Universal Pictures, Illumination Entertainment,
Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Benjamin Bratt, Miranda Cosgrove, Russell Brand, Steve Coogan, Ken Jeong, Elsie Fisher, Dana Gaier, Moises Arias
Dru (Steve Carell) is retired from the villain business, and trying his best to adjust to a family life at home. But a super-villain El Macho arises, and the Anti-Villain League decides they need someone from the inside to assist, so they recruit Dru and his minions to find and fight El Macho. Dru joins up with Lucy (Kristen Wiig) to determine if El Macho is really alive, and not believed dead as everyone previously though, but as things are going badly for Dru and Lucy, a plot to kidnap the minions has them disappearing one after another.
There is no doubt about it, Steve Carell is a marvelous villain, awkwardly turned into a good guy at the end of the first movie, and the minions are certainly charming and very cute. But this film is not quite as good as the first. I tried to analyze why I felt that way, and I think maybe it’s because the first time around, the whole concept was really fresh and surprising. The minions were really unexpected comedy relief, and Dru’s efforts to be really, really bad, and not really convincing us that he wasn’t really nice underneath, it caught us by surprise. Now, this time around, it’s not new and fresh. We know who these folks are, and though there’s a certain amount of pleasure seeing these characters again in a new story, it didn’t really capture my interest like the first one did. The story isn’t that great, and I found my interest waning a few times. I know people, especially those with kids, that love the minions will be happy to see them again, and they are really good comic relief, but for the masses, this one is not quite firing on all cylinders. It’s worth the rental, for sure, but it’s just shy of the original in my opinion. If they are going to bring them back again, they better take are really long look at the story, and come up with something a little more original.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
