Review by Mark Woodring
It always feels strange to be reviewing what is, essentially, a movie for little kids. Like… LITTLE kids.
Sure, Gru and his Minions have always managed to grasp that broader appeal in order to keep older kids invested and adults from gouging out their eyes, but at their core, the Despicable movies are for little kids.
**NOTE: You can read Mark’s review below, then use the link to listen as he and Ryan discuss their thoughts in more depth. Remember, though, you can listen to all our discussions of this and every other movie directly over on ACAST. Stay tuned.**
95 Minutes, Rated PG
Written by Ken Daurio and Mike White
Directed By Chris Renaud and Patrick Delage
Synopsis:
Gru, Lucy, Margo, Edith, and Agnes welcome a new member to the family, Gru Jr., who is intent on tormenting his dad. Gru faces a new nemesis in Maxime Le Mal and his girlfriend Valentina, and the family is forced to go on the run.
This time out though, the magic seems to be gone. The introduction of Gru, Jr. (a bad JackJack rip-off, sans superpowers), is supposed to add an element of… something… to the narrative, but aside from a sequence or two, he exists mostly to remind us that Gru is a terrible person, especially with kids.
The main plot of the movie involves the family being forced into witness protection until Maxime Le Mal (Will Ferrell), a classmate and rival of Gru’s from their time at the Lycée Pas Bon (literally: School of No Good) who Gru apprehends for the Anti Villain League (AVL) at a class reunion, is recaptured after he escapes.
The villain design on Maxime is ridiculous, even for these films; one part The Fly, one part Kafka, Maxime is a terrible foil for Gru and the AVL. Maxime’s girlfriend, Valentina (Sophia Vergara), is wasted, as her input was so limited that it could have been accomplished by a generic henchman (or hench-roach… you’ll see).
A much more interesting character is that of Poppy Prescott, the precocious daughter of the undercover family’s neighbor, Perry (Stephen Colbert), who discovers Gru’s true identity and extorts his assistance planning a heist from none other than the Principal’s office at Lycée Pas Bon involving a Honey Badger (Lenny), and we get the obligatory “honey badger don’t care” line, stuck in there because it was, at one time, cool.
Unfortunately, in this script, we can’t meet Poppy unless the family goes into hiding because of Maxime, but I can think of 100 ways the script could have been rewritten to keep the family at their home and have Poppy still get Gru’s unwilling help.
The rest of the film is packed with references and Easter Eggs which little kids won’t get or don’t last long enough to allow adults to appreciate them.
Heck, the only gag which lasts long enough to land is an incredibly cheap one in which Agnes is trying to get her “unicorn,” Lucky, to do a trick: “Sit!” she cries.
You can guess which low-road route the filmmakers took for that command.
All told, DM4 is a disjointed mess, one I described in my notes as more of a “Gru retrospective” than an actual movie. The “Mega-Minions” are a non-factor, just another in a series of disconnected bits seemingly thrown into the mix because someone thought it was fun. Perhaps as the basis for another stand-alone Minions film, but here, a waste of time to help fill out the meagre 95 minute run time.
Even the musical number at the end of the film is underwhelming, when it’s usually one of the highlights.
Little kids will still love it, and it will make decent money, but if you have to choose one animated movie to see this holiday weekend, see Inside Out 2.
Despicable Me 4 hits theaters July 3 and features the voices of Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Joey King, Will Ferrell, Sofia Vergara, Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, Madison Skyy Polan, Pierre Coffin, Steve Coogan, Stephen Colbert, and Chloe Fineman.
And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.
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