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Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Movie Reviews, Movies

REVIEW: “THE BAD GUYS” (2022) Dreamworks/Universal

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DreamWorks Animation is back with “THE BAD GUYS” movie, based on the beloved children’s book by Aaron Blabey. The film, directed by Pierre Perifel, delivers our favourite book characters  in animation wonderment as they are meticulously animated and modeled. Vibrant visuals and stylistic choice makes this a true feast for your eyes. And doing voice-over justice here are: Sam Rockwell as Mr. Wolf, Marc Maron as  Mr. Snake, Craig Robinson as Mr. Shark, Anthony Ramos as Mr. Piranha, Awkwafina as Ms. Tarantula and lastly, the lovely Zazie Beetz as Gov. Diane Foxington aka The Crimson Paw.

(from left) Wolf (Sam Rockwell), Piranha (Anthony Ramos), Snake (Marc Maron), Tarantula (Awkwafina) and Shark (Craig Robinson) in DreamWorks Animation’s The Bad Guys, directed by Pierre Perifel.

It’s a delightful tale of a crazy gang made up of have been a team of notorious animal criminals that have been together for years, creating havoc around town and feared by all. But when they try to go straight after getting caught at one of their most notorious heists ever attempted where Professor Rupert Marmalade (Richard Ayoade), wins the Dolphin Award for Good Person of the Year, and the Bad Guys set out to steal the trophy. With Police Chief Misty Luggins (Alex Borstein) hot on their heels for a prize arrest, all that can go wrong does and they are caught red-handed. Rupert and Governor Foxington get the gang to undergo a Good Guys transformation to avoid jail time. But trying to fool people into thinking they are now model citizens proves much harder than it seems. That, along with realizing there is a whole new Bad Guy in town, takes us on a whirlwind of a ride.

Now Looney Tunes this is not, as if you’ve ever really sat down and watched those as adults, they have way different themes to you as they did when you watched them as a kid. This film doesn’t have the quick-barbed gags of those toon days, but it does have some decent plot twists that aren’t to hard for the kids to follow, or the adults for that matter. The villains here have hearts of gold, along with being a lot of fun. As an adult you might think the film suffers from a bit of a generic plot, which does knock the film down a few points – but if you have kids, this comes with a high recommendation, and they won’t even notice.  

The animation is stylistic and beautifully done, with maybe only a few quips on editing to speak of, it’s just a good fun time. As well, kids and adults alike will enjoy this one, a true film for the whole family!

Coming to theaters Friday, April 22, 2022 from DreamWorks Animation and Universal – run, don’t walk to get your whole family tickets for this one.

Grade: B

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Cast and Crew review screening: Tuesday, April 12, 2022 ~ courtesy of Universal/DreamWorks Animation

DREAMWORKS ANIMATION/UNIVERSAL “THE BAD GUYS” will be out in theaters Friday, April 22, 2022

Action, Action Adventure, Comedy, Marvel Comics, Movie Reviews, Movies

REVIEW: “DEADPOOL 2” (2018) 20th Century Fox

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So yes, in case somehow you’ve been stuck under a rock or living in Wakanda and you’ve missed all the wonderful promos leading into the release of this film, yes, Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) as his alter-ego DEADPOOL are back for another round. And while the laughs and action are still there, your going to be hard pressed to find a movie more over the top than “DEADPOOL 2”. Director David Leitch takes this one to a whole new level entirely and it works namely because the violence here is just creative vs. all blood, guts and gore. And sure, it defies all logic most of the time, but you can’t help but laugh at the zingers being thrown at you left and right throughout and Reynolds’ charm is undeniable.

We come into the film with Williams having settled into something resembling normalcy, kinda right where you expected him to be – spending his days dispatching villains now that he can with those mutant healing powers – they allow him to recover from gunshot wounds or worse. His nights are spent with Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), the love of his life. But some terrible things happen, leaving a depressed Deadpool to crash on the couch at Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters making for some hilarious camp X-Men jokes fall in to place.

We have a mix of some of the old friends, the CGI Colossus (voiced by Stefan Kapicic), Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand), Blind Al (Leslie Uggams), and of course our favourite taxi-driver-wanna-be-super-hero Dopinder (Karan Soni). But we also have a whole new fun group come into play, albeit for some it’s not for long journey – but Peter (Rob Delaney), Zeitgeist (Bill Skarsgård), Vanisher (Brad Pitt), Bedlam (Terry Crews), Shatterstar (Lewis Tan), and Black Tom Cassidy (Jack Kesy) add a fun plot point to the whole film. They are all part of the newly recruited/dubbed ‘X-Force’ group, which seemed like a good idea at the time, but sadly and hysterically I might add, they are gone in quick succession. My personal favourite and one of the last standing through it all, is bad-ass Domino (Zazie Beetz), whose superpower is undeniably “luck”. Our villians could be one of three very different people at various times throughtout. Cable (Josh Brolin) comes into to try to kill Russell aka Firefist (Julian Dennison), who might or might not be ready to step into villian shoes in a big way, or can we call the creepy Headmaster (Eddie Marsan), the biggest villian of the film. That will be for you to decide and see what happens as telling more of this story just defeats the purpose of the fun you will have while watching it. Also, there are cameo moments galore and I hope no one ruins them for you beforehand because they are just plain fun! While I wasn’t crazy about this storyline in comparison to the first one, the one-line zingers are comedy gold. Pay attention as they go fast..very fast.

That being said, go into this movie knowing that it is a campy, corny, over the top superhero/action/comedy that is just about crazy shooting sequences and one-liners, and you’ll be fine. Do not go into this movie expecting deep plot, meaningful conversations among characters, or anything remotely resembling a serious action or drama movie – because that’s not what it’s all about. And yes, this one features the best post credits scene EVER – so don’t make the silly mistake of walking out when the film is over..stay for both sequences..you will be glad you did.

Grade: B+
@pegsatthemovies

Media Review Screening: Monday, May 14, 2018 ~ Courtesy of 20th Century Fox
DEADPOOL 2 WILL BE OUT IN THEATERS NATIONWIDE/WORLDWIDE FRIDAY, MAY 18, 2018