Producer: Damon Ross   Director: Pierre Perifel and JP Sans    Screenplay: Yoni Brenner and Etan Cohen   Cast: Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Craig Robinson, Anthony Ramos, Awkwafina, Danielle Brooks, Natasha Lyonne, Maria Baklova, Zazie Beetz, Richard Ayoade, Alex Borstein and Omid Djalili    Distributor: Universal Pictures

Grade: C

Aaron Blabey’s series of graphic novels for kids, about a gang of notoriously “bad” animals who try to change their criminal reputations by doing good deeds, has reached twenty volumes since it began in 2015.  The movie franchise based on them lags far behind in numerical terms; this is only the first sequel to 2022’s screen introduction of the characters.  “The Bad Guys 2” will probably repeat the popularity of its predecessor, despite the fact that, like the first installment, it’s just a middle-grade animated “family” film—and a manic, surprisingly violent one that parents might want to think twice about bringing their youngest kids to.

It’s another heist movie, this time revolving around the heroes—suave leader Mr. Wolf (voiced by Sam Rockwell), lock-picking expert Mr. Snake (Marc Maron), volcanic (and flatulent) Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos), goofy master of disguise Mr. Shark (Craig Robinson) and computer whiz Ms. Tarantula (Awkwafina)—bumping heads with a gang called the Bad Girls headed by snow leopard Kitty Kat (Danielle Brooks), who’s become notorious as The Phantom Thief.

The Bad Guys, still under suspicion after being released from prison, are having problems trying to go straight.  Unable to find jobs—Mr. Wolf has an amusing, predictably unsuccessful, interview with a honcho at a bank he’d previously robbed—they’re faced with losing their home.  Only Mr. Snake, who’s gone mellow after getting a girlfriend, a raven named Susan (Natasha Lyonne), seems unperturbed. 

Their solution is to show their reformed colors by catching the Phantom, but the plan goes awry in an altercation at a big wrestling match that leads police commissioner Luggins (Alex Borstein), a human, to turn decisively against them.  That allows Kitty to use a threat to unmask Mr. Wolf’s girlfriend Governor Diane Foxington (Zazie Beetz) as a former criminal to force the now-disgraced crew to help her hijack the MoonX rocket scheduled for liftoff by its tech billionaire owner Mr. Moon (Omid Djalili); doing so necessitates crashing Moon’s big wedding ceremony to steal his smart watch, which brings still more public condemnation of the Bad Guys.  But when Foxington learns from jailed Professor Marmalade (Richard Ayoade), the mad guinea pig who was the villain in the first installment, how Kitty plans to use the magnet aboard the rocket, Mr. Wolf and his cohort, helped by Luggins, frantically board the craft during liftoff to foil her scheme; Foxington does as well, though she barely manages to after a knock-down battle with Kitty.

That turns the movie into a prolonged outer-space adventure that’s less “Oceans 11” and more “Mission: Impossible.”  Rest assured that the Bad—er, Good Guys—emerge victorious, although one wonders about the injuries that might result when scads of gold rain down on earth from space.

The movie showcases some extraordinary visuals from DreamWorks Animation, especially toward the close, with wide-screen images of gold pieces swirling around the rocket like stars around the center of a galaxy that would grace any big-budget space opera.  The work of production designer Luc Desmarchelier and art director Floriane Marchix here is remarkable.  Less impressive are the punchy jump cuts during action scenes intended to make the images look like comic-book panels in motion which they, directors Pierre Perifel and JP Sans and editor Jesse Averna have opted for.  But Daniel Pemberton’s score adds to an energetic feel.

One might wish that the fight sequences, of which there are many, were shorter and less violent (the hundred minute-plus running time could have stood a bit of trimming).  And one can wonder whether in-jokes like references to an element called MacGuffinite will lift viewers’ spirits or cause groans; the same applies to Piranha’s proclivity to fart out noxious green gas when upset, though that’s the sort of stuff that’s expected in family fare nowadays.

Voice work is excellent down the line, with Lyonne particularly engaging and fellow newcomer Maria Bakalova as her comrade-in-arms Pigtail Petrova not far behind.  But all the returnees get into the spirit of things as well; only Brooks, whose character never cracks a smile except of condescension, comes across as a spoilsport.  But then, she’s the nasty villain—though that didn’t stop Ayoade from being fun last time, or this one (his well-muscled body, buffed-up from prison workouts, is worth a chuckle, too).

“The Bad Guys 2” certainly isn’t bad; it’s merely okay rather than good.  The closing twist, which promises a new direction in the inevitable sequel, seems problematic, however.  Not all evolution is progress. 

Producers: David Brooks, Dan Clifton, Julie Waters, Sophie Brooks and Molly Gordon   Director: Sophie Brooks   Screenplay: Sophie Brooks   Cast: Molly Gordon, Logan Lerman, Geraldine Viswanathan, John Reynolds, David Cross, Polly Draper, Desmin Borges, Diana Irvine, Jimmy Gary Jr. and Jessie Nelson   Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics

Grade: C

Logan Lerman now joins the short list of actors who have spent most of a movie tied up on a bed.  The best known is surely James Caan in the excellent “Misery” (1990).  But there was also Zach Galligan in the wretched “All Tied Up” (1993).  “Oh, Hi!” falls somewhere between them, but, sadly, closer to the latter.

Sophie Brooks’s movie is a comedy about commitment, or lack thereof.  The director’s co-writer Molly Gordon stars as Iris, who’s introduced—after an opening close-up in which she admits she’s done something bad—driving with Isaac (Lerman), her boyfriend of some months, to a rustic farmhouse they’ve rented in High Falls for a weekend getaway from the city.  Singing lustily as they listen to the radio, they seem a perfect couple, even after an accident at a strawberry stand, where Isaac flirts a bit with the saleslady, leaves them with entirely too many boxes of the fruit.

Their initial time at the house, and the nearby lake, is idyllic, despite the intervention of solemnly dour neighbor Steven (David Cross), who objects to their open display of affection on the pier until he finds out they’re renters, not local interlopers.  They enjoy a candlelit dinner on the patio and pepper one another with getting-to-know-you-better questions that reveal some differences—he likes to read books, but she prefers watching movies.

The biggest difference—a chasm, really—isn’t revealed until they repair to the bedroom, where they find some sex paraphernalia in the well-stocked closet.  Isaac suggests trying a bit of bondage for fun, and Iris agrees—so long as he’s the one who gets shackled.  Only after he’s secured does Iris learn that while she thought their relationship an exclusive one, he didn’t and has been dating other women.  Worse, he’s not at all interested in monogamy or marriage. 

She’s shocked and angry at his admission and, being a bit nutty as soon becomes apparent, decides to try to change his mind.  The attempt is made easy by the fact that he’s been dumb enough to tell her the truth before she’s unlocked his wrists and ankles, and when she declares her refusal to do so in order to persuade him they’re meant for each other, he makes matters worse by suggesting he might get the law involved.  Despite the best efforts of the two talented stars the movie deteriorates from there. 

Iris makes matters worse by calling her best friend Max (Geraldine Viswanathan) to come to the farm so that they can work out what to do, and Max unexpectedly brings along her boyfriend Kenny (John Reynolds).  He turns out to be an avid viewer of TV crime shows, more than eager to point out all the legal trouble Iris has gotten herself into.  Neither conversation with her mother (Polly Draper) nor advice from online influencer Sandra James (Jessie Nelson) has prepared Iris for the mess she now finds herself in.

So what do Iris, Max and Kenny decide on as a possible way out?  Witchcraft, of course!  They’ll prepare a magical potion that will make Isaac forget everything that’s happened.  Of course, it doesn’t work.

“Oh, Hi!” is buoyed to some extent by a terrific cast.  Gordon goes the unhinged route without becoming Annie Wilkes mad, and Lerman is fine as a shallow guy who’s dumbfounded by her intensity.  The picture also has comic aces in the vivacious Viswanathan and the droll Reynolds, while Cross works wonders with his few interjections. 

But it’s sabotaged by the script, which starts out smart but grows dumber and dumber with each passing moment.  It does leave one with a smile, maybe even a laugh, when movie-loving Iris sends injured book-lover Isaac off to the hospital with the line “We’ll always have Paris!” and he responds with an incredulous “What?”  But by that time it’s a lost cause.

There’s some compensation in the lovely New York locations shot in their glory by cinematographer Conor Murphy, and April Lasky’s production design is nice, as is Steven Price’s score.  Editor Kayla M. Emter brings things in at a chipper ninety-four minutes.

But you shouldn’t commit your hard-earned cash to so misguided a commentary on commitment.  Better to buy some strawberries instead.