The good news is that Minions will probably attract Toy Story like numbers at the box office this weekend. The bad news is that it’s nowhere near as good as the Despicable Me movies.
Thanks to a few terrific movies, though, it’s not bad.
The first act of Minions is, essentially, a slapstick history lesson giving the Minions’ story from the primordial ooze to 1968 New York City. The lovable little guys have a bad habit of sabotaging their various bosses (Happy Birthday, Dracula!) so frequently that they finally retire to the arctic and gradually lose their joie de vivre.
While trying to get reception on a battered old television, they stumble onto a secret channel aimed at villains – and an event called Villain-Con. Three plucky volunteers – Kevin, Stuart and Bob (all voiced by co-director Pierre Coffin) set out to find the con’s special guest of honor, Scarlet Overkill (Sandra Bullock). After crossing an ocean in a rowboat – and landing in New York City, the guys bumble about until finally hitching a ride with a family of bank robbers who happen to be going to Orlando, Florida – and Villain-Con.
Scarlet gives her adoring fans a show and then announces that she’s looking for henchmen – and whoever can fulfill a simple task will get the job. In the ensuing chaos – and who does chaos better than the Minions – guess who gets the job done.
Now in Scarlet’s employ, they find themselves off to London along with her and her husband, Herb (John Hamm). Their mission: to steal Queen Elizabeth’s crown!
This is where Minions begins to come to life – partly because of the Minions and partly because of the Queen (Jennifer Saunders). Trust me, when Elizabeth loses her position (major mythology alert!), she turns out to be a dab hand at arm wrestling down the pub – and remarkably happy drinker.
One of the reasons the Minions are so popular is because of the way they interacted with Gru and the girls in the two Despicable Me movies. In Minions, they aren’t really with any one boss long enough to really develop that chemistry. As a result, Minions is a movie that is more like a TV series of cartoon episodes strung together.
Individual gags may get a laugh, but the Minions never really belong anywhere – even their brief working arrangement with Scarlet feels arbitrary.
While young kiddies may well be enthralled by the Minions’ antics, older kids and most adults, will have to exercise some patience to get to the good stuff. For adults there is a disturbingly brilliant soundtrack – setting the New York/Orlando/Villain-Con arc in 1968 allows for some great music: The Rolling Stones (19th Nervous Breakdown), The Kinks (You Really Got Me), The Who (My Generation) and more,
Even the Minions get in on the act – their rendition of the Monkees Theme is clever, and if you have the patience to sit through the closing credits, there’s a rave-up version of The Beatles’ Revolution that also acts as a kind of curtain call (and may just be the best segment of the movie).
Directors Kyle Balda and Pierre Coffin take a script from Brian Lynch and gussy it up enough that Minions survives its hit or miss nature by finally hitting its stride at about the movie’s halfway point. Judging by how well the Minions work with Gru, it might be best if the next movie to feature them was a Despicable Me 3 (or at least featured Gru – before or after his de-villainification).
Final Grade: C+