The Bad Guys 2 review – gang of cuddly animal criminals get pulled back in for one last heist

Snappier, funnier and more relaxed than the first film, this caper sees the crew dragged back to villainy by a ‘MacGuffinite’ plot Here’s one of the few animated kids’ sequels you can approach without strapping into a hazmat suit for protection. DreamWorks’s franchise hits its stride with this minor upgrade – a snappier, funnier and more relaxed movie than the original. It begins like a Bond or Bourne with a death-defying car chase around Cairo after the gang of criminal predators pull off yet another a splashy heist. Behind the wheel of the getaway car is ringleader Mr Wolf (voiced by Sam Rockwell, and doing such a decent Clooney impersonation that George should shake him down for royalties). Actually, the chase is a flashback to five years ago. Right now, in the present, Mr Wolf, Mr Snake, Mr Shark and the gang have gone straight. But their fresh start as good guys is scuppered by a snow leopard and a frame-up for a series of daring heists involving a precious metal called MacGuffi...

Roman Holiday at 70: Audrey Hepburn’s star-making role remains luminous

The 1953 romantic comedy may lack heft but the Oscar-winner’s charming lead turn makes it an escape worth taking again

When Roman Holiday was released, 70 summers ago, the monarchy was having a fashionable moment. Two months before, the world had watched the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, a relatively young, glamorous face for a fusty institution: the first such event to be globally televised, it made the very principle of royalty seem less like the realm of ancient history. I say “relatively”: the frilly pomp and ceremony of English royalty can’t have been much sexier in 1953 than it was in 2023, though at least they didn’t have official broad-bean quiche to contend with.

There was certainly ample scope for Hollywood to prettify the notion a bit, which is where Roman Holiday proved most fortuitously timed. A romantic comedy that set a quasi-fantasy template for the genre that has endured to the modern era – take Notting Hill, a veritable homage – it played on a mid-century fascination with real-world princesses, with all the duller formalities taken out. Its protagonist, crown princess Ann, is a blank slate on to which any number of princessy ideals could be projected: she’s beautiful, gracious and charismatic, with an all-purpose Euro glamour that can’t be tied to any specific identity, since the screenwriter Dalton Trumbo had elected to make her from a vague imaginary nation. Beside her, England’s young new queen looked positively, rain-soddenly drab.

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