaptation of Aaron Blabey’s Australian graphic novels, retaining a rather intelligent way of teaching kids that “villains” can be quite complex. The first “Bad Guys” premiered in 2022 as a fresh misfit that nodded to the style of action movies. If you were in the theater with a little one, they would chortle at the elementary school humor while you could grin at shots meant to evoke Michael Bay or “Dog Day Afternoon.” Sequels can struggle because the burst of originality will have subsided, yet this is a good follow up that proves to be just as much fun.

In the aftermath of the first movie, Mr. Wolf (Sam Rockwell) and his gang, Mr. Snake (Marc Maron), Mr. Shark (Craig Robinson), Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos) and Ms. Tarantula (Awkwafina) are now trying to live as honest citizens. It’s hard for them to find jobs considering their vast criminal record. Wolf’s mind may drift back to those glorious days of pulling off spectacular robberies, but now he drives a blown out lemon and trains with Diane Foxington (Zazie Beetz), who is now the governor. The crew is called out of retirement when a ruthless thief, Kitty Kat (Danielle Brooks), plans the grandest heist of all by stealing the tech of an evil billionaire with the help of Pigtail (Maria Bakalova). Wolf just has to convince the authorities the gang has truly gone clean and has nothing to do with this nefarious scheme.

While many older audience members will no doubt be heading to the multiplexes for “The Naked Gun,” an offering like “The Bad Guys 2” works like the lighter alternative if you have to bring along a family. The plot is no doubt goofy, like most action movies. Kitty Kat’s plan involves a monster magnet that will have the power to yank all the world’s gold from space. Silly stuff but your average Bond villain is just as ridiculous. What matters is that directors Pierre Perifel and JP Sans work with the animation team to make another stylish cartoon borrowing from the aesthetic of countless famous titles. Wolf is still a clear take on George Clooney from “Ocean’s Eleven” and the infiltration of a billionaire’s party is taken straight from Brian De Palma’s “Mission: Impossible.” Diane visits the imprisoned Professor Rupert Marmalade IV (Richard Ayoade) from the first movie in a scene hilariously borrowing from “The Silence of the Lambs.” This time the conversation ends with a tense game of tic-tac-toe. 

“The Bad Guys 2” makes the smart move of not trying to repeat the first movie’s plot beats and finds new jokes to advance the characters. Mr. Snake deals with the stress of abandoning crime by doing Vinyasa yoga, drinking kombucha and obsessing over Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso.” He also falls in love with Doom (Natasha Lyonne), a raven who is clearly up to something else. There are potential sparks between Wolf and Diane, but it’s not the central focus of the plot when the world’s gold is at stake. It’s all about the in-jokes like a substance Kitty needs called MacGuffinite. Billionaires are mocked as buffoons, one has a company named MoonX (get it?) and is engaged to a younger blonde who gets easily trashed at the wedding reception. You have to admire the bits of stinging satire snuck into the script. 

The rest works like an efficient action movie with memorable sights. A standoff in space involving streams of gold rushing up from earth looks like a tribute to “Gravity.” Moments of impressive visual composition then switch to fart jokes. Don’t be such a snob when approaching this movie. It’s pulled off with good cheer. What the material eventually circles back around to is that notion that friendships are important but so is honesty. You can reform if you strive to do good which even Mr. Snake is capable of. It is sly how a character like Chief Misty Luggins (Alex Borstein), seems to represent that teacher many of us had in school who could be a terrifying presence when angry. Eventually, she breaks down and admits “the bad guys” are her only friends. In a summer of throwaway schlock like “Smurfs,” here’s a movie that genuinely cares about its target audience with high energy, good laughs and better action than some live-action bores.

“The Bad Guys 2” releases Aug. 1 in theaters nationwide.