The Montclair Movie Maven Reviews ... Despicable Me!!!

Our Montclair Movie Maven took in Despicable Me ... and her verdict? Read on to find out!

"Awesome!" raved seven-year-old Maggie Kenny from Verona, emerging from the theater. With the music still ringing in our ears, Maggie's brother Carter, 12, chimed in happily, "it was hilarious!"

My sentiments exactly. This new animated film, featuring the vocal talents of Steve Carell (and Jason Segal, Julie Andrews and SNL's Kristin Wiig) kept the audience laughing throughout its entire 1 hour and 32 minutes' running time. The premise — an evil scientist tries to take over the world using gadgetry that's so high-tech it will, pardon the pun, blow you away -- is so worn-out it's already a joke, which is the starting point for this witty film.

The main character, Gru, is a nasty technocrat trying to one-up his arch nemesis, the sci-fi whiz kid Vektor. Vektor, a teen goofball with mega-cool space toys (like piranha guns, shrink ray blasters and a zippy airmobile), has just pulled the ultimate show-offy crime-of-the-century: stealing the Great Pyramids. Hellbent on revenge, Gru decides to steal the moon. 

Problem is, to be the world's most evil evil-doer, one has to be truly evil – which Gru, sadly, isn't. It's pretty obvious his villain status is slipping when he's denied a loan at the "The Evil Bank (formerly Lehman Brothers)."  Trying to recapture his Bad-to-the-Bone street cred, Gru unleashes his own nifty arsenal of weapons. But nothing goes right from the get-go: his Army of Minions are silly yellow cyclopses that look like niblets of corn, his evil genius sidekick Dr. Nefario is a washed-up goofball, and his plan to outwit Vektor using crawling cookie robots backfires spectacularly. 

Still, Gru won't give up. Enlisting the aid of three adorable cookie-selling orphans, Gru hatches a brilliant plan. Plucking the kids from their "Box of Shame" at the orphanage, he gets them to sneak into Vektor's house-pod and steal his shrink-ray gun. The thing is, just as Gru sets out to steal the moon, the orphans are busy stealing Gru's cold little heart.

Despicable Me has some great moments:  The bedtime story is a standout ("Wow!  This is garbage!  You actually like this?") The audience's positive reaction throughout the movie was due to the high quality animation and physical humor, peppered with absurd details like the children's rocket-bomb beds ("Don't worry, they're very unlikely to blow up"), Gru's kooky kickboxing mom and his evil housepet Kyle. But the really great thing about Despicable Me is its ability to keep the kids laughing while letting the adults in on the joke – or vice versa!  Unlike other PG movies, this one doesn't depend on disgusting gags or hackneyed, mean humor to get a laugh. It's a film all ages can enjoy together -- which, when you think about it, is a pretty neat trick. 

Movie Maven's Best Movie Moments:  The wrestling match is classic between's Gru's badass former self and his newfound softy side when confronted by the sweetness of his own kids (a phenomenon most parents can relate to, ahem!)  The music, featuring hip-hop artist Pharrell Williams of The Neptunes and N.E.R.D. is perfect.

Here's what other movie-goers at the Bellevue Cinema thought of Despicable Me:

Mary Kenny (Verona): "I loved it!  It told a wonderful story about being humble and being loving."

Maggie Kenny (age 7; Verona): "My favorite part was when the rocket ship got shrunk, and the dancing."

Taylor Kilgen (age 7 ½; Glen Ridge): "My favorite part was the fart gun."

Nick Kilgen (age 5; Glen Ridge): I liked the guy punching the shark."

George Kilgen (Glen Ridge): "I liked Toy Story 3 better."

Paolo Federico-O'Murchu (age 13; my son): "One of the best animated movies I've ever seen.  My favorite part was Gru reading the kitten bedtime story. I liked him best when he was evil."

Rated PG, in 2-D and 3-D.

Despicable Me is playing at the Bellevue Theater, 260 Bellevue Avenue, Upper Montclair NJ 07043. 1 Hour, 32 minutes. Show times this week: 12:00; 2:15; 4:30; 6:45 and 9:00 p.m.