Imagine trying to walk downtown to a coffee shop and getting caught in the middle of a high speed chase or an intense bank heist, and despite these crimes happening often the perpetrators are never caught. This is the life of a side character in The Bad Guys universe. These characters always have to watch out or they may be caught in some trouble.
The Bad Guys is an iconic series of books written by Aaron Bradley. The series is amazing for new readers as it is an exciting underdog story. A few years ago, in 2022, a movie adaptation was created and became a hit among fans of the original book. Recently in August a sequel of the movie was released called The Bad Guys 2.
The original film revolved around a group of notorious criminals having to pretend to be good under the guidance of Professor Marmalade. Over time their leader, Mr. Wolf, starts to think being good is more rewarding than being bad. Later, Marmalade reveals that he has a mind controlling a meteorite. So the Bad Guys and Mayor Foxington – who is actually a super thief called the Crimson Paw – all work together to expose Marmalade. But with the arrest of Marmalade comes the arrests of the Bad Guys.
Following the events of the first movie, the sequel starts off with Mr. Wolf attempting to get a real job, but due to his past, he gets rejected. Wolf’s friend, Mayor Foxington, tells him that he should help the police department find the elusive Phantom Bandit. After some research, The Bad Guys and the police commissioner think that he might be in the Lords of Lucha tournament trying to steal the precious prize. As they realise the Bandit is trying to win the prize the Bandit frames them for stealing the prize. So they try to escape but get captured by a group called the Bad Girls. The group consists of three members: Doom, the raven; Pigtail Petrova, the wild boar; and Kitty Kat, the snow leopard. The leader of the group (Kitty Kat), blackmails the Bad Guys to help steal a smart watch from Mr. Moon, the owner of the space exploration company Moon X. Once they steal the watch, Kitty explains why she was stealing things as the Phantom Bandit. All the stolen artifacts contain a metal called Mcguffanite. Mcguffanite has amazing electromagnetic abilities, but they only work on gold, implying that she is going to make a gold magnet to steal the worlds gold. The next day Kitty and the Bad Girls are about to take off but she betrays the Wolf and turns him in. The Bad Guys explain the situation and work with the police commissioner to make it to the ship before launch. Once they do they take down Kitty and the Bad Girls get arrested.
While some people loved the movie’s plot and mix of comedy and action, others were very disappointed with the movie and its addition of too many animals and lack of a steady plot. Ninth grader Nico Vazquez said “I prefer the first for sure,” and “my favorite part was the animation.” Lince Otterness, a junior, remarks, “I liked the movie because it was humorous and it beat my expectations. I thought it would’ve been another movie milking the Bad Guys series but it was actually pretty decent.”
The first movie was amazing, but contradicting usual sequels, The Bad Guys 2 had about the same amount of success as the first. The first movie had an 87% ranking on Rotten Tomatoes and a 6.9/10 on IMDb. Similar to the first movie, the sequel got 87% on Rotten Tomatoes and 7/10 on IMDb. Generally, sequels either flop or skyrocket, but The Bad Guys sequel did about the same.
Overall The Bad Guys is an amazing series of movies. With a comedic tone and an action packed plot, the movie can be entertaining to audiences of all ages. And even though the side characters may have gotten used to constantly looking out for heists and chases, the Bad Guys have retired and the the city is safe.
