Movie Review: Minions

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Imagine tiny, improbable and extremely adorable yellow freaks causing the whole audience, young and old, to laugh for the runtime. The animated Minions doesn’t disappoint amidst its hype with-witty and slapstick comedy.

Geoffrey Rush does a comical and refreshing take on their history, narrating the genesis of the Minion’s existence form beyond the age of mankind,– covering previous ‘employers’ and the fate of each stint of work. The Minions spend their time finding the greatest villain to serve and they’ve gone through many masters.

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Minions is also a sequel that explains how the tiny little freaks got acquainted with their current master, Gru, (voiced by Steve Carell), a villain known for his appearances in Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2.

The Minions have the habit of not doing things quite the way they should be done – creating amusing havoc in the process. After a few stints with different masters (all of them died, unsurprisingly), the minions end up exiled.

The unsuspecting hero, Kevin (voiced by Pierre Coffin), makes it his ambition to seek a new master for the Minions. Together with his two other partners, Bob and Stuart (also voice by Coffin), the trio embarks on a journey into the wilderness in hopes of finding a wary master.

In the most unlikely of circumstances, they end up recruited by the notorious Scarlet Overkill (voiced by Sandra Bullock). Together with Scarlet’s inventor-husband, Herb (voiced by Jon Hamm), a plan is hatched to conquer the world, one country at a time.

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Establishing the Minions as expendable, rather than virtually immortal, somewhat alleviates the stakes for the trio. After all, at one point in the movie, even a nuclear blast doesn’t faze their cockroach-like resilience.

As expected, the little yellow fellows captivate audiences with their utterly nonsensical gibbering – it’s their signature anyway. The infectious energy and humour supplements one another. How else do you describe a film where the main characters talk in gibberish, yet make all of the sense in the world? By incapsulating and capturing the goofiness of these tiny yellow characters, the punch lines are more impactful as it compliments the characters.

However, on a slight downside: after a strong and imaginative first half, the movie begins to collapse under a poorly-established contrivance. In one instance, audiences are left to guess for themselves as to how the Minions end up exiled in Antartica. Regardless of this, the movie’s visual wit continues up through the end though, and the minions will make you and your kids laugh throughout. If there are any takeaways, just laugh yourself off and don’t be embarrassed to spit out your food in a fit of laughter because everyone is doing it too.

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[xrr rating=3.5/5 display_as=textstars label=”Our Rating:”]

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Information:

Release Date: 18 June 2015

Runtime: 91 minutes

Language: English

Censorship rating: PG

Genre: Animation / Comedy

Director: Pierre Coffin, Kyle Balda

Main Actors: Sandra Bullock, Pierre Coffin, Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton, Allison Janney, Steve Coogan, Geoffrey Rush

 

Photos courtesy of United International Pictures