A ‘cool, edgy’ action comedy for the whole family is available to watch now

Starring an Oscar winner, this action-comedy sequel cements the franchise as the cooler, edgier family-friendly movie option.

A sequel to the smash-hit 2022 movie The Bad Guys, with the franchise based on the children's graphic novel series, the follow-up continues the story of Mr. Wolf (voiced by Oscar-winner Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards).

He and his titular crew of anthropomorphic animal thieves (including Craig Robinson, The Office) wish to turn their lives around and become good.

This winds up being harder than they expected, however, as society won't give them a chance to prove that they've changed their ways.

Not helping matters, meanwhile, is another group of criminals dubbed The Bad Girls (Danielle Brooks, Maria Bakalova and Natasha Lyonne) who have begun committing their own heists, robberies which Mr. Wolf and his crew are being blamed for.

JOE spoke to all of the cast mentioned above, as well as the franchise's returning director Pierre Perifel, about crafting a very fun and stylish action comedy that works for adults and children alike.

On this, Perifel says: "We're playing within a genre that's very traditionally adult. Genre movies, big action films, James Bond, Mission: Impossible, those are references, those are the movies that were homaging.

"Then the way we're shooting it and cutting it, it's very live-action inspired and cool and edgy and adult," with the director citing The Silence of the Lambs and True Romance as adult classics subtly, playfully and impressively referenced in the PG-rated The Bad Guys 2.

"But then on top of that, we have a layer of characters that are silly and cute and have tons of slapstick gags and act as a cute little family. I think that appeals to kids."

On the "very broad appeal", he adds: "It's not something that you necessarily control that precisely, but I think we set out to do a movie that excited us first. Me first, for sure. It's like: 'Alright, what do I want to see? I want some action.'"

Yet, Perifel also knew that "the layer of comedy and the cuteness of those characters would appeal to children, no matter what."

Rockwell similarly describes the film as "Looney Tunes meets Ocean's Eleven," explaining: "It's dramatic, it's romantic, there's pathos and then there's [fart jokes]," with the Oscar-nominee pressing play on a fart noise app on his phone to hilariously punctuate his point.

Robinson also says of The Bad Guys 2: "It's slick, it's stylish, it's fun, it's a tip of the hat to some of those cool caper movies... the animation is a cut above."

The rest of the cast notes as well that the movie's story, which is about thieves looking to atone and the struggles that come with that, also works for both adults and kids.

Oscar-nominee Brooks (The Color Purple) tells JOE: "I think it's actually really good to watch people struggling to understand good and bad with their parents. I think it's actually probably, not to get so deep, an educational tool for any parent.

"But it's also something that the parents can enjoy. It's definitely giving that sense of Ocean's Eleven or any one of those types of action-packed movies. I know, because I watched it with my family."

Lyonne (Poker Face) adds: "It's also so fun as a science nerd... When the movie gets crazy and everybody goes to outer space, it's just so fun to watch it come to life in that way.

"I think that will be a lot of fun for kids' imaginations to go wild, and also for the parents to really enjoy."

Oscar-nominee Bakalova (Borat 2) also tells JOE: "The humour is great. The first time we watched it, we watched it together, and I was so excited because I heard adults laughing and gasping and being loud in a movie theatre. It was exciting. We need that a lot."

The Bad Guys 2 is in cinemas now.