Explosive
Summary
Bad Guys and Bad Guys: Reign of Chaos is Don Lee at his best with plenty of beatdowns and the characters from the television show are always engaging. The movie doesn’t quite hit the same high notes as the show, but it’s still packed with action and I’d be happy for more.
I just finished the television series and movie of Bad Guys starring Don Lee which is kind of like Suicide Squad except not shite with criminals released from prison to help take down even worse criminals. So, let’s start off with the television series, Bad Guys.
Bad Guys (2014) TV Series
Plot: Reinstated to eradicate the worst crimes in the city, a detective requests the release of three convicts to enlist their help in catching the felons still at large.
Review: Bad Guys is a Korean television series from 2014 that ran for 1 season and has had one movie since (which I will get into after this). The show stars Don Lee AKA Ma Dong-seok, Park Hae-jin and Cho Dong-hyuk who are three “criminals” released by Detective Oh Gu-tak (Kim Sang-jung) to help him take down even worse bad guys (thus the show’s title). What’s so entertaining about this series is that fact that it’s so unpredictable; who can be trusted? Are the three leads really bad guys? What is Oh Gu-tak up to?
There are all kinds of twists and turns as we wonder what is really going on and who the real villains are. I don’t want to go into the story anymore and spoil it as you really should check it out; it’s on Tubi now and is only 11 episodes.
It’s well paced and practically every episode has some fight scenes with some better than others. I think my personal favourite is episode 4 which is like The Raid with our team trying to get out of a building run by an evil female crime lord.
The series is impeccably acted and at times surprisingly moving as most of the characters are dealing with some kind of grief and tragedy that has destroyed their lives.
That main theme tune is an ear worm which goes through your head for ages after hearing it; there’s only like 4 different pieces of music used in the entire series so the budget limitations do show at times.
The only real issue I have with this show (which may just be Tubi) but any time there are knives or strong violence it gets blurred out. What gives? You don’t need to censor this for us; we’re all grown-ups here. I would love to see an uncensored version of the series.
Overall, Bad Guys is an action packed and emotionally charged television series and well worth checking out. It has the right amount of humour and memorable characters that fans of Don Lee should add to their watchlist.
The Bad Guys: Reign of Chaos (2019)
Plot:
Review: The Bad Guys: Reign of Chaos is a follow-up to the 2014 TV series Bad Guys; you don’t have to have seen it to pick up what’s going on here but it helps as there are several references to the series.
There are a few returning characters namely Don Lee as Park Woong-Chul, Kim Sang-jung as Detective Oh Gu-tak and Kang Ye-won as Yoo Mi-young. It’s too bad Cho Dong-hyuk only shows up very briefly as Jung Tae-soo but it makes sense as his story was completed by the end of the TV show. Park Hae-jin doesn’t return as Lee Jeong-moon but once again his arc was done so there wasn’t really much else needing explored. The new characters aren’t anywhere near as interesting but they do the job and a lot gets packed into the runtime. If anything I would have preferred a full-on season two rather than cramming everything into a movie.
Don Lee does his usual thing punching people in the face regularly and the final 20 minutes is just one big battle which is awesome. Reign of Chaos clearly has a higher budget than the show with nice production values and plenty of violence to keep you engaged.
It’s at its best when Don Lee is on screen and there are some stylish visuals too; the highlight being the Sin City-style scene.
The main villain with the spiked brass knuckles is a nice touch but he could have been used more so we could grow to truly hate him.
It’s too bad the memorable theme from the TV show isn’t used in the movie, so it never really captures the same spirit.
Overall, The Bad Guys: Reign of Chaos has some decent action with Don Lee doing his thing and the final 20 minutes is packed with fights and violence making this worth checking out. The new characters aren’t quite as interesting as the TV series, but I think that’s mostly due to the fact we don’t get to spend as much time getting to know them. This remains an action packed and entertaining movie and I would happily watch another few seasons as it’s the kind of show I love.