THE BAD GUYS 2 - Mark Reviews Movies

The Bad Guys 2, Universal Pictures

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Review by Mark Dujsik | August 1, 2025

The introduction to The Bad Guys 2 suggests a smart idea. Those who know the original film will recall that it ended with "the Bad Guys," a quintet of anthropomorphic animals who became infamous for pulling off daring heists, turning legitimately good, by turning themselves into the cops after saving the day. In theory, that's the end of their arcs and story, but since the first film—along with the source books by Aaron Blabey—was popular, a sequel was unavoidable.

What are the Bad Guys, after all, without the desire to rob banks and mansions and other places housing wealth? A rousing prologue to Yoni Brenner and returning writer Etan Cohen's screenplay reminds us of just how much fun these characters and this material could have those animated sequences of high-stakes heists. They break into the grand estate of an inordinately rich man in Cairo, Egypt, with a series of maneuvers that require various skills and perfect timing, and the chase through the streets that ensues, with Mr. Wolf (voice of Sam Rockwell) behind the wheel of the car they just stole, really exists just for the fun of it.

The action comes to an abrupt end, though, and five years later, Wolf and his four friends/former felons are struggling with what being reformed criminals actually means. Mr. Shark (voice of Craig Robinson), a master of disguise (despite obviously being a large shark in assorted costumes), doesn't possess any other skills. Ms. Tarantula (voice of Awkwafina), an expert hacker, could get into programming, except for the noticeable gap in her job history when she was a criminal. Mr. Piranha (voice of Anthony Ramos), the team's muscle, isn't going to be getting a security job anytime soon.

Even Wolf, as charming as he is, can't convince the manager of a bank to give him a job of any kind. He did, after all, rob the place three times, as the bank guy points out before Wolf has to sputter home in a car that's as far removed from his fancy one as a vehicle can get.

It was difficult enough for these five to become good, and the setup here suggests that all of that work might have been nothing, if no one else will believe they're good in the first place. What does that do to characters like these? What does it mean about a society that can't forgive or see what's right in front of them? Returning director Pierre Perifel's sequel might have been on to something—a premise that could have made these characters as entertaining and surprisingly sympathetic as they were in the first film.

Instead, the plot takes over quickly, as the Bad Guys are suspected of stealing a string of items made out of a rare metal (Called, in a decent but obvious joke, "MacGuffinite," until the joke is ruined by giving the metal a specific purpose). The four aforementioned friends come to suspect Mr. Snake (voice of Marc Maron), the only one of them who's oddly happy after giving up crime, but it turns out that another team of thieves are trying to frame our reformed heroes.

The rest of the story, then, isn't about these characters, their trials to remain good, or even a clever spoof of the heist genre. It's overloaded with returning and new characters, with Diane (voice of Zazie Beetz), the state governor who's also a secret thief, and Professor Marmalade (voice of Richard Ayoade), the villainous mastermind of a guinea pig who has become muscular in prison, in the former category. The latter includes the other heist crew, led by jaguar Kitty Kat (voice of Danielle Brooks) and including warthog Pigtail (voice of Maria Bakalova) and raven Doom (voice of Natasha Lyonne).

It's also more expansive in terms of its scope and scale, as this second movie has the team going into space for the climactic showdown—a move that's usually saved for when a series has run out of ideas. Sure, the extended sequence, which has the Bad Guys climbing a launching rocket and trying to sabotage an elaborate science project, is imaginative, but the over-the-top, action-heavy setpiece feels as if it goes against the charm of the heists—for greed and for good—that have come before it. Through it all, the real charm of the material—these main characters and how they try to be good, despite some lingering instincts and the doubts of almost everyone around them—is definitely lost, and the first film's direct or subtle homages to its genre are replaced by expository dialogue and manic action.

To be sure, The Bad Guys 2 is bigger than its predecessor, as well as badder—although the more appropriate term would be "not as good" or "worse." Bigger isn't necessarily better, especially when it comes at the sacrifice of the core of what worked.

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