Minions Review

With the ever growing popularity of Disney Pixar's Inside Out, it is safe to say that movie going public lost interest in the Illumination Entertainment's newest addition to the Despicable Me franchise, the Minions movie.

Now the idea of telling the backstory about the small, yellow, pill shaped assistants to the despicable Gru sounds like an interesting idea until you remember that the whole movie has to feature the Minions. Don't get me wrong I enjoy the Minions but I don't think they can carry an entire movie. They were usage is best as comic reliefs to the drama surrounding Gru and his adopted daughters. The Minions use a language that mixes Spanish, English, and gibberish. Starting to see where people can get a little annoyed? Now a little Minion gag here and there would be just fine but a whole movie dedicated to the small annoyances does not sound fun. But I have to be honest, I smiled through the whole movie. 

The plot revolves around three minions named Kevin, Stuart and Bob as they try to look for the most evilest master in the world. They do this because this is all the minions know, working for an almighty evil, and without that all mighty evil to work for the minions get depressed and may eventually die. Eventually, the trio finds their new master in the form of Scarlett Overkill, voiced by Sandra Bullock, and her husband Herb, voiced by Mad Men star Jon Hamm. Both provide fun performances, especially when Bullock's character starts acting crazy. But their performances fail to elicit a reaction that a certain "despicable" character gets at the end of the movie. All the kids in theater were happy to see this character pop up and interact with the minions during the credits. It made me wonder why we didn't get that movie instead. The minions growing up with the person would have had the heart felt drama the first Despicable Me film had.

Deep down I enjoy the Despicable Me movies, there is something so upbeat and enjoyable about them that I find myself coming back to the movies whenever they are on TV. But all good products are not without their faults. For instance, the second movie gave popularity to the either loved or hated song "Happy" by Pharell Williams. Also, a lot of characters just straight up die in the Minions movie. These aren't sad or dramatic events but rather if the comedic violence of Tom and Jerry had grim consequences. There was also a lot of adult jokes in the film which felt weird. Not Ted 2 level, but it's there when you see it.

While the minions themselves can get annoying, I'm talking near Jar-Jar Binks level of annoying, it never got to the point where I wanted to leave the theater, unlike a certain Jai Courtney film made me do. Overall the movie Minions as well as the Despicable Me franchise is fun and harmless. Inside Out is the far superior product in theaters but Minions offers something different and fun for kids and adults.