Photo by Despicable Me 4: Minion Mayhem Continues
The Minions have done it again, marauding through movie theaters with impunity and soaking up some $4.6 billion in ticket sales. With the latest installment, Despicable Me 4, the franchise shows no signs of slowing down. But is it more of the same, or does it bring something new to the table?
The Minions are back and better than ever
The film starts with a school reunion, where Gru encounters an old rival, Maxime le Mal (Will Ferrell), a French-accented cockroach-obsessed villain. But things quickly take a turn when Maxime breaks out of prison and vows revenge on Gru, sending their family into witness protection.
“I kind of suspect that even the finest points of assessment would be dismantled about as fast as a Minion can say ‘Bello!’” - Jake Coyle, AP film writer
This gives the movie a few jokes about Gru, who may be a family man now but who still has the bearing of a supervillain, trying to blend in. He tries to impress their next-door neighbor, a snobbish country club member named Perry Prescott (Stephen Colbert). But there’s also a new character at home: baby Gru Jr.
The newest addition to the Gru family
That allows for some decent gags, but overly familiar ones. Gru Jr. is crawling in the footsteps of another child born into an atypical family with a big-torsoed, spindly-legged father: Jack-Jack of The Incredibles 2.
The movie quickly moves on from this narrative, shifting for a time into a heist movie. Gru is blackmailed by the Prescott daughter Poppy (Joey King) into stealing a honey badger from his old school. Meanwhile, the Minions, back at AVL headquarters, are used as guinea pigs for a new serum. Five of them are turned into the Mega Minions, a Fantastic Four-like assemblage of Minion-ized superheroes that have powers (flight, elasticity, a ray-gun eyeball) that they’re predictably useless at controlling.
The Minions get superpowers
So, yes, it will take a lot more than a so-so sixth film to slow down the Minions. Though there’s little that distinguishes this latest, overstuffed Despicable Me, series veteran director Chris Renaud (with co-director Patrick Delage and writers Mike White and Ken Daurio) are in something between cruise control and autopilot on this careening, carefree sequel.
The official poster for Despicable Me 4
Despicable Me 4 is a silly and breezy installment from Illumination Entertainment that passes by with about as much to remember it as a Saturday morning cartoon. But hey, who doesn’t love the Minions?
