Detective Carl Returns

Detective Carl Returns is a 2023 American adult computer animated buddy cop action comedy film directed by Conrad Vernon while serving as the sequel to the 1990 film Detective Carl. Jason Bateman and Jim Carrey reprise their roles as Carl Jenkins and Josh Heinken along with Ving Rhames, Johnny Depp, Robin Wright, Meg Ryan, Ryan Reynolds, and Bruce Dern returning from the original film along with the new voices of Alex Wolff, Lucas Till, and Wesley Snipes. The film follows Carl and Josh whose plan to retire being cut in order to stop the son of Caine Brown as well as investigating a series of cold cases with the help of an old friend.

Development for the film started in 1992 but was cancelled and restarted after various script issues as well as creative differences between the studio and Ramis. By 2010, Ramis pitched a new script for the film but his death in 2014 put the film back in development hell until Bateman as well as Ryan Reynolds pitched a new script to MGM. With Orion Pictures being revived by MGM in 2014, it was announced that Orion would be back distributing the film as well as production eventually starting in 2019 and the film receiving more modern animation giving the characters a more glossy look while having a 2D like animation style in CGI similar to the technique used in The Peanuts Movie.

Detective Carl Returns premiered on January 2, 2023 at the TCL Grauman's Chinese Theatre and was released by United Artists Releasing in the United States on January 13, 2023 in Dolby Cinema and IMAX formats. The film has grossed over $487 million worldwide breaking various records while currently being the highest grossing film of 2023 and acclaim from critics who praised the chemistry of the cast, the darker tone, animation, and humor, with many considering it superior to its direct predecessor.

It is also the last film distributed by United Artists Releasing before its renaming to MGM Studios.

Plot
33 years after the death of Ben Thompson, the son of deceased drug lord, Caine Brown, Caine Brown Jr, aka Junior, is finally released from his 15 year sentence where he rounds up his old crew to avenge his father’s murder as well as his uncle’s death in prison and arrest. His right hand man, Tony and his younger brother Denzel, both suggest to kill Carl Jenkins but first finds friends linked with Carl. They find Anthony Smith who is later tracked and murdered by Junior.

2 days later, Carl Jenkins and his partner Josh Heinken who are now high ranked lieutenant cops in the New York Police Force, attend their sons graduation where aging Josh and Carl both consider retirement after the many years they’ve been active. However, Officer Johnson later calls the duo and informs them that their friend Anthony Smith has been murdered. At first Josh refuses due to his commitment to be a better father but later joins in. Corporal Cross who overheard Carl and Josh also decides to join to help solve the case as well.

Carl and Josh go to Carl’s younger brother, Austin, who is now the leader of the FBI, for advice where he initially dismisses him until he finds out a major component in the case. While walking out of the building, the duo are spotted and chased after by Junior’s men. They receive back up from Austin and Cross but Junior quickly escapes before he could be intervened.

The duo gives up hope until they receive information from an informant by the name of Bruno, who tells, Josh that a man by the name of Stephen Hill is working on the case. Hill runs out of the corner much to the dispair of Josh where he remembers him from high school and claims that the police force called him to solve this case.

After returning to the headquarters, Officer Barry Johnson whose still mourning the death of Commissioner Lawrence, receives info that Junior and his men are at a strip club and orders Josh and Carl to go there undercover. As the duo go to the club, they notice their sons in attendance there. The sons annoy their fathers until the latter shoo’s them off in order to focus on the mission. Carl and Josh cover is blown after the duo drinks too much alcohol which is later revealed to be laced with LSD which makes the duo hallunciate while dancing on the dance floor where a shoot out later occurs. Meanwhile, Jeremy and CJ run out of the club scared where they find Corporal Cross. They initially help and clear the area outside where they think it’s clear until Cross is assassinated by a sniper. Josh and Carl sober up to find Cross dead, which prompts the duo to solve this case. The police force’s special forces unit later tracks down Junior and his men at a birthday party.

This later leads to a high speed chase where the duo ends up leaving destruction behind. Denzel, the older brother of Junior, ends up rescuing his younger brother with a helicopter as well as Wilfred, a drug dealer picked up by the brothers until he is shot due to his failure to kill Josh and Carl. As Carl and Josh chase down Junior and his gang, they end up crashing letting the men get away with their unit being shut down after too many failed occurrences. In private, Carl reveals to Josh that Junior is the son of Caine Brown and he seeks revenge as he thinks that the duo are the reason why his father died. Jeremy and CJ over here this then decide to make a plan to lure them to an empty warehouse.

Dave, the intern at the police force arrives at the warehouse playing as a drug dealer as he finally meets Junior and his men until his cover is blown due to his lack of seriousness where Junior is confronted by Carl. Junior scolds Carl as he claims that his father had a painful death and he would never forgive him. This confrontation leads to a shoot out between the Special Forces and Junior’s men. Carl soon pursues Junior and fist fights him where Josh tries to shoot Junior until he accidentally shoots a gas pipe causing the building to catch on fire. CJ gains courage and goes inside to help with Jeremy following along until they are knocked down by rubble.

While having Carl in a chokehold, Junior demands to learn the truth from his father’s death and explains that Ben killed him not Carl. After a brief moment, he finally realizes that the story of his father’s death was a lie he ends up joining Carl’s side until his brother, Denzel, shoots him in the shoots, he demands that Carl is dead to avenge his father’s death after not believing Carl’s confession. Josh later wakes up and swings at Denzel from the back as Carl joins into as the duo fight brutally against Denzel. CJ and Jeremy who are tied up, end up breaking free and join in to help their fathers.

As the duo struggle and become no match for Denzel, he instantly knocks out Josh with a nearly fatal blow and pins down Carl who is almost unconscious. As Carl prepares for his death, Jeremy who overcomes his fear of killing shoots Denzel directly in the head as he fall into the fire, instantly dying.

Later on, Josh and Carl are later recruited and given awards by the police force to become captains while Jeremy and CJ are recruited to junior captains. Meanwhile, Austin, who is crippled from being attacked by Brown’s men, appears and reveal that Lawrence left the Force a video to watch. As they open the video, Lawrence explains that he loves the crew and believes in them. Later on, at the hospital, Jeremy’s girlfriend Brittany, gives birth to her and Jeremy’s son whom he named Grant, in honor of Corporal Cross. Sometime later, Carl and Josh, visit Junior at the rehab center where they offer him a position in the police force to where he accepts.

Cast

 * Jason Bateman as Detective Lieutenant Carl Jenkins, a high-rank middle-aged detective/cop who is a lieutenant of the police force and Josh Heiniken's best friend/partner.
 * Jim Carrey as Detective Lieutentant Josh Heinken, a high-rank middle-aged detective/cop who is a lieutenant of the police force and Carl Jenkins' best friend/partner.
 * Ving Rhames as Officer Barry Johnson, the Director-General of Police (DGP) and the chief of police.
 * Wesley Snipes as Caine Brown Jr. / Junior / CBJ, the leader of the drug cartel/street gang, The Silent Death, and son of deadly murderer/gang lord Caine Brown.
 * Johnny Depp as Corporal Grant Cross, a Corporal sergeant of the police force whose is the close friend and former rival of Carl and Josh.
 * Robin Wright as Mary Jenkins, an English high school teacher who is Carl Jenkins' wife.
 * Alex Wolff as Carl "CJ" Jenkins Jr., an apathetic yet geeky man who is Carl Jenkins' and Mary Jenkins' son.
 * Lucas Till as Jeremy Heinken, Josh and Linda's son.
 * Meg Ryan as Linda Heinken, Josh's wife.
 * Bruce Dern as Walter Jenkins, Carl's father.
 * Bette Midler as Willow Jenkins, Carl's mother. She was previously voiced by Russi Taylor in other media until her death in 2019.
 * Tress MacNeillie as Grandma Jenkins, Carl's bipolar and aggressive grandmother who lead the FBI at one point in her life.
 * Ice Cube as Stephen Hill, the newest cop in the police force as well as Josh's old friend.
 * Ryan Reynolds as Austin Jenkins, an FBI agent who is the goofy younger brother of Carl Jenkins.
 * Sam Rockwell as Denzel Brown, the older brother of Junior and the eldest son of deceased druglord Caine Brown.
 * Margot Robbie as Brittany, Jeremy's nonchalant girlfriend who is his love interest.
 * Craig Robinson as Dave, the new intern at the police force.
 * Patton Oswalt as Chef Johnny, a timid chef who gets interrogated.
 * Michael Cera as Bruno, a quiet and anxious drug dealer.
 * Kevin Costner as Ben Jacobson, the long deceased former leader of the XAPD that was taken down 33 years ago. Coster reprises his role through a dream sequence.
 * Rob Paulsen as President Mongard, the former United States president from 33 years ago. Paulsen reprises his role from the tv series.
 * Corey Burton as Wilfred, an aging drug dealer who is often caught by Carl.
 * Jane Lynch (uncredited) as Whitney Brown, Denzel's and CBJ's deceased mother who died in a murder-suicide.

A statue of Commissioner Lawrence was shown at the beginning of the film along with archive recordings of Harold Ramis voicing Lawrence. Additionally, Sean Schemmel and Christopher Sabat voice Goku and Vegeta from the anime franchise Dragon Ball respectively as they appear during the LSD trip that Carl and Josh go through.

Development
Discussions for a sequel to Detective Carl were made since 1991 and eventually were cancelled due to creative differences between Harold Ramis and Orion along with budget issues with Ramis stating that he would focus more on the television series than a sequel. By August 2010, Harold Ramis pitched a new script for the Detective Carl sequel. In However, in 2018, the project was revived after a revised version of Harold Ramis script by Jason Bateman, Jim Carrey, and Ryan Reynolds was pitched to MGM with Bateman stating that "this was his passion project and I would wanna finish it" while Carrey himself stating that he "always dreamt of making a sequel to Detective Carl '; Reynolds previously voiced Austin Jenkins in a brief minor role in the original film. The film eventually started production in 2019. By 2021, it was announced that Bateman, Carrey, Johnny Depp, Meg Ryan, and Reynolds were all announced to reprise their roles as well. Depp stated in an interview that it was a good reunion with Bateman and his other fellow cast members. By January 2022, it was announced that Ving Rhames would reprise his role as Barry Johnson while Wesley Snipes was cast in June 2022 as Caine Brown Jr and Alex Wolff and Lucas Till as Carl and Josh's respective sons. Reynolds, Bateman, and Carrey all reiterated their interest in all the surviving cast members of the original film to return. Despite his character's prison sentence at the end of the original film, Kevin Costner also stated that he was interested in returning for the sequel as well, in the final film he was featured in a flashback role. Additionally, Bateman and Carrey also reiterated that the film will be rated R like the first installment. MGM also stated that the film will be even more adult-oriented than the first film. On November 4, 2022, Bette Midler was announced to be replacing Russi Taylor as Willow Jenkins, Carl's mother. Ironically, both Carrey and Bateman stated that Midler was the original choice for Willow Jenkins for the first film but was voiced by Russi Taylor due to Midler's schedule with Taylor's voice being ironically a Midler impression.

Animation
The film was animated by Mikros Image with additional animation by Animal Logic and MGM Animation Canada. It is the most expensive R-rated CGI film of all time with a budget of $185 million. Half of the animation team from MGM Animation Studios's Hailey worked on the film as well with the animators paying attention to the details that were animated in 2015's Upside Mystery 3 while following the techniques from Hailey.

Music
In 2021, it was announced that James Newton Howard will return from the original film to do the score for this film.

Release
Detective Carl Returns held early screenings on December 28, 2022 and was released on January 13, 2023 in IMAX, 4DX, and Dolby. The film was previously set to be released on December 9, 2022 until getting pushed back to January 27, 2023 to take advantage of the empty month and to avoid being sandwiched between The Teenagers Movie and Avatar: The Way of Water. Later the film was pushed up to January 13, 2023 due to Kraven the Hunter being pushed to October as well as production of film is being done at a more quicker pace. It'll be shown in Dolby Cinema, IMAX, 4DX, and ScreenX formats. Like the first film, Universal Pictures distributed the film internationally while Orion Pictures (thru United Artists Releasing) distributed the film domestically. The film was approved for Chinese release as well with the first film set to have a re-release in China on December 9, 2022 with remastered sound and remastered picture in 4K.

The film is rated R by the MPA (like the original film) for "strong bloody violence and gore, drug use, pervasive language, and some sexual content." The film was cut by 5 seconds because of graphic scene to receive the R rating after previously being rated NC-17 by the MPA. Universal Pictures China reportedly didn't have to make cuts for the film in it's China release with the China government calling the content in the film suitable for release with it's release being on January 20, 2023 there.

Marketing
The official website for the film was launched on March 1, 2022; while introducing a marketing campaign as well as an interactive layout to promote the film with interactive character fun facts on the website as well. On June 23, 2022, Reynolds, on his Instagram, uploaded a first look at the main antagonist of the film, Caine Brown Jr, with finished animation.

MGM's official YT channel released a red-band teaser trailer on August 3, 2022, and was released in front of Bullet Train in theaters. The trailer received universal praise for the trailer with commentators calling the animation "crisp, bright, and beautiful" while calling the return of the titicular Detective Carl Jenkins and Josh Heinken "outstanding" and stating that "the chemistry of Bateman and Carrey never faded away after over 3 decades" with the trailer receiving 182.2 million views within 24 hours, the most for an R rated film, a red-band trailer, and an R rated animated feature film. Additionally, character posters for Carl, Josh, Barry, Caine, and Grant were all released that same day as well as 90 seconds of footage from the film being released. A green-band trailer was later released on August 10, 2022, with new footage replacing the explicit footage rather than an edited version of the trailer.

The official trailer was released on October 12, 2022 and was shown in front of Halloween Ends. The final trailer was shown in front of The Teenagers Movie and later released online on December 6, 2022.

Box office
As of January 18, 2023, Detective Carl Returns has grossed $184.8 million in the United States and Canada and $280.5 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $465.3 million worldwide. The film's opening of $363 million is the biggest of all time for an R-rated movie as well as with the weekend alone making it the biggest R-rated computer animated film of all time. On January 17, 2023, the film made $439.4 million worldwide, surpassing the unadjusted worldwide gross of Dances With Wolves ($424.4 million in 1990) to become Orion Pictures' highest grossing film of all time.

United States and Canada
In the United States and Canada, Detective Carl Returns was released alongside House Party, A Man Called Otto, and Plane, and was initially projected to gross $65–90 million during its four day opening weekend. By the end of December 2022, Detective Carl Returns became the biggest R-rated pre-seller for Fandango, AMC, and Regal Cinemas in their respective histories. However, after the film made $56.8 million on its opening day (including $20 million in Thursday night previews), the biggest for an R-rated film, a January release, and for MGM Holdings, projections were increased to as much as $140 million over the four day opening weekend. The film ended up making $141.2 million in its opening weekend and $163.2 million during its four day weekend, both the biggest for an R-rated film (beating Deadpool’s $132.7 million and $152.3 million respectively), the biggest for MGM Holdings, outdoing Upside Mystery 3’s $110.3 million, a January release, and the biggest for the MLK weekend, beating American Sniper’s $105.8 million. On January 18, 2023, the film made $184.8 million, surpassing Dances With Wolves ($184 million), to become the highest grossing film released by Orion Pictures domestically.

Overseas
Worldwide, it was projected to make $185–190 million in its four day weekend including $120–125 million overseas. The film ended up overperforming making $222.5 million during its opening weekend and $244.1 million by Monday, both the biggest for an R-rated film.

Critical reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 87% of 463 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.7/10. On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 69 out of 100, based on 62 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, an improvement over the original's "A-", while PostTrak reported 91% of audience members gave the film a positive score, with 82% saying they would definitely recommend it.

Peter Debruge, of Variety, gave the film a positive review, saying that the film "one of best adult legacy sequels and is a milestone in adult animation." Emma Stefansky, of IndieWire, also gave a positive review, enjoying the fact that the film "has fluid energy through and will keep audiences entertained while showing respects to older fans of the original while reeling in newer viewers." Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post scored Detective Carl Returns three-and-a-half out of four, calling it a "voraciously good comedy" and the first R-rated animated film "with real teeth". He praised the film's attitude and tone, Bateman and Carrey for their chemistry as well as making their respective characters of Jenkins and Heinken relatable as well as the film's action scenes and humor. TheWrap's Alonso Duralde said Detective Carl Returns "wasn't expected to work in today's society, but it absolutely does", feeling that it successfully adapted to the new generation's definition of comedy as well as being offensive as the original film while praising Ryan Reynolds as Carl's younger brother Austin which he called the performance "on par with Reynolds' own Deadpool".

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