DESPICABLE ME 3 Review

The Despicable Me franchise has officially reached that point in its life where it doesn’t have any idea where to go next and so it begins digging into the main characters past to try and come up with characters to fill in roles they have yet to address. You’ve seen it before in countless films whether it be something along the lines of Austin Powers in Goldmember or even something as wacky as the Fast & Furious franchise that can’t help but to keep bringing people back and connecting them in unforeseen ways. With the inevitable Despicable Me 3 the folks over at Illumination animation have decided to take this route and approach their film as if Gru (again voiced by Steve Carell) fell into something of a Parent Trap situation, but the two never ended up going to summer camp together. Instead, it is after the passing of their father that his long-lost twin brother, Dru (also voiced by Steve Carell), contacts the newly married and newly heroic Gru in order to connect and maybe try to pull him back into his old ways of villainy. It’s a fine enough device, I guess, and it mostly works because Carell’s voice work is so amusing in how he slightly differentiates the two and then has to subsequently voice both Gru and Dru doing impressions of one another in what is arguably the most entertaining and genuinely funny scene in the movie. If any other scene in the film had a hint of the kinds of layers or even this kind of wacky creativity in the sense of trying to accomplish something due only to the fact it presents an interesting challenge then the film as a whole might have in fact been more interesting, but as it is Despicable Me 3 is more of the same, but busier. Busier in that it wants you and the children you’re presumably taking to the theater to think there is a ton of stuff happening on screen when in reality all you’re seeing is a collection of disparate scenes strung together by the standard objective of attempting to steal the biggest jewel in the world. That said, Despicable Me 3 doesn’t really have to be anything more than what it is as it is just funny enough and just consistently colorful enough to feel like the shiny new product it needs to be in order to please the masses who will spend their hard-earned money on it.

New Trailer for DESPICABLE ME 3

Despicable Me 3 will likely be the biggest earning film of the summer movie season and today Universal and Illumination have released the second trailer for the film. While I never expected in the summer of 2010 while watching the genuinely fun and inventive Despicable Me that it would become one of the biggest animated franchises of its day here we sit seven years later and four films in as not only has Gru (Steve Carell) and his minions received two sequels, but his minions themselves have had their own movie. After the underwhelming sequel though and rather bad Minions spin-off my expectation for anything noteworthy to come out of this franchise has significantly decreased. Sure, there are still a few funny bits in this second trailer it seems to be a totally different third installment than what the previous trailer pitched. Whereas the clip released in December highlighted Gru coming up against a new villain Balthazar Bratt (voiced by Trey Parker) this new trailer solely focuses on the reveal that Gru somehow has a twin brother we've never heard about and that there will be a wrestling of the conscience on Gru's part over whether to remain true to his new life or fall back into being a bad guy. If anything, this trailer makes it seem as if Parker's Bratt is simply the cold open villain in a bit meant to pull in parents of children whose adolescence took place when South Park was in its heyday with the 80's-inspired character further capitalizing on our current nostalgic fascination with that decade. While I certainly hope that isn't the case given the initial trailer was much funnier than this one, we shall have to wait and see exactly how Gru's ever-expanding story unfolds. Still of note, there are more minions to be seen here than Gru's daughters which, if you might recall, were really the heart and soul of that original film and could certainly serve that purpose again here with the introduction of Dru (also voiced by Steve Carell). Of course, none of this really matters to Universal or Illumination as they both well know that Despicable 3 is destined to make buckets and buckets of money. Despicable Me 3 also features the voice talents of Kristen Wiig, Miranda Cosgrove, Russell Brand, Steve Coogan, Jenny Slate, Pierre Coffin, Dana Gaier, and opens on June 30, 2017.

MINIONS Review

Minions, while inherently funny is wholly insignificant and unnecessary. For parents, Minions will be ol' reliable, for children who enjoyed the Despicable Me films it will be what they've been waiting for, but in terms of the actual quality of the product it couldn't be more vanilla sans for the ridiculous amounts of innuendo and subtext these guys are able to get away with due to literally half of the dialogue in the film being unintelligible. At the very least, I guess this flick might open up the idea to children that watching foreign films can't be all that bad as with those you are at least given subtitles whereas with Minions one has to count on interpretation of tone and inflection to elicit the intended comedy. The thing is though, and this became apparent in the Despicable Me sequel, is that it seems the folks behind these colorful fun fests are forgetting the minions are not only inherently funny, but inherently sidekicks despite the fact this film, their own feature, is about them seeking out a boss to serve. If the minions only goal in life is to function purely as sidekicks it only seems fitting they would remain in that role in any movie they might appear in, but when a movie only happens because the first was a surprise hit and the multiple sequels and spin-offs are concocted more because the iron is hot rather than there being any actual ideas of value you're going to run into such dilemmas. When the small Illumination Entertainment company scored a $540 million hit with the original film and it's sequel notched nearly a billion worldwide three years later you better believe they were going to milk this now-franchise for all it's worth. The minions instantly became cultural mainstays and so I understand why a feature of their own was ultimately inevitable, but it doesn't mean it makes any more sense. Get what I'm saying? They are sidekicks, they are good in small portions, but a little bit of these little yellow creatures goes a long way and in giving them a feature length film things have simply gone overboard as the weight of an entire narrative on the back of a character created purely for comic relief is too much for them to carry.

First Trailer for MINIONS

I've said it before and this will no doubt be the last time, but I always feel the spin-off is a cheap way to over-extend something that worked unexpectedly and is now being mined to death. With Despicable Me 2 becoming a bonafide worldwide smash last summer though and the third film not coming out until 2017, Illumination Studios was quick to capitalize on the popularity of Gru's minions and give them their own feature. Now, while I, like most people in the world, enjoy the minions and their shenanigans while trying to assist their criminal mastermind leader-giving them a whole feature to themselves initially felt like a bit much. They are great as supporting players, as comic relief, but to be the stars is to ask the question of how much will they overstay their welcome? With the first trailer for next summers easily titled Minions, directors Kyle Balda (The Lorax) and Pierre Coffin (Despicable Me 1 & 2) have taken us back to the beginning of life on earth and seem to have delivered the origin story of these little yellow creatures that influenced a fair amount of events throughout history eventually leading them to New York City in 1968 where the lore of these Igor-inspired servants becomes much deeper and more entrenched in villainy. I am always cautious to the idea of spin-offs or any piece of entertainment that feels specifically manufactured for the sole purpose of exploitation and profit, but darn if the film doesn't look like it will deliver the goods. Minions features the voice talents of Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm, Katy Mixon, Chris Renaud, Steve Carell as well as Coffin and opens on July 10, 2015.