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Hello, Yahoo readers. I\u2019m Suzy Byrne, and I\u2019ve been covering entertainment in this space for over a decade.<\/em><\/p>\n I\u2019ll be the first to tell you I\u2019m no hardcore cinema buff. Since I had a child, though, I\u2019ve made it a point to see as many kid-friendly movies as possible. Maybe it\u2019s because I\u2019m a big kid \u2714 and love a cheerful ending \u2714. But also, as a busy working parent, getting two hours to turn off my phone, put up my feet and eat whatever I want while my child is fully entertained is the definition of movie magic.<\/em><\/p>\n So that\u2019s what this is \u2014 one entertainment reporter + her 10-year-old child + friends seeing family-friendly fare and replying all to you about the experience. <\/em>Welcome to Kids’ Movie Club.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Three adults, three kids and one crowd-pleasing movie: talk about the perfect recipe for a summer evening with family and friends.<\/p>\n The Aaron Blabey graphic novel series, on which the animated franchise is based, is a page-turning fave with the kids I took to see the sequel, and the first movie was a howl of a good time, even for the adults.<\/p>\n The sharp-dressed, smooth-talking charmer Mr. Wolf (voiced by Sam Rockwell) gets much of the credit, along with his core crew of sticky-fingered animal friends. We wanted to see if the Bad Guys really could go good \u2014 or what their version of \u201cgood\u201d even is.<\/p>\n I wondered aloud if that evil hamster from the first film, released in 2022, would be back as we took our seats. \u201cUm, Suzy \u2014 it\u2019s a guinea pig<\/em>,\u201d my friend\u2019s daughter corrected me before schooling me, the clueless adult, about the difference between all the rodents kids demand to bring home after a single visit to Petco. \u201cSorry, that\u2019s what I mean,\u201d I replied, remembering very well Professor Marmalade\u2019s signature guinea pig chubby cheeks \u2014 and sociopathic personality.<\/p>\n The Pierre Perifel and JP Sans-directed sequel \u2014 rated PG and running 1 hour, 44 minutes \u2014 has a menagerie of new characters and a plot that\u2019s a little all over the place, but we walked out feeling good about it, like we pulled off our own heist, stealing a few hours from our hectic lives for some solid entertainment.<\/p>\n The movie begins with how Wolf and crew \u2014 also including escapologist Snake (Marc Maron), the master of disguise Shark (Craig Robinson), the muscle Piranha (Anthony Ramos) and hacker extraordinaire Tarantula (Awkwafina) \u2014 came together years earlier, during a heist targeting an obnoxious billionaire in Cairo, and the origin of Wolf\u2019s sweet ride, which they speed off in. It jumps five years to when, freshly sprung from the big house, Wolf is driving a beater, which Shark has to push up hills, and none of the ex-cons can find jobs.<\/p>\n Maybe Wolf shouldn\u2019t have applied at the bank he robbed three times, but \u2026 desperate times!<\/p>\n The plot bounced a bit too much \u2014 they\u2019re at a Mexican wrestling tournament, crashing a wedding to steal a watch from a billionaire, stealing a rocket and going to space and, oh, it\u2019s suddenly raining gold \u2014 and there are a bunch of new characters to get to know. With the last film\u2019s chief villain, Marmalade (Richard Ayoade), in jail for much of this, the new nasties are the Bad Girls<\/em>.<\/p>\n Led by Kitty Kat (Danielle Brooks), the girl group copycats the style of the Bad Guys, making the world think the crew has gone bad again. They then strong-arm them into participating in a heist robbing a rare metal, MacGuffinite, to ultimately steal the world’s gold. Kitty Kat uses blackmail as leverage, telling Wolf that she will expose his love interest Governor Diane Foxington\u2019s (Zazie Beetz) criminal past as the Crimson Paw if he doesn\u2019t comply. The Bad Guys get the last laugh.<\/p>\n The commissioner (Alex Borstein) is back doing her same bumbling, stumbling and yet endearing thing. She\u2019s uncertain whether she can trust the Bad Guys, but they build a bond.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also romance of the interspecies variety. \u201cSnakey-cakes\u201d gets charmed by a raven Susan\/Doom (Natasha Lyonne), before learning she\u2019s part of Kitty\u2019s gang \u2014 and still can\u2019t quit her after. After going round for round, Wolf and Diane get out of the friend zone.<\/p>\n The kids, ranging in age from 8 to 10, were locked in \u2014 so much so that I didn\u2019t order my daughter anything, even popcorn, and I didn\u2019t get pestered about it.<\/p>\n The kid crew laughed over Piranha\u2019s gas. Seriously, get that guy to a gastroenterologist. He farted room-clearing green puffs throughout the film, with a flatulence finale in a space suit that nearly suffocated his friend.<\/p>\n Keeping with the lowbrow likes: They also laughed when Piranha was told to \u201cstop farting, you maniac,\u201d and was called a \u201cmango with teeth.\u201d There were also giggles over someone almost having a \u201cpee pee accident.\u201d<\/p>\n After the credits rolled, the kids wondered why there were so many human characters in the movie when the book has all animals as characters. They also talked about Blabey\u2019s spin-off book series, Cat On The Run<\/em>, which takes place in the same universe as The Bad Guys <\/em>and how it\u2019s OK, but not at the same level. With The Bad Guys <\/em>series seemingly done after 20 books, the news that Blabey is launching two new book series<\/a> is welcome.<\/p>\n The Bad Guys<\/em> mood continued when we got home. My daughter streamed The Bad Guys: Haunted Heist<\/em> on Netflix, which we missed when it came out in 2024, and is now rereading the books.<\/p>\n The first installment of The<\/em> Bad Guys<\/em> had nods to Quentin Tarantino \u2014 with its opening diner scene straight out of Pulp Fiction<\/em> \u2014 and the sequel felt just as inspired by classic (and not-so-classic) cinema. As I watched with my husband and our friend, I found myself mentally tallying all the movies and shows it seemed to reference.<\/p>\n For starters, it just generally had the vibes of Ocean\u2019s Eleven<\/em> and The Fast and the Furious<\/em>, but with cartoon animals instead of George Clooney. There\u2019s a Silence of the Lambs<\/em>-inspired scene between the incarcerated Marmalade and Diane, and the Bad Guys\u2019 new jobs \u2014 super agents for an intergalactic league \u2014 seemed very Men in Black<\/em>.<\/p>\n I leaned over to my husband during the movie, when the Bad Guys’ getaway car was saved by a giant crane with a magnet, to utter a line from Breaking Bad<\/em>: \u201cYeah, bitch. Magnets!\u201d Wolf sipped from a \u201cI see guilty people\u201d mug (The Sixth Sense<\/em>), and one character yelling, \u201cYou lied to me!\u201d made me think of Throw Momma from the Train.<\/em> The woozy bride took me straight back to Sixteen Candles<\/em>. Even MacGuffinite<\/a> traces back to a Hitchcock reference.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve since read that Brooks said<\/a> she drew inspiration for Kitty Kat from Christoph Waltz\u2019s character in Inglourious Basterds<\/em>, so the Tarantino love in The Bad Guys<\/em> lives on.<\/p>\nNow playing: <\/strong>The Bad Guys 2<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n
The plot \ud83c\udfac<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Parts that had the kids talking \ud83d\udc67\ud83c\udffb\ud83d\udc67\ud83c\udffb\ud83d\udc66\ud83c\udffb<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Parts that had the adults talking \ud83d\udc69\ud83c\udffb\ud83d\ude4e\ud83c\udffb\u200d\u2642\ufe0f\ud83d\ude4e\ud83c\udffb\u200d\u2642\ufe0f<\/strong><\/h3>\n