A “swish, animated yarn” about a gang of criminal animals in LA, DreamWorks’ latest is like a “U-rated Reservoir Dogs” with a bit of Ocean’s Eleven and a twist of Dostoevsky thrown in, said Ed Potton in The Times. Adapted from Aaron Blabey’s graphic novels, it features a voice cast including Sam Rockwell, channelling George Clooney as the gang’s suave leader Mr Wolf, the comedian Marc Maron as the “sardonic, safe-cracking” Mr Snake, and Awkwafina as expert hacker Ms Tarantula (aka “Mata Hairy”).
At first, the gangsters provide “a great advertisement for criminal misbehaviour”, pulling off show-stopping heists and making effortless getaways “while nodding along in unison to Daniel Pemberton’s ghetto-fabulous soundtrack”. But when they are caught red handed during a particularly daring raid, they must submit to a rehabilitation scheme run by guinea pig philanthropist Professor Marmalade (Richard Ayoade). Then Mr Wolf “discovers the lure of the straight and narrow” while doing a good deed for an old lady, and the real trouble begins.
The Bad Guys is “cheery and diverting”, said Guy Lodge in Variety. But its villains, “while fun to hang out with”, are not “all that easy to care about”, and the dialogue isn’t as “nifty” as it could be. Screenwriter Etan Cohen resorts to “easy single-generation laughs”, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph: “Clooney jokes for the parents, green clouds of flatulence for the kids”. But on the plus side, The Bad Guys is appealing to look at, with a more cartoonish, hand-drawn feel than is customary in digitally animated feature films. “As easy Easter holiday fun, it meets the brief.”
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
The UK’s ‘wallaby boom’Under the Radar The Australian marsupial has ‘colonised’ the Isle of Man and is now making regular appearances on the UK mainland
-
Fast food is no longer affordable to low-income AmericansThe explainer Cheap meals are getting farther out of reach
-
‘The money to fix this problem already exists’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Park Avenue: New York family drama with a ‘staggeringly good’ castThe Week Recommends Fiona Shaw and Katherine Waterston have a ‘combative chemistry’ as a mother and daughter at a crossroads
-
Jay Kelly: ‘deeply mischievous’ Hollywood satire starring George ClooneyThe Week Recommends Noah Baumbach’s smartly scripted Hollywood satire is packed with industry in-jokes
-
Motherland: a ‘brilliantly executed’ feminist history of modern RussiaThe Week Recommends Moscow-born journalist Julia Ioffe examines the women of her country over the past century
-
Music reviews: Rosalía and Mavis Staplesfeature “Lux” and “Sad and Beautiful World”
-
6 homes for entertainingFeature Featuring a heated greenhouse in Pennsylvania and a glamorous oasis in California
-
Film reviews: ‘Jay Kelly’ and ‘Sentimental Value’Feature A movie star looks back on his flawed life and another difficult dad seeks to make amends
-
6 homes on the Gulf CoastFeature Featuring an elegant townhouse in New Orleans’ French Quarter and contemporary coastal retreat in Texas
-
The vast horizons of the Puna de AtacamaThe Week Recommends The ‘dramatic and surreal’ landscape features volcanoes, fumaroles and salt flats
