Yesterday I finally watched the second installment of “The Minions” of Illumination’s “Despicable Me”. Here’s my review.
This movie is an Animation/Adventure/Family one. It was released on July 1st 2022. This movie has a runtime of 1h and 27 minutes. It’s rated PG-13.
It starrs Steve Carell (“The Office”), Pierre Coffin (“Mimions”), Taraji P. Henson (“2021’s “SpongeBob SquarePants: Sponge Out Of Water”), Russell Brand (2016’s “Trolls”) and Danny Trejo (2022’s Machine Gun Kelly’s “Good Mourning”), just to name a few. It was directed by Kyle Balda (2015’s “Minions”) and written by Brian Lynch (2015’s “Minions”).
Onto the premise: In the heart of the 1970s, amidst a flurry of feathered hair and flared jeans, Gru (Steve Carell) is growing up in the suburbs. A fanboy of a supervillain supergroup known as the Vicious 6, Gru hatches a plan to become evil enough to join them. Luckily, he gets some mayhem-making back-up from his loyal followers, the Minions. Together, Kevin, Stuart, Bob, and Otto – a new Minion sporting braces and a desperate need to please – deploy their skills as they and Gru build their first lair, experiment with their first weapons, and pull off their first missions. When the Vicious 6 oust their leader, legendary fighter Wild Knuckles (Alan Arkin), Gru interviews to become their newest member. It doesn’t go well (to say the least), and only gets worse after Gru outsmarts them and suddenly finds himself the mortal enemy of the apex of evil. On the run, Gru will turn to an unlikely source for guidance, Wild Knuckles, and discover that even bad guys need a little help from their friends.
“Minions: The Rise of Gru” takes place in 1976. Had I seen it that year, I would have laughed my six-year-old self silly and demanded to see it again and again. Alas, I’m not six years old anymore. My sense of humor, on the other hand, still hovers around that age. As a result, this latest (and hopefully last) chapter in the Despicable Me Universe (DMU) felt tailor-made for the less mature aspects of my sensibilities. It was as if a checklist had been made to cater to me.
The minions, those yellow, pill-shaped purveyors of trouble who are hopelessly devoted to Gru (Steve Carell). They make me laugh and I’m not even remotely remorseful about that. After their own prequel, “Minions,” and a pit stop for the lackluster present-day sibling rivalry plot of “Despicable Me 3,” Kevin Le Minion and his one and two-eyed pals have returned to the past to support the “eleven and three-quarters” years old version of Gru. They affectionately call him “mini-boss.” When he’s not wondering how his employees “got so much denim” for their outfits, Gru is fantasizing about joining The Vicious 6, an Avengers-like conglomerate of villains created by Wild Knuckles (Alan Arkin). We see Wild Knuckles and his crew in action in an exotic, Indiana Jones-style locale. They are there to retrieve a necklace of gems called The Zodiac Stones. Once retrieved, it will give the Vicious 6 an unlimited amount of power on the night of the Chinese New Year. Considering all the groan-inducing needle drops that occur in this series, I expected The Zodiac Stones to be accompanied by that trash classic-slash-astrology lesson “Float On” by the Floaters. Unfortunately, the filmmakers are not that clever. Granted, that song came out in 1977, but “Minions: The Rise of Gru” uses Lipps Inc.’s 1980 banger, “Funkytown” not once, but twice.
However, this movie has so many references to the sixties and seventies that I don’t think people under twenty will understand the puns, innuendos and jokes. The children in the theater will still laugh at the slapstick jokes.
I am so pleasantly surprised that this is the best one since the original. It fires on all cylinders: comedy, story, visuals, action scenes. It starts out fast and never lets up. The movie flies by. And it has tons of great new characters.
This movie is absolutely hilarious. I was literally in tears in some scenes. The minions are at their very best with so many memorable moments. The story is surprisingly unpredictable and keeps you invested. The visuals are stunningly beautiful. I was mesmerized. And the action scenes are pretty epic, the best of the entire series.
I had a blast with this movie. It’s definitely worth seeing on a premium screen, greatly enhancing the visuals and action scenes.
The message of Minions: The Rise of Gru is that everyone needs a little help sometimes. Even though he doesn’t realize it right away, Gru eventually recognizes that he needs help in order to be the successful villain he desires to be.
It was visually stunning with a breathtakingly beautiful cinematography.
Did you know?
This is the longest-advertised animated film in motion picture history, due to a nearly 2½-year gap between its first trailer and its official release.
A viral Tiktok trend by Gen-Z viewers made it a meme to dress in suits and attend the film en masse. It was prevalent enough that several cinemas had to ban the teens due to disruptions. As a result PostTrak, reported 34 percent of the opening weekend audience was between ages 13 and 17, an unusually high showing of teenagers for an animated film. The last entry in the franchise, Despicable Me 3 (2017), only had teenagers make up 8 percent of the audience.
The first theatrically released sequel to an animated prequel and an animated spin-off.
When Gru is escaping the Vicious 6 headquarters, he crosses the street, causing cars to screech to a halt. Behind him, a pedestrian yells at a car “Hey, I’m walkin’ here.” This is a homage to Dustin Hoffman’s improv in Midnight Cowboy when a cab intruded on the filming and Hoffman improvised the famous line.
The Despicable Me trilogy features main antagonists who are male: Vector, El Macho and Balthazar Bratt. The Minions films feature main female villains: Scarlet Overkill and Belle Bottom.
Overall I really liked it and the wait was definitely worth waiting for! Therefore it’s “Worth a Watch”!
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For more information visit-> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5113044/
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