Despicable Me
Movie Review
"Despicable Me"
Review by Eric D. Snider
Grade: C
Rating: PG
Released: Friday, July 9, 2010
Directed by:
Cast:
If computer animation were still an expensive and painstaking process, "Despicable Me" wouldn't exist. It isn't worth that kind of effort. But when it's fairly cheap, fairly quick, fairly easy? Eh, sure, here you go, kids, here's your cartoon about a comical villain with a funny voice. Knock yourselves out.
Steve Carell provides the voice of Gru, a pointy-nosed supervillain known the world over for his dastardly deeds, most of which deal with larceny and sabotage rather than, you know, murder. But Gru, whose accent suggests he was raised somewhere between Boratville and Yakovsmirnofftown, has fallen on hard times. A young new hotshot has stirred things up by stealing one of the Egyptian pyramids; the best Gru could do was to swipe the Statue of Liberty replica in Las Vegas. Thanks to this newcomer, Gru can't get the Bank of Evil to finance his next venture. His villainy isn't super enough anymore.
The new supervillain, Vector (Jason Segel), is a dweeb with plentiful gadgets and funding. He's also in possession of a shrink ray that Gru would love to get his hands on, if only to impress the Bank of Evil. After seeing a trio of orphan girls gain access to Vector's fortress by selling cookies, Gru hits on the obvious plan: adopt the girls as his own children, then accompany them when they return to deliver Vector's cookies. Admit it, that's what you would do, too.
The orphans, Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier), and Agnes (Elsie Fisher), currently reside at Miss Hattie's Home for Girls, an amusingly depressing place where Miss Hattie (Kristen Wiig) frequently reminds them they'll never be adopted. Posing as a kindly dentist whose wife has passed away, Gru takes custody of the girls and brings them home to his lair, which is decidedly non-childproof. The movie is never funnier than when it veers into this darker territory, getting laughs out of child endangerment without ever really suggesting any peril. Unfortunately, the screenplay (by "Horton Hears a Who" duo Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul) only dabbles in the edgy stuff and mostly sticks to middle-of-the-road slapstick and toothless gags where the supposedly despicable Gru slowly grows to care for these urchins.
Yep, this is essentially a domestic sitcom about a curmudgeon who is softened by the presence of children in his life.
Oh: Gru is assisted by a legion of Twinkie-shaped little creatures called Minions. They speak their own language and behave like cheerful, dimwitted Oompa-Loompas. One suspects they were created with Happy Meal toys in mind. (The film was directed by animators Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud, their first feature.)
The word "lousy" may have escaped my lips when someone asked what I thought of "Despicable Me" immediately after it was over. Having considered it further, I'd like to change "lousy" to "mediocre." It isn't bad -- it has its moments. But that's all they are: moments. The story is formulaic and stale, and the gags aren't good or plentiful enough to freshen it up. Too frequently the "funny" part is simply that Gru or one of the Minions is speaking in a silly voice, never mind what they're actually saying. The cast also includes Russell Brand, Julie Andrews, Will Arnett, Jemaine Clement, Jack McBrayer, Danny McBride, and Mindy Kaling, yet nearly everyone is underused, misused, or otherwise wasted. (Were there any justice, a comedy with this cast would be the funniest thing you'd ever seen.) When someone launches a cable channel that plays mediocre animated features 24 hours a day, this one will be wedged between "Shark Tale" and "Planet 51."
Grade: C
Rated PG, some slightly crude humor
1 hr., 35 min.
Copyright © Eric D. Snider.
This work may not be transmitted via the Internet, nor reproduced in any other way, without written consent from Eric D. Snider.
This item has 15 comments
July 9, 2010 at 4:15 pm
Admit it, that's what you would do, too. Gru hits on the obvious plan: adopt the girls as his own children, then accompany them when they return to deliver Vector's cookies. Admit it, that's what you would do, too.
I don't know about all that. I can sort of sense the blurry outline of some minor logistical flaws in that otherwise seamless plan.
July 9, 2010 at 5:53 pm
In the preview, Agnes' cuteness is what gets the laughs. Is that true in the actual movie?
July 10, 2010 at 3:02 pm
I saw this movie by default (my friend had seen everything else) and I was pleasantly surprised. It's no Toy Story but I laughed throughout the whole movie and even got a little teary-eyed at the end... That's worth $10 to me. I usually agree with Eric but not on this one. :)
July 14, 2010 at 12:41 am
A Bank of Evil? Shrink Rays? Sounds like a Dr. Horrible rip-off to me . . . :P
July 24, 2010 at 5:19 am
What a relief. I was starting to think the world had gone totally crazy with all the good press this boring waste of a movie was getting. Walked out, got a refund.
July 25, 2010 at 3:57 am
Maris, I didn't see this movie but on what basis can you get a refund? If you walk out after 5 minutes.....I can see it, but how would you know if the movie is really bad? I don't think that you deserve a refund just because you didn't like it.
November 16, 2010 at 10:46 pm
Wow, thanks for caring so much, Rob D. I gave the movie a good 30 minutes, plenty of time for it to get better. Instead, it got unbearably stupid. I feel like the collective American public wanted to like this so much that they willed themselves to do so. But if they were honest, and looked inside themselves, they'd see that the emperor actually had no clothes.
The theater didn't have to give me my money back, but sometimes it doesn't hurt to ask. Thank goodness I did.
November 19, 2010 at 12:30 am
What the hell do you mean "Animation is not a painstaking process anymore." I'm a computer animation major, and believe me it is VERY time consuming and difficult. Do you think computer animated movies are made by someone just drawing a picture of something, put it in a computer and the computer turns it 3D, rigs it, textures it, and animates it all on it's own? How can you call yourself a film critic when you OBVIOUSLY know NOTHING about film? Maybe you know a thing or two about live action filming and acting, but computer animation, or animation in general is a COMPLETELY different thing. Do you even know what studio made this movie? It was Illumination Entertainment, and this was the first movie they've ever made so far! And for their first movie this is Really ******* impressive! Maybe you should do some research before you open your stupid mouth, otherwise your words hold no meaning.
November 19, 2010 at 5:30 pm
Maris: "I feel like the collective American public wanted to like this so much that they willed themselves to do so. But if they were honest, and looked inside themselves, they'd see that the emperor actually had no clothes."
Translation: "If people were really honest with themselves, they'd find that they have the same opinion as me. It's only through self-deception that people manage to find things funny that I didn't."
December 1, 2010 at 1:02 am
First time on this site..Trying to find a movie to take my little boy (2) and was looking for some reviews. However,what I've found is people just being negative(not everyone)! I guess I'm no film buff,but I do know that the more people hype up a movie the more I don't want to see it amd/or when someone says they hate it I HAVE to see it..Simply because what if it is the one movie of the year that hits me a different way? I dont know alot of details on movie production. I do know the first time sat in a theatre it was magical and I hope Callum gets that experience:)
December 14, 2010 at 2:08 am
I love how people b***h about this movie and how rubbish it is 'supposed' to be and all I can say is OPEN YOUR EYES, I watched this last night and yes the story really isnt original (big scary supervillian gets his heart opened by 3 young kids) but its like all of the other CGI films they are made for kids with some adult 'in' jokes. I really love people who say they walked out of a movie, but I quite enjoyed with I accepted it for what it was and was surprised just like all the other CGI movies that have been out since the first toy story, it captures the imagination and it obvious some people on here really dont have one. How can you even comment on something that you never seen all of, and why would you even go in the first place?? lol
Holley: I totally agree with you, I have couple of friends who do computer animation and it NOT easy.. lol
December 31, 2010 at 3:55 pm
I can't believe how unbelievably lame and unoriginal this film was, so full of cliches and wasted moments. Story, characters, dialog, direction. I can just imagine Brad Bird, Pete Docter and John Lassetter sitting through this crap, high-fiving each other.
SPOILERS:
There was no inciting incident. The opening scene showed us that the pyramid had been stolen, but that was just exhibition. The only moment that you could possibly consider an "inciting incident" is when Gru announces to the workers that he's had a plan for quite some time now and, well, he's going to finish it pretty soon. From there, the plotpoints don't get any better. First act concludes too weak. No reversal (placing this film squarely in kid territory), and there was no real crisis (meaning that catharsis would be proportionally minimal).
People wrongly use the word "formulaic" when they actually mean unoriginal, boring or predictable. People love formulaic movies -- they just don't realize it. Most great stories are pretty formulaic (in terms of plot), but come loaded with interesting characters, emotions, choices, hopes and fears that the audience never would have thought. The writer's job is not to reinvent story structure, but to fit something interesting into that time-honored structure, with characters worth watching, emotions worth feeling and a theme worth exploring.
The problem with Despicable Me is that there's nothing really worthy about it. (Sorry animators, but that includes you. Yes, the animation in Despicable Me is better than my kid brother's high school multimedia class project, but it doesn't hold a candle to what other companies are doing these days.)
CHARACTERS:
GRU has an inexplicable accent that Carell gets wrong about 20% of the time. The accent is characterization for characterization's sake. Same with the nose, the looks -- all of it. None of these things revealed character. Gru often misspeaks when uttering popular phrases. So what? Is that funny? No. It's not. Not by itself. It's just a writer being lazy, slapping himself on the back for creating "unique characters."
Sidekick NEFARIO is underused. These characters usually help out in the end, where they are rewarded for their hard work, redeemed for not believing all along, or certified as a deputy hero. Not so here. Rather, Nefario suddenly remembers that the moon is going to get bigger soon. No heroic action necessary. Just a memory. A little line of exposition.
THE MINIONS. If the three aliens from Toy Story created South Park avatars of themselves online, this is what they would look like. So unoriginal and distracting. Hated these characters. Never funny. Dialog nothing but throwaway lines. Poorly voiced/directed. Goodness, so many lame lines with these little ones.
VECTOR. Complete waste of a villain. I love how he was voiced, though. That was cool. The pajama suit was cool. Not much else. And the fact that he was the son of the banker: no big deal. Never explored. Ho-hum. Despite his brains, weaponry, family, etc., he never amounts to much of a threat.
GIRLS. Underdeveloped, underused, cliche. Orphans? Come on. (Look at Jesse from Toy Story 2 -- now THAT'S an orphan.) Not these three little girls, who were supposed to bring some heart to the film (which they did, but only sparingly, as Eric's review describes: moments).
If you cried at the end, it wasn't catharsis. I'm guessing you fell for the film's forced sentimentality. In story terms, sentimentality is unearned emotion, and this film didn't earn it.
I'm getting a bit sick of thinking about this movie. So, nuff said.
January 28, 2011 at 5:58 pm
Hmmm. I'd find your comment more hurtful if I didn't think you 100% agreed with me, Eric.
January 28, 2011 at 7:26 pm
Maris: I know you have trouble accepting the idea of people having different opinions from you -- you've made that clear -- but I don't agree with you 100%. It's closer to 0%.
August 1, 2011 at 7:56 pm
"But Gru, whose accent suggests he was raised somewhere between Boratville and Yakovsmirnofftown." LMAO. I was wondering where he was from!
I didn't see this movie until recently when it came on television. When those minions were first assembled, I fell off the couch laughing. Love this film. Great thing about coming to it so late is that the used Blu-ray was on sale really cheap.
One little noticed gem of "Despicable Me" is the soundtrack. It supports the mood of the film so well throughout.