Dan the Man's Movie Reviews

Now I see why every kid is in love with this movie and those little yellow things too.

Villainous Gru (Steve Carell) lives up to his reputation as a despicable, deplorable and downright unlikable guy when he hatches a plan to steal the moon from the sky. But he has a tough time staying on task after three orphans land in his care. There’s also problems with another villain named Vector (Jason Segel)

With almost every animated film that’s been coming out lately, being incredibly amazing, this one seemed like it had a lot of potential. But really, it’s potential didn’t really go anywhere.

I know that this film wasn’t aiming for the 18-year old kind of potty-mouthed film critic but almost every single Pixar film that has come out within the past 3 years, has had me balling like a 5-year old, so why shouldn’t this either? The answer to that question is that this film is centered too much towards kids with no real jokes actually being as funny as they should be.

This is a pretty cool premise with a lot of gags that had me chuckling here and there, but ultimately the film goes for the “cute” laughs that will get the kids laughing more than the parents, which is alright but you really have to have some stuff for mommy and daddy. But the humor also seemed like it was trying too hard with these gags and the humor that it all had that “been there, done that” feel to it and ended up being some pretty predictable stuff.

The emotional aspect of this film isn’t terrible but at times it’s just way too in your face to really care for. I thought that Gru and Vector were going to be the meanest sons of bitches in the whole movie but there’s these side characters that are actually worse. There’s a woman who runs the orphanage telling these kids “they will never get adopted!”, and also puts them in these little cardboard boxes called “The Boxes of Shame”. There’s also a park carnie that is the biggest dick ever and just sticks it in these kids face that they didn’t win a fuzzy unicorn because they couldn’t knock down some stupid target. It’s annoying when these moments just hit you over the head with how emotional they want you to feel and it’s just downright annoying.

Probably what really kept me going for this film was the animation that looked very very good. I liked how all of these characters were all unique in their own look and how the constant colors just kept popping up everywhere, creating an even better film to look at. I saw this in the regular 2-D version but I have to say that if I did see it in 3-D it probably would have been awesome because of just how this film looks and all.

The cast here has a lot of heavy-hitters but nothing really amazing. Steve Carell is good as Gru with his European accent; Jason Segel is annoying as Vector; I didn’t even notice Russell Brand as Dr. Nefario; and Will Arnett does what he does with the Bank of Evil (formerly Lehman Brothers) loan officer, Mr. Perkins. There’s also some nice bit parts from the likes of Kristen Wiig, Julie Andrews, Miranda Cosgrove, Danny McBride, and Jemaine Clement to top off this whole cast. The problem here is that everybody’s fine I guess, they just aren’t given much and there’s nothing really all that funny about what each of these characters do and it’s kind of disappointing considering all the talent they have, I usually laugh at no matter what.

Consensus: Despicable Me has great-looking animation and some chuckles here and there, but overall it’s too centered towards kids, predictable by the end, and just an animated film that doesn’t do much else different than what we have already seen done before and better from far-superior Pixar films.

5/10=Rental!!

Also, if you want to check out what I said about Javier Bardem joining the cast of ‘Despicable Me 2‘, go on over to http://www.boomtron.com/2011/10/despicable-me-2-may-be-getting-some-oscar-talent/ and give me some love on back. Thanks everybody!