Review: Minions (2015)

                           

                 
                        The 'Minions' Are Purely Serviceable
       
         While the Minions are adorable and will seek to serve any villain, if there is one in particular that they serve, it is the film's distributor trying to pluck dollar bills out of our wallets.

        Story:
       Minions follows the story of the tiny yellow henchmen of Gru from the Despicable Me series and their journey before they met Gru. When three of them go out in search of the biggest, baddest villain to work for, they find Scarlett Overkill (Sandra Bullock), who looks to take over the world.

       Ups:
      Now, before I saw this, I was unsure how they would have a film that featured ninety minutes of the Minions talking in gibberish. But they tried to make it work by incorporating narration from Geoffrey Rush in the beginning and the end to tell their story. I think that helped a lot. One of my favorite scenes is in fact the opening where we see the Minions and how they have a hard time keeping the different bosses they've had over the years.

      I also liked some of the voice work from the cast. I really liked Jon Hamm, who plays Scarlett's husband Herb. I thought he was funny along with Michael Keaton as the father of a family that picks the Minions up. Keaton didn't have much screen time, but he still left me wanting more.

      Downs:
     While they did make a great attempt at making a Minions movie work, I still feel they are better suited as sidekicks. Thinking about that just makes this film seem like a silly cash grab. A rather harmless one, though.

      Also, something about Sandra Bullock's voice work didn't really click with me. I really like her as an actress, but here, her voice work seemed flamboyantly phoned in.

     Consensus:
    Overall, Minions is a fun and harmless yet rather unneeded cash grab. I liked the voice work from some of the cast, but they feel sidelined by the supbar-ness of the film itself.

     Would I Recommend It?:
     Not necessarily. If you want to take the children to the theaters, I would recommend Inside Out instead. That one is for the whole family while this one is just for kids.

Grade: D-