The Bad Guys 2 (2025)

It's always a good sign when everyone returns for a sequel, and I cannot spot anyone major missing, either behind or "in front" of the camera, from The Bad Guys 2. Considering I enjoyed the first movie enough, thanks in no small part to the style and the voice cast, I was optimistic about this. That optimism was not misplaced.

Some time has passed, of course, and the bad guys are spending their time trying to be good guys. That's hard when you have earned the kind of reputation that they have earned though. It's even harder when someone is pulling off the kind of robberies that would seem to be very much in line with the M. O. of the bad guys. Hoping to crack the case and change the opinions of people who won't let them move away from their past, Wolf (Sam Rockwell), Shark (Craig Robinson), Tarantula (Awkwafina), Piranha (Anthony Ramos), and Snake (Marc Maron) quickly put themselves in a situation that makes them look even more guilty than ever, much to the frustration of Diane Foxington (Zazie Beetz).

Just as fun and lively as the first movie, The Bad Guys 2 is a pretty perfect sequel. It may not surpass the first film, but it's a very close call. And it made me laugh hard with a couple of perfectly-executed fart gags I assume will go down equally well with younger viewers. Pierre Perifel is now happy to share directing duties with JP Sans (who worked in the animation department for the first film), and Etan Cohen is now happy to collaborate with Yoni Brenner on a screenplay once again born from the books by Aaron Blabey.

The central cast remain perfect in their roles (as well as those mentioned, Richard Ayoade and Alex Borstein also reprise roles from the first film) and there are equally entertaining performances from Omid Djalili, Colin Jost, Natasha Lyonne, Maria Bakalova, and a few others. Is the plot a bit obvious and predictable? Yes. It's also easy enough to let wash over you as each sequence packs in a fantastic selection of action and gags. 

Perfect for kids (and those as childish as me), The Bad Guys 2 once again nicely reworks the standard  heist movie tropes, adds even more peril, as happens in many sequels, and provides a very nice excuse to spend some more time with some very entertaining and cool characters.

And look, just in case anyone misunderstands how old or mature I actually am . . . let me just emphasise that it was a VERY good fart gag. Otherwise I wouldn't have felt the need to mention it here. Honest. 

7/10

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The Apprentice (2024)

I understand why people may be less inclined to check out this film right now. All of the warnings have been there for decades, and we've had even more time to watch Donald Trump showcase his incompetence, pettiness, and inhumanity over the past few years, but The Apprentice is a surprisingly fantastic watch, not just because it reminds us all of the fact that nothing the snake-oil salesman who bagged himself a return trip to the White House says or does nowadays is new. He's just repeating from a playbook that he's been using for most of the past half century, and that playbook was written for him by Roy Cohn.

While we all know the Donald Trump of today as a convicted felon, a bully who has been found guilty of sexual abuse, and someone who has allegedly been recruited as a Russian asset way back in the 1980s (according to a couple of different sources), he was once just a pathetic young man who wanted to impress his parents and be one of the rich people that others become desperate to spend time with. He already had his narcissism in place, and a weak nature that would see him beg for help from people until he could get enough leverage to keep his own place at the big table, but he wasn't yet the great monster that he is today. Enter Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). Cohn meets Donald Trump (played here by Sebastian Stan) in the 1970s, and they form a friendship and business relationship that basically shows Donald how to keep getting his way throughout his entire life. Attack, deny everything, and claim any loss as a victory. This is a Frankenstein tale, but there are many Victor Frankensteins here, and just as many monsters, each working to reconstruct the other in different ways. 

Although this is the second feature film written by Gabriel Sherman, I have decided not to hold the awfulness of Independence Day: Resurgence against him. This is so good that I absolutely forgive him, and look forward to whatever he's got lined up for future projects. It helps that director Ali Abbasi is at the helm, someone who has spent the past decade making features that range from very good to absolutely superb (I encourage everyone to also check out Border and Holy Spider). Abbasi knows how to handle material that dances between light and extreme darkness, and he puts that skill to very good use here. He also owes a huge thank you to those who helped to cast the film.

Stan is absolutely brilliant in a role that could have easily been mishandled. He somehow avoids being a clown who becomes a complete villain, although his performance is shaded with both. Nothing is shown here to excuse the behaviour of Donald, but there's a fascinating look at how some of his attitudes were shaped and how he would so often look up to, and put on a pedestal, people who many of us would view as absolute scumbags. Strong has an absolute blast playing one of the biggest scumbags, someone so monstrous that he initially makes little Donnie look like a pussycat, but it's interesting that this year saw both Strong and Kieran Culkin receive a lot of praise for film performances that weren't really too far removed from the personalities they had nurtured throughout five seasons of the superb Succession. Martin Donovan and Catherine McNally are the elder Trumps, Charlie Carrick is the lost brother, and Maria Bakalova adds to her impressive body of work with a captivating portrayal of Ivana.

Although we have much more recent history to learn from, people should really watch this to be reminded of just how much time Donald Trump has spent being an inexorably unpleasant and greedy narcissist who will do anything for a bit of power to wield against others. I doubt this will reach the right people, anyone choosing to watch it will probably not be a member of the bizarre cult he has developed in the past decade, but if there's a chance that even one of those people he managed to confound with his tired razzle dazzle routine can have their blinkers removed, or at least slightly damaged, then that would be a huge bonus. Mind you, the fact that it is out in the world, and making the small-minded bully angry and unable to do anything about it, is just as much of a bonus.

8/10

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Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)

Pete Davidson plays David, a young man about to hold a hurricane party for a group of his friends at his family home. He also seems to be a bit of a dick, but that becomes less of an obstacle for anyone watching the movie when David is found dead. The group immediately suspect the one other male still amongst them (Greg, played by Lee Pace), but they also turn against one another as the killer seemingly stays hiding in plain sight. Is it Sophie (Amanda Stenblerg), a recovering addict who has turned up with a new girlfriend, Bee (Maria Bakalova)? Is it Bee? Maybe David’s girlfriend, an actress named Emma (Chase Sui Wonders), was just tired of his shit. Podcaster Alice (Rachel Sennott) seems to be desperate enough to create such a drama. And then there’s Jordan (Myha’la Herrold), a badass who definitely seems the most capable of killing someone. 

Written by Sarah DeLappe, majorly reworking a more straightforward slasher movie screenplay by Kristen Roupenian, Bodies Bodies Bodies is a comedy that is looking to have people love or hate it. There will be very few people who end up in the middle, thanks to the relentless parade of negative character traits displayed by everyone onscreen. Nobody here seems to have many (any?) redeeming features. Which doesn’t mean they deserve to die, but it is certainly more fun to watch this group self-implode due to the consequences of their own attitudes and actions. The dialogue isn’t as sharp as it could be, but you get some superb lines that will make you laugh while reminding you of how awful the characters are, and it’s a shame that things seem to take a bit too long to really get going. Thankfully, the third act is so good that it’s easy to forgive the rest. And there’s an ending that ranks up there with one of the best I have seen in the past few years.

Director Halina Reijn does a good job with the material, and she has a team that works well in shooting most of the movie in darkness. The house is big enough for people to wander off to various parts of it while hunting for a killer, there are plenty of accessories that you would expect these characters to have to hand, and there’s a general level of consistency and care taken with the developing tensions and the placing of potential victims within the geography of the house.

Having Davidson as the first murder victim is great casting. He can quickly make a strong impression, good or bad, and his presence/character casts an appropriately large shadow over everything. Although very much an ensemble piece, and everyone does well with the material, Amandla Stenberg is an excellent nominal lead, sharing most of her scenes with a very good, and suitably bemused by the people around her, Bakalova. Sennott is a lot of fun, and Herrold revels in the strength of her character throughout. Pace is good, but gets less screentime than most of the women, and the only one who barely makes any impression, seemingly due to being almost forgotten by the script, is Wonders. 

I liked Bodies Bodies Bodies, but I was apprehensive during some of the earliest scenes. I didn’t like the characters, didn’t know who to root for, and struggled to even enjoy the “whodunnit?” aspect. Then I realised that was the point of the movie. As the situation starts to get worse, it is easier to see the characters all being hampered by their narcissism and selfishness, which makes it easier to just sit back and enjoy. And you have that ending, which is good enough to lift the whole movie up a notch.

8/10

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