Despicable Me 4
Despicable Me 4
Starring Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Will Ferrell, Joey King
Directed by Chris Renaud
Felonius Gru (Steve Carell) is a former supervillain turned Anti-Villian League agent who returns to his villainous Alma mater to take down Maxime Le Mal (Will Ferrell) who turns himself into a cockroach to gain its abilities. Threatening revenge, Maxime breaks out of prison and comes after Gru and his family, including his wife Lucy (Kristen Wiig), his three adopted daughters and young son, as well as his army of Minions. They're taken to a safe house where they must acclimate themselves into high society, but Gru's identity is discovered by the neighbor's daughter Poppy (Joey King) who wants to use Gru for a caper of her own. As they try to blend in, Maxime is hot on their heels, bent on revenge at any cost.
The "Despicable Me/Minions" franchise is basically a throwback to the classic slapstick comedies of old, featuring a slew of lovable Minions who go around and giggle, slap, shoot and otherwise cause physical harm on one another for their and our amusement, and no matter how many times they do it, the result is gut-rolling laughter. They're the bread and butter of this franchise, but thankfully the adults in the film also get to shine with their comedic moments - otherwise we'd just be waiting for the next Minion antics.
The film's plot is all over the place, but serves to be the comedic heart of the movie. Unlike other films, there's no real reliance on coherence of story, but rather how much it makes the audiences laugh (not-so-spoiler alert: we laughed a lot, and loudly). Each subplot works to complete the whole, with only one misstep in the entire movie.
The overarching story is Maxime getting revenge on Gru for getting him arrested before he could hatch his evil scheme of using the powers of the cockroach to his advantage, and this is the film's major misstep. There's so many other plots going on that culminate to this conclusion that we don't see enough action between the two men until the end, and it feels like a missed opportunity when you have two veterans of comedy (Steve Carell and Will Ferrell) hardly spending any screen-time (or, in this case, voice-time) together. Rather than a major detriment, however, it just feels like something that could've added more to the movie than what it delivered.
Then there's Gru's family going into hiding, and the struggles each family member faces. Gru must become a member of high society and fit in with the snobby crowd, and finds it very difficult to do so. Throw in the fact that their wealthy neighbor's daughter knows his true identity and blackmails him into a heist and you got Gru's greatest struggle yet. The heist itself is comedic gold, but spoiled mostly by the trailer - but thankfully there's more to it that adds to the laughter.
Then there's Gru's baby, who seems to hate Gru (or at least not want to be around him). There's a few humorous moments between the two but ultimately you know how that'll end up. The other three children have their own stories as well, as the oldest struggles with a new school, and the youngest doesn't want to lie about her new identity. Lucy's new identity finds her being a new hairdresser with hilarious consequences as well.
Finally there's the Minions, who are sent to the AVL headquarters to work for its director, and of course they mess everything up in humorous ways. They even throw in a nod to superhero fatigue by giving five of the Minions superpowers with disastrous results.
Ultimately each of these stories hold well on their own as well as the whole, giving a whimsy, hilarious, and ultimately satisfying outing that makes the "Despicable Me/Minions" franchise so successful.
The Score: A
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