The Bad Guys Review Roundup

First off, we must apologise to Dreamworks. Their latest animated adventure had been baking in the oven for months, and exactly before its release, the majority of the media (including us) were blinded by the shining beacon, which was The Pus in Boots sequel announcement. That film will get its own time to shine, so the current spotlight should re-focus on The Bad Guys (which releases today). Critic reviews are out, but is it good enough to be worthy of our attention? Or should all just wait on the highly anticipated sequel that shall not be named? Here's the review roundup: ​

THE AV CLUB
'​Should this film prove a hit, the book series it draws inspiration from offers plenty more to adapt, roping in aliens and extra-dimensional beings. But like the Despicable Me series, The Bad Guys may find ever-diminishing returns once the villain protagonists no longer qualify as despicable or bad. For now, at least, that mixed morality is not just part of the fun, but the primary selling point.'

For the full review please visit here.

REEL VIEWS
'Like many child-focused movies, The Bad Guys works when the brain is dialed down, allowing the viewer to experience moments divorced from the whole. The movie’s narrative twists are neither surprising nor interesting and the emotional weight of the story and characters is feather-light. It is, however, engaging in a disposable fashion, offering occasionally entertaining instances (such as the aforementioned Tarantino homage) and an animation style that seems less plastic than many of today’s generic offerings. I wonder whether anyone involved in the film’s creation would object to it being called a “cartoon?” Because, putting aside all pretensions associated with a $75M production budget and a big-screen release, that’s what The Bad Guys really is.'

For the full review please visit here.

WASHINGTON POST
'The moral of the story doesn’t pack a huge wallop. Not that it needs to. (We can’t all be “Encanto.”) Still, it’s clever, visually interesting and very, very funny. Even when the humor goes lowbrow, it makes narrative sense. A joke about flatulence is a lot funnier when it’s essential to the plot. “The Bad Guys” gets that.'

For the full review please visit here.

THE WRAP
'Diverting as it may be, “The Bad Guys” is the sort of movie that’s missing a big heart and, at times, feels like they’re having more fun in the ADR booth than we are watching it on screen. But there are gags aplenty (some of them are even funny), a surreal chase climax involving an unfinished motorway, a helicopter, a meteorite and a lethal tidal wave of hypnotized guinea pigs. Like the film’s premise suggests, nothing this fun-looking can be all bad.'

​For the full review please visit here.

VARIETY 
'For anyone attentive to such details, meanwhile, the chief incidental pleasures of “The Bad Guys” are craft-based, from its disciplined, suitably Californian palette of burnt oranges and canine tans, to the brassy exuberance of Daniel Pemberton’s working-overtime score, full of sonic callbacks to ’70s heist-movie funk. There’s even a killer original musical number, performed with full-throated swagger by “In the Heights” star Ramos, in which the bad guys pledge, at least for the moment, that they’re “gonna be good tonight.” For the sake of any future outings with these morally flexible furballs, one hopes such promises are merely temporary.'

For the full review please visit here.

IGN (VIDEO REVIEW)

In the end, the film amassed a critical score of 86% from 92 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. A great score and one that signals a return to form for Dreamworks. It may not be their greatest work, it may not be a household name like Pus in Boots, but I am very much looking forward to watching these Bad Guys. 

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