Film: Minions

GENRE: Animated Comedy

RATING: PG for rude humour
RUNTIME: 1 hour and 31 minutes

STARRING: Pierre Coffin (Despicable Me 1 & 2)

Sandra Bullock (The Heat); Jon Hamm (Mad Men)

DIRECTORS: Kyle Balda (The Lorax); Pierre Coffin (Despicable Me)

WRITERS: Brian Lynch (Hop; Puss in Boots)

PLOT: Before serving Gru, the minions Kevin, Stuart and Bob search for a super-villain they can follow and find one in Scarlet Overkill.

FIVE OBSERVATIONS:

1 Like usual, the minions are adorable and hilarious. Their curiosity and reactions are wonderfully comic and perfectly timed. It was interesting to see three of them getting more distinct personalities to lead this movie. It’s great fun to watch them play. It should be noted that the overall story is pretty weak though.

2 Their gibberish language is fun to decipher and enjoy. I also enjoyed some of the understandable words thrown in as well, like “Gracias” and “Kumbaya”.

3 I did not like the character of Scarlet Overkill. I don’t think it was the fact that it was a female villain, I just didn’t think the character was fun to watch. She just yelled most of the time and wasn’t given anything interesting to do. She’s no Gru; the minions are better off.

4 Jon Hamm, on the other hand, was entertaining as Scarlet’s inventor husband. And I could hardly recognize his voice. Well done.

5 Some of my enjoyment of the film was marred by the over-enthusiastic twenty-somethings sitting in our row and laughing a little too loud at the screen. I don’t know if it was the alcohol or that they’ve never seen these minions before but it was too much. Talk about overkill.

RECOMMENDATION: Fun on big screen for minion fans
UPCOMING REVIEWS: Ant Man; Mission Impossible 5