Movie review - Minions: The Rise of Gru

Minions: The Rise of Gru **** (out of 5) (PG) After the last of the Minions movies, Despicable Me 3, I thought the adorable critters had stayed too long at the party. The sequel dropoff had been trending, reaching low enough for a mercy killing. So when I saw that there was another round coming – a prequel of Gru’s origin story, I entered the theater with trepidation. SURPRISE!! This one may be the funniest of the series! New writers apparently did the trick. Well, Matthew Fogel is new to the franchise, and Brian Lynch is returning after penning the relatively amusing Minions in 2015. They give us Gru at age 11, aspiring to be a supervillain and already variably helped and plagued by his little yellow pals. He gets the chance to join a quintet of his megavillain heroes when the vacancy they’d just created by ousting the sixth member opens the selection for his replacement. They shun him just because he’s a kid inspiring him to turn the tables on them to prove his worth. The plot borrows from the Indiana Jones legacy and slips in homages to Kung Fu flicks and many other pop-culture figures and themes, set in1976, mostly in San Francisco.

The more of those movies you’ve seen – live action or animated – the more you’ll find to enjoy here. For example, one of the evildoers has a huge crablike right arm. Not only is he named Jean-Clawed, but Mr. Van Damme actually provides his voice! Steve Carrell returns as Gru, assisted by the likes of Michelle Yeoh, Lucy Liu, Alan Arkin, Danny Trejo and Julie-freakin – Andrews! That’s establishing a cast pedigree that the script serves dutifully.

Besides the job they did of packing lots of laughs into the dialog and rapid-fire action, there are goodies to savor in the backgrounds ala The Simpsons. Art design is first-rate, with a wealth of colors and characters to tickle viewers of all ages. No animation corps ever used San Francisco to better advantage, making the city and Bay Area look gorgeous – especially Chinatown. And be sure to notice how delightfully a slew of hit songs from the '70s complement the story. This is one of those rare films worth seeing twice, since so much is going on so quickly that I’m sure I missed a number of gags. Don’t just drop the kids at the theater for this one. Join them.

(In theaters 7/1/22)