.jpg)
.jpg)
Despicable Me 2
Animated comedy featuring the voices of Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Benjamin Bratt and Russell Brand. Directed by Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud. 98 minutes. Opens Wednesday at major theatres. G
“Never get older!” gruff Gru lovingly tells the adorable Agnes in Despicable Me 2, and it’s a feeling viewers may share when approaching this animated comedy sequel.
Despicable Me was a true original when it arrived in the summer of 2010. It surprised everybody with how much charm resided inside a curmudgeonly character who teased children, froze adults and plotted to shrink and steal the moon. Turned out Gru’s heart was bigger than his ray gun.
But what begins as inspiration in Hollywood inevitably turns to calculation. So it is thatDespicable Me 2 feels slightly less fresh and more formulaic than its predecessor. Despite Gru’s warning, it has gotten older.
The beguiling basics are still there, including the goofy gadgets and sly references to other films. But there are a few major twists and changes of emphasis — Gru’s babbling Minions, once a sideshow, now come close to stealing the show.
The nimble Steve Carell still amusingly voices Gru, the Transylvanian-tongued ex-villain who no longer lives up to the film’s title. Gru now embraces both fatherhood — via his precocious adopted daughters Agnes (Elsie Fisher), Margo (Miranda Cosgrove) and Edith (Dana Gaier) — and he’s become more hero than scoundrel.
The latter change is slightly less voluntary. He’s abducted by Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig), top agent for the Anti-Villain League, who along with her lipstick Taser and her boss Steve Silas Ramsbottom (Steve Coogan), persuades Gru that the planet needs his help in battling a mysterious new bad guy.
You may recall that in the first film, the versatile Wiig previously voiced Miss Hattie, the southern-accented scold in charge of the Home for Girls where the orphaned Agnes, Margo and Edith previously resided.
Wiig’s Lucy is a considerably bigger and daffier presence in the sequel, helping to up estrogen levels and to expand Gru’s heart ever further.
Ken Jeong also returns in new guise, this time as wigged-out wig store owner rather than a talk-show host. His character’s Asian clichés are regrettable, but there’s company in the stereotyping department: Benjamin Bratt unsubtly voices a Mexican restaurateur of dubious intent, but Bratt at least has the excuse of being a last-minute replacement for Al Pacino, who bailed late in production.
Back for more of the same is Russell Brand as Dr. Nefario, Gru’s goggle-eyed gadget guy. So are co-directors Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud, who again also perform multiple duties as the garbled voices of Gru’s pint-sized yellow Minions, now a bigger part of a lamentably thinner plot.
Some despicable bean counter must have determined that the Minions were more popular than Gru, because they threaten to overwhelm Despicable Me 2, especially when events conspire to have them change hues and plot coups.
If you love the Minions, you’ll at the very least like them here. Especially during their curtain-call antics during the credits, where they demonstrate how well 3D can work (better than in the rest of the film) and also pimp for their spin-off The Minions Movie, which is actually going to happen.
It feels at times as if Despicable Me 2 actually is The Minions Movie. Coffin and Renaud and returning screenwriters Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio haven’t managed to come up with a dastardly plot to rival the shrinking and stealing of the moon from the previous film.
Maybe that’s because the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie this time, and you know how that song goes.
But the Minions are pretty funny, not to mention hammy, and they do get two crowd-pleasing musical numbers: one set to the Village People’s “YMCA” and another to the All-4-One/John Michael Montgomery ballad “I Swear.”
If all else fails, just sing and dance. Hey, it beats being despicable.
Credits: thestars.com
.jpg)
.jpg)
0 comments