Everyone's favorite felons are back including Mr. Wolf (Sam Rockwell), Mr. Snake (Marc Maron), Ms. Tarantula (Awkwafina), Mr. Shark (Craig Robinson) and Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos), and this time they've got company. In the new action-packed chapter from Dreamworks Animation's acclaimed comedy smash about a crackerjack crew of animal outlaws, our now-reformed Bad Guys are trying (very, very hard) to be good, but instead find themselves hijacked into a high-stakes, global-trotting heist, masterminded by a new team of criminals, including Kitty Kat (Danielle Brooks), Doom, aka Susan (Natasha Lyonne) and Pigtail Petroya (Maria Bakalova), they never saw coming: The Bad Girls.
Others to round out the cast are Zazie Beetz as Governor Diane Foxington, Richard Ayoade as Professor Marmalade, Lilly Singh as Tiffany Fluffit, Colin Jost as Mr. Moon and Alex Borstein as Commissioner Misty Luggins.
This was directed with crisp staging and pacing by Pierre Perifel ("The Bad Guys" '22) plus shorts. Even though he has only one feature film to his credit, all the shorts he was involved with certainly served him well, and this film's predecessor was simply brilliant--well sequenced and paced. His expertise in the animation world definitely has a clear future. It was co-directed by JP Sans (a short). Even though the directing was predominantly on Perifel's shoulders, this filmmaker still had input. It was executed well by writers Yoni Brenner ("Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" '09, "Rio 2" '14, "Ice Age: Collision Course" '16) plus shorts and a video and Etan Cohen ("Idiocracy" '06, "Tropic Thunder" '08, "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" '08, "Men in Black" '12, "Get Hard" '15, "Holmes & Watson" '18, "The Bad Guys" '22, "Brothers" '24) plus TV and a short, based on books by Aaron Blabey. I believe what made this premise works was that of predominantly Etan Cohen, being the seasoned writer he is. Certainly Yoni Brenner was pivotal with the script, but typically with a filmmaker having the resume that Cohen has, the conclusion is that quality can reign. And in this case, other than a couple of very slow places in script, this story rocked. The cohesiveness, conciseness and tightness of the story was remarkable. The returning Bad Guys cast was amazing--the chemistry was spot on. Dreamworks Animation has turned out to be the premiere studio they started out to be and continue to do so.
If you liked this film's original, you'll love this. Like with other films, wait until the credits roll--there could be a surprise. Will there be another sequel? Certainly if it makes a truckload of money, assuredly it will. But so far it's looking good for Dreamworks. It's also presented in a 3-D format as well. This, like its predecessor, is a fun flick!
Out of 4 Stars: 3.5 Rated: PG 103mins.
No comments:
Post a Comment