When Gru’s application is denied purely on the basis that he’s just a kid (Carell makes no effort to sound like a child, which seems to be part of the joke), he decides to prove himself by stealing the all-powerful magic stone that’s at the centre of all of the group’s villainous plans. And his dreams are on the verge of coming true, after he lands an audition to join the malevolent supergroup known as the Vicious Six after their founding member – and Gru’s personal hero – Wild Knuckles (Alan Arkin) is unceremoniously given the boot and left to plummet to his death. Gru ( Steve Carell), the franchise’s ambiguously European-accented villain and longtime Minion boss, is 12 years old. There’s nothing all that special about The Rise of Gru, but it runs like a well-oiled machine. That The Rise of Gru has been sold as a Minions film, when it’s really a Despicable Me prequel, underlines the real reason this franchise has gained the momentum for five instalments (six when Despicable Me 4 comes out in 2024). They’re quite funny even, when functioning as pure agents of chaos – like a U-rated version of Gremlins. Minions: The Rise of Gru is an enthusiastic, though in no way daring, reminder that the Minions really aren’t as annoying as you remember. It certainly doesn’t help that there hasn’t been a Minions-centric film since 2017’s Despicable Me 3, meaning their reputation has been left exposed and entirely vulnerable. Now, a decent chunk of the population considers them an active threat. The cultural omnipresence of the Minions has backfired spectacularly. Now it’s hard to look at their little, gormless expressions and not immediately picture some nauseating pun like “a balanced diet is chocolate in both hands” floating by their head. Surely, when those severely jaundiced sentient tic tacs first hit screens in 2010’s Despicable Me, no one envisioned that they’d one day be hyper-weaponised into Boomer Facebook memes. Starring: Steve Carell, Taraji P Henson, Michelle Yeoh, RZA, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Lucy Lawless, Dolph Lundgren, Danny Trejo.
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