The Bad Guys review: Ocean’s Eleven in a family-friendly kids’ format

The Bad Guys

(PG) 100mins

★★★★☆

THIS animated heist movie takes the attitude that if you are going to steal, steal from the best.

That is exactly what the movie does.

The Bad Guys is Ocean’s Eleven in a family-friendly kids’ format, with loveable creatures plundering priceless objects and robbing banks.

Taking on the criminal mastermind role is Mr Wolf, voiced by the always-brilliant Sam Rockwell.

When the white-suited thief tries to smooth-talk foxy governor Diane Foxington she even tells him: “Don’t Clooney me, Wolf.”

Such knowing nods are key to the entertainment value of this film, which is perfectly timed for the Easter school holidays.

The jokes have to be good because the central plot is as old as any crime caper. Wolf is a bad guy tempted by the chance to go straight.

He has an epiphany when he realises helping an old lady is more rewarding than robbing her. But his gang are not so easy to rehabilitate, particularly closest pal Snake.

Helping them see the light is goody two-shoes guinea pig Professor Marmalade (a perfect Richard Ayoade).

Wolf faces a dilemma: Stick with his mates or follow his heart by listening to the law-abiding governor he fancies.

Like so many kids’ movies, friendship and identity form its moral core.

At moments it can be groan-worthy but it makes a thought-provoking point about certain animals always being painted as bad guys in stories.

Here, our criminals are a wolf, a snake, a tarantula, a shark and a piranha. They revert to type because society expects them to.

Wisely, the in-jokes for the adults are mixed in with fart gags for little ones.

Such is the film’s breakneck pace that nobody has to wait long before something for them comes along.

Likewise, no single scene outstays its welcome.

It is particularly refreshing to see a director (Frenchman Pierre Perifel) not vying to create the longest car chase in history.

Bigger is not always better and The Bad Guys — unusually, these days — resists that temptation to pile on extra layers of complexity.

Throw in the zinging soundtrack and top-quality animation and nobody paying for a ticket will feel like they have been robbed.

GRANT ROLLINGS

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

(PG) 122mins

★★★☆☆

IDRIS ELBA might not have any great lines in this sequel but he does have the most noteworthy one.

His animated red baddie Knuckles tells our blue hero Sonic: “You mock me with your weak jokes.”

Indeed.

Idris should have insisted on better material before signing up to be a voice on this family movie based on the hugely popular Nineties video game character.

Knuckles is a “focused” furry creature from outer space seeking out a green emerald on Earth that bestows immense power on whoever possesses it.

He packs an incredible punch but no punchlines.

A bit like a mash-up of Will Smith and Chris Rock.

All the best gags go to Jim Carrey, who delivers them with moustache-twirling aplomb.

Whenever his live-action villain Dr Robotnik is on screen, everything is more colourful. Which is pretty remarkable given his main co-stars are computer-generated cartoon characters in vivid red, yellow and blue.

Sonic and his fox sidekick Tails have their moments, particularly a dance-off in a Siberian alehouse.

But they are no match for the Truman Show actor.

Carrey could cackle the phone book manically and it would make for decent entertainment.

Morbius

(15) 104mins

★☆☆☆☆

AFTER playing Joker in DC’s Extended Universe, Jared Leto switches gear as the bloodsucking antihero Morbius in Sony’s Spider-Verse. But this Marvel outing is nothing but draining.

Michael Morbius is a top biochemist who has dedicated his life to curing himself and his rich childhood friend Milo (Matt Smith) of a rare blood disease.

After injecting himself with the DNA of a vampire bat, he develops vampiric superpowers and an insatiable thirst for blood.

This is utterly scattergun storytelling from Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless but not unexpected from the screenwriting duo behind The Last Witchhunter and Gods Of Egypt.

The characters are underwritten, the plot shallow, often nonsensical.

It could not be further from the brilliance and style of Wesley Snipes’ Blade trilogy, another vampiric Marvel hero, where the artistic application of CGI is far more constructive than the frenzied overuse here.

The cast cannot elevate a bland, lifeless narrative with direction from Daniel Espinosa that fails to capture any of the romantic yearning and melancholy associated with vampires or the excitement of the superhero genre the world has grown to love.

Bloody awful.

HANNA FLINT