Piere Perifel’s “The Unhealthy Guys 2” is a pleasant shock, an initially middle-of-the-road follow-up to 2022’s sleeper that hits the bottom working within the late stretch and emerges a worthy, exhilarating sequel.
The Large Unhealthy Mr. Wolf (voiced once more by Sam Rockwell, important to the movie’s success) is now a decent member of society, lacking his days as a infamous villain and the top of a motley crew of thieves. Mr. Wolf and his groups fail at buying reputable jobs, as none of them can cross a pattern background examine or come throughout as able to taking up actual work.
When a heist pulled off by the “Phantom Bandit” has regulation enforcement determined for assist, they flip to Mr. Wolf and his former “Unhealthy Guys,” although the answer to the puzzle pits them in opposition to a wholly new crew of villains.
My daughter reads “The Unhealthy Guys” books, and I at all times get pleasure from catching as much as them as nicely. The wit is correct there on the web page.
The flicks are an gratifying goof on the Danny Ocean films, with Rockwell clearly the George Clooney equal, the too-cool-for-the-room protagonist in control of a crew of ace criminals.
The animation on this franchise is fantastic, because the characters are angular, cartoonish however cool to take a look at. They’re in a panorama that’s virtually however not fairly photorealistic.
After a long time of Dreamworks Animation that principally have the identical spherical, bubbly, historically Disney-esque approaches to character and story design, it’s refreshing to see one thing this arresting catching on (though it should be mentioned that the “Spider-Verse” films are king at introducing a radical new animation method for his or her storytelling).
The sequel ambles alongside agreeably from scene to scene, however it doesn’t have the laughs or freshness of the unique. For many of the working time, I had a smile on my face however was able to put this in the identical class as close-but-not-quite animated sequels like “Shrek 2” and “Frozen 2.”
As soon as we get to the third act, the movie takes a proper flip and doesn’t simply get higher however coalesces into an awesome film. There’s a bit the place our heroes are tied up and suspended within the air. Not solely should they attempt to escape but in addition stop a file from being despatched on-line.
Issues don’t go the way in which we anticipate, and it propels us into the grand finale.
The sequence the place our heroes should board an area shuttle whereas it’s launching is, I child you not, among the best motion sequences of the summer season. The complexity, class, and wonder, in addition to chair-grabbing pleasure generated, are sudden.
So is how a lot enjoyable the conclusion is, the place the film goes all in on turning into, of all issues, “Moonraker” (1979). There’s additionally a smash edit that reveals in case your heroes survived a catastrophic explosion that gives a large giggle.
Even the ultimate moments are sharp sufficient to welcome one other entry.
“The Unhealthy Guys 2” begins sturdy, coasting on goodwill for too lengthy, then ends with what will probably be franchise highlights for a sequence that I hope goes on for a very long time. In keeping with my daughter, the ultimate scenes are according to the place the books go in the long term.
I like how unabashedly nutty the entire thing is and the place it apparently is headed. The Danny Ocean sequence feels prefer it has gone so far as it might go, however I’m down for extra of this.
Like the unique, “The Unhealthy Guys 2” is brisk and trendy, however that remaining 30-minute stretch is when it turns into actually particular.
Three Stars