Movie Review: Minions - The Rise of Gru

 Movie Number 26 of 2022

Movie: Minions: The Rise of Gru

Theatre: Reading Cinemas, North Altona

Stars: 4

One of the great things about having some kids in your life is you occasionally get taken along to kid's films, without having to feel guilt of shame. 

This weekend I was gifted a ticket to Minions: The Rise of Gru. 

This is one of those kids films which adults may appreciate more than the kids. Seriously. 

And okay, the kids we went along with are now twelve, and they're probably a bit old for this, Blarney and I LOVED it. 

So what's it about? Well, it's gives a back story to Gru, who we've met over the years in the Despicable Me franchise. If you don't know about Gru, he's a bad guy with a heart of gold. This animated film shows how Gru becomes the bad guy he becomes - showing his life as a kid in 1970s San Franscisco.

Rotten Tomatoes describes the plot of this film as such:

"In the heart of the 1970s, amid a flurry of feathered hair and flared jeans, Gru (Oscar® nominee Steve Carell) is growing up in the suburbs. A fanboy of a supervillain supergroup known as the Vicious 6, Gru hatches a plan to become evil enough to join them. Luckily, he gets some mayhem-making backup from his loyal followers, the Minions. Together, Kevin, Stuart, Bob, and Otto--a new Minion sporting braces and a desperate need to please--deploy their skills as they and Gru build their first lair, experiment with their first weapons and pull off their first missions. When the Vicious 6 oust their leader, legendary fighter Wild Knuckles (Oscar® winner Alan Arkin), Gru interviews to become their newest member. It doesn't go well (to say the least), and only gets worse after Gru outsmarts them and suddenly finds himself the mortal enemy of the apex of evil. On the run, Gru will turn to an unlikely source for guidance, Wild Knuckles himself, and discover that even bad guys need a little help from their friends."

Blarney and I loved this more than the kids. There's more than enough adult references to keep us happy, blissfully going over the kids' heads. There's also plenty of references to classic Bond films, which I adored as well, 

The voice talent in film is great including: 

• Russell Brand as Nefario - a Q type character
• Alan Arkin as Wild Knuckles - Alan Arkin does great bad grandpas. 
• Taraji P. Henson and Belle Bottom
• Julie Andrews as Gru's Mum
• Lucy Lawless of Xena Warrior Princess fame as Nun-Chuck (Blarney was tittering about this for hours after)
• Jean-Claude Van Damme as Jean-Clawed
• Dolph Lundgren as Svengeance

And a few others, placed there for good measure. 

But as always, the film belongs to the Minions, who are as funny, crazy and silly as we have grown to expect Minions.

My advice on this one is find a kid and take them along and go enjoy this strange gem.

Oh, and the soundtrack is AWESOME. Seventies standards. Brilliant. 

I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. 

And yes, I've been yelling "MINIBOSS!" and "Banana!" regularly since seeing this film. 

This was unexpectedly funny. I've not giggled along with a film like this for a long time. It more than kept my interest. It's a lot cleverer than many will give it credit. 

Today's song: