The Bad Guys 2 (2025)

After turning over a new leaf and retiring from their old ways, the former Bad Guys struggle to reintegrate with society and are inevitably lured back into the fold by the Bad Girls. It's more of the same, which unfortunately means it's not for me. While the first film was very much inspired by the Ocean's Eleven-style heist genre, this one channels more of a Mission: Impossible spy feeling. I honestly don't understand why these movies are so popular because they feel visually bland and painfully uninspired, and I was bored out of my gourd.

And yes, there will be a third one.

1½ MacGuffinites out of 5

The Bad Guys (2022)

The Big Bad Wolf (of Riding Hood fame) teams up with a snake, a tarantula, a piranha and a shark in order to commit larceny and other crimes. They're the Bad Guys; villains of every story, viewed as monsters by society and taking advantage of their lot in life. As you might guess, since this is a kids' movie, it deals with issues of prejudice and stereotypes, and these guys are far from irredeemable. It's basically a low-stakes heist movie for kids, and if there's one less thing I need in my life, it's yet another heist movie. The voice cast has tremendous chemistry, but this is purely fodder for the little ones. As far as animation goes, I found it basic and generic. This is pretty low-hanging fruit.

2 full Clooneys out of 5

THE BOXTROLLS [2014]

Based on Alan Snow's off-kilter children's novel Here Be Monsters!, directors Graham Annable & Anthony Stacchi's The Boxtrolls is another stop-motion film that seems to be aimed at shopping mall goth kids who loved A Nightmare Before Christmas.
The story of a boy who was raised underground by a race of trash-collecting trolls only to have their peaceful existence put in peril when a nasty exterminator comes into the mix.  While the film is packed with plenty of visual splendor, a wild imagination and a macabre sense of charming humor it doesn't quite hit the mark.  The film-makers admirably spent so much time on nearly every jaw-dropping aspect of the film but somewhere along the line they forgot to give the leading characters a pulse and that's where it hurts the most.  With that in mind, put the really young ones to bed and you'll still find plenty to enjoy out of this film no matter where it fizzles a bit.

3 fish out of 5

THE DOUBLE [2013]

I was in film-nerd hog heaven with Richard Ayoade's sophomore effort, The Double, a modernized adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's doppelgänger novella of the same name.
Engulfed in suffocating moody shadows and minimal color scheme, the film seems like it could very well be Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Eraserhead with it's wickedly dark oddball sense of humor and timing.  Jesse Eisenberg is superb as he bounces back between skittish and suave while maintaining a steady balance of menacing tragedy that the source material gives off.
It will remind many of the works of Welles, Gilliam, Lynch and more but it never comes off as a wannabe copy with it's imagination, wit and uniquely hilarious & disturbing aesthetic.

4 dead pigeons out of 5

SUBMARINE [2010]

Submarine is a cynical coming-of-age British dramedy from first time feature length director Richard Ayoade based on the novel of the same name by Joe Dunthorne.
Ayoade's filmmaking is ripe with confidence and strong storytelling that never tries too hard to be smarter than it really is, which too many films in it's genre tend to do these days.  The performances from each actor involved help hold everything together when things get a bit dry and drawn-out.  All in all, it's a delightful little film that promises we'll be seeing more of Ayoade's work in the future.

3 awkward mixtapes from your dad out of 5