After the past week, I needed a light-hearted movie. Minions fit the bill. A prequel to the Despicable Me series, Minions focuses on the little yellow guys that were the sidekicks in the first two films. I have seen some critics suggest that they are better off as sidekicks – they can’t carry a film by themselves (like Jack Black, in my opinion.) That seems too strong a condemnation, but I will say I don’t think Minions is as good as the Despicable Me movies. It was a fun, silly movie, but the previews give away a lot of the movie (in particular, the first 10 minutes was all in the previews.)
I felt they could have spent a little more time with the previous evil overlords before getting to Scarlet Overkill (Sandra Bullock) in 1968. Given the time frame, all the music and cultural references were from the 60s, making it better suited for grandparents/grandkids rather than parents/kids.
Don’t expect a mind-blowing film, but a cute, fun movie. I thought Sandra Bullock and Jon Hamm (aka Don Draper of Mad Men) were great as the super villains. The little guys as always, were cute and funny. A perfect movie for the end of a tough week.
WWYT Rating: 7.0
IMDB Rating: 6.9 (expect this to come down a shade, as this was only opening weekend and there is always a slight bias upward in the early run of a movie release).
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