The Bad Guys (UHD Blu-ray) review

[David Vaughn]

Studio: Universal / Dreamworks
Release Date: June 21, 2022
Rating: PG
Film: 3.5/5
 
Plot
Never have there been five friends as infamous as The Bad Guys—Mr. Wolf, Mr. Snake, Mr. Piranha, Mr. Shark and Ms. Tarantula. After years of countless heists and being the world’s most-wanted villains, the gang is finally caught. Mr. Wolf brokers a deal to keep them out of prison and the Bad Guys set out to fool the world into believing they’ve gone good.
 
My Thoughts
One of my daughter’s friends from college works at Dreamworks and was the assistant to the director for this project, so she was heavily invested emotionally in the film given her personal relationship. She was able to go to the premiere and raved about the film, so my wife and I went in with extremely high expectations, which was probably a mistake.
 
In all honesty, we didn’t particularly enjoy the first act of the film at all. It’s juvenile in its humor and somewhat simplistic in its storytelling, which is to be expected since the film is based on the very popular Scholastics graphic novel series of the same name. Fortunately, things really pick up after the first 30 minutes or so and we really enjoyed the second half of the film a lot. The message is great and even though the story is predictable and doesn’t really break new ground, this is the type of film that we wouldn’t have had any issues having our kids watch repeatedly when they were young.
 
The presentation is quite good overall with very bright images from the UHD disc. It’s coupled with an active Dolby Atmos mix that I felt could have been a tad more aggressive, especially with the LFE.
 
Video 9/10
 
Audio 9/10 (Dolby Atmos)
 
Special Features:
 

• Original Short “Maraschino Ruby”
• Deleted Scenes
• Devise The Plan: Making The Bad Guys
• Assemble The Crew
• It’s Showtime: Cast Table Read
• Snake’s Frozen Pop Shop
• From the Drawing Room
• Feature Commentary
• UHD + Blu-ray + Digital Copy

 

 
 
Conclusion
For the first few minutes of the film I was regretting my request to review this one, but thankfully it redeemed itself in the end. I’m sure that if I went in blind, I would have enjoyed it a lot more from the start, but my daughter built up the film as the second-coming of the Toy Story franchise, which really set the bar too high. Overall, it’s a lot of fun and I’m sure the younglings will have a blast. Recommended for those with young kids.
 
Reference Review System:
JVC DLA-RS2000 4K Ultra High-Definition Front Projector
(Calibrated with Portrait Displays CalMAN color calibration software & C6-HDR Meter from Portrait Displays)
Stewart Filmscreen - Firehawk 88” 16x9 Fixed Screen
Trinnov Altitude 16 Audio/Video Processor
ATI AT527NC Powering Bed Channels
ATI AT524NC Powering Atmos Speakers
Panasonic DP-UB820 Ultra HD Blu-ray Player
System Controller: URC MX-990
M&K S-150 THX Ultra (R-C-L Speakers)
M&K SS-150 x4 (Surround Speakers)
Atlantic Technology IC6-OBA x 4 Overhead Speakers
SVS PC-Ultra Cylinder Subwoofer
HSU VTF-15H MK2 Subwoofer
M&K Sound X15+ Subwoofer
Dual JL Audio F-110 (stacked and treated as one sub)
Mini DSP HD controlling all subwoofers
Audioquest and Monoprice - Audio/Video/Speaker Cabling
PureAV PF60 Power Conditioner

[bmoney]

Our kids have watched this about 15 times hahah