“Minions” Review
After “Despicable Me, I and II” made the mysterious yellow mini evil Minions superstars, who can blame the spin off to arrive fast and furious, and here it is but a true disappointment. “Minions” tells the story of Gru’s assistant who existed before man did and have tried to serve evil since, why since the dinosaurs existed, with limited success. Responsible for the Rex’s extinction, and more than capable of destroying everybody else they serve, the Minions settle in Antartica before they go crazy of boredom, leading three Minions, the leader, the guitarist, and the kid, to go to New York circa 1968 in search of a supervillain.
They find Scarlett Overkill (Sandra Bollock) and her husband, super-inventor Jon Hamm, and become involved plot to steal the crown jewels of England, which goes spectacular, and ends up with Stu (that’s the young one) being made the King.
With a soundtrack chock full of 60s Kinks, Who, Stones and (yes, indeed) Beatles, it might sound like fun but do we really need to hear “You’ve Really Got me” again? To what end? The story takes an hour to get going and then implodes and all of Stu’s cuteness can’t save its immense shrugability.
With neither the plot nor the intelligence of the Gru classics, it is a kid’s movie for kids, which, when it aims for the adults, misfires. Despite the occasional smart touch, a great dance with Tower guards to a Queen song had me smiling ear to ear, and despite some truly lovely animation and 60s period detaul, this is not a very good movie . The Minions were ionce cute and now they are cutesy… what a shame.
Grade: C+
