Despicable Me 3

24 July 2017 Film of Choice at The Plaza Dorchester this evening - Despicable Me 3. So this is the third outing for Gru and his girls, and his weird dog, and his many many minions. I for one am happy to get back to the old team, I found the Minions film a little too much Minion. This outing gives us another outrageous villain, a guy called Balthazar Bratt, a character completely stuck in the 80s with his music and his dance moves and armed with expanding bubble gum as his weapon of choice. Throw into the mix the discovery that Gru has in fact got a twin brother called Dru and you've got a pretty watchable film. I can't say it was outrageously funny but I did giggle throughout. The humour is very Benny Hill in its slapstick delivery and throw in the sheer determination of Agnes that the existence of unicorns is true, you have quite an endearing film to keep you entertained for a while.

Despicable Me 3 is another obligatory sequel to an animated box-office smash, and it plays out as such: the story's essentially the same as before but the big twist is that South Park co-creator Trey Parker stars in this movie as the lead villain. He does a good job with what he's given, but you wonder WHY he took up the part in the first place!? Was there any real motivation for him doing this besides the money? I think not.

What can I say? It's perfectly harmless family entertainment that makes up for a very... 'because-movie' type of film. This pic gets 3/5 stars.

Okay fine I'll admit it I'm a big Despicable Me fan and I love minions, don't judge me!

I thought both of the first two Despicable Me movies were fantastic and to a lesser extent enjoyed Minions (2015) so logically I was going to enjoy this, but did I?

Well it has the same charm, it has the great voice talent, it has a stellar soundtrack and it has minions! What is there to dislike?

Well I don't dislike it but truth be told it's not on par with the other movies, I don't know quite what it was but I just wasn't feeling it this time as a lot of the jokes missed their mark, the minions took a backseat and the twin brother aspect of the plot was a tad weak.

Regardless Despicable Me 3 is a lot of fun for all the family complete with lots of jokes that the parents will appeciate and a great retro 80's soundtrack.

Being a big South Park fan I really appreciated the work put into this by Trey Parker, he's a multi-talented fella as demonstrated here.

The franchise still has life in it and hopefully won't be going away anytime soon.

BANANA!

The Good:

Great soundtrack

Same ol'charm

Trey Parker

The Bad:

Story is weaker than previous films

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Giant titan mechs can be made by one single person in a matter of days

Trey Parker needs more voice work

I want a uni-goat!

If she doesn't get fluffy back in the next movie I'm rioting.........awkwardly..........by myself

While there are several interesting things going on at a rapid fire rate, there seems to be no real center to this thing. Even in an animated film, we want a story and characters that we recognize. The animation is awesome and I enjoyed the Mean Kid actor and his adult incarnation. I quickly became bored with the minions. They have no soul or interest to me.

Despicable Me 3 is my personal 2nd favorite in the series. There are parts of what made the first so amazing and each part shot into one of the sequels and I think Despicable Me 3 did its part better. The movie has only two major weaknesses that are easy to get past being that there is too many plots and that it relies on juvenile humor and toilet humor more than the last two. However, these are just small flaws and are easy to look past once you see the plots mesh together in a really satisfying way. This movie had some pretty good highlights, like when Gru said his mother told him that his father died of disappointment when he was born as well. Overall, Despicable Me 3 is an extremely enjoyable ride I'd recommend to anyone who can get past its flaws.