With a new set of villains and plenty of Minion mischief, this sequel is a crowd-pleaser, with Massachusetts funnyman Steve Carell reprising his part as Gru
By James Verniere/Boston Movie News
“Despicable Me 4,” or “The Further Adventures of Gru and His Adorable Family and Minions,” is another summer-movie sequel no one was clamoring for, but one that the film industry provides in lieu of anything new or different. The film, directed by series veterans Chris Renaud and Patrick Delage and once again a product of Christopher Meledandri’s animation studio Illumination (“How the Grinch Stole Christmas!”), pits Felonius Gru (Steve Carell), who still sounds like the great Bela Lugosi and who once schemed to steal the moon, against supervillain and escaped convict Maxime Le Mal (Will Ferrell) and his femme fatale girlfriend Valentina (Sofia Vergara). Maxime is a mad scientist who has perfected a method of transforming himself and others into a creepy, super-resilient human/cockroach hybrid. After Maxime is imprisoned by Silas Ramsbottom (Steve Coogan, a real asset), Maxime and Valentina seek vengeance against Gru and his family, including wife Lucy Wilde (Kristin Wiig, who started in the series voicing another character), daughters Agnes (Madison Polan), Edith (Dana Gaier) and Margo (Miranda Cosgrove) and baby son Gru Jr.
Once again, the extraordinary Pierre Coffin voices all of the film’s Minions: yellow, capsule-shaped, child-like, one- or two-eyed workers who soldier for Gru and recall the Marx Brothers, the Keystone Cops (in “Despicable Me 3,” Gru is said to come from Freedonia, a reference to the Marx Bros.’s 1933 classic “Duck Soup”), and other screen slapstick icons. The Minions speak Minionese, a mix of English, French, German, Korean, Japanese, and more.
These “Despicable Me” films are steeped in film lore. In addition to the Marx Brothers’ influence and the spoof of Bond villains like Goldfinger and Ernst Stavro Blofeld, “Despicable Me 4” gives us a Gill Man alumnus of the School of Villainy. A technique familiar to “Captain America” film fans transforms Minions into Mega-Minions, the X-Men equivalent of the little creatures. A heist will invoke, of course, “Mission: Impossible.” When you see what the Gru family uses to take wing, you may be reminded that Bond creator Ian Fleming also wrote the 1964 children’s classic “Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang,” which was adapted into a film co-written by Roald Dahl of Willy Wonka fame.
After Maxime threatens them, Gru and his family are forced to relocate to the town of Mayflower and given new identities. They live next door to the obnoxious and rich Perry (Stephen Colbert) and Patsy (Chloe Fineman) Prescott, whose daughter Poppy (Joey King) longs to be a supervillain. Maxime and Valentina get around in a roach-shaped spaceship piloted by the latter. I know the concept is hard to grasp. But you will see a demonstration of skiing on melted Swiss cheese. An old friend will make a cameo appearance. Get ready for a prison talent-contest karaoke performance of Tears for Fears’ 1985 anti-war anthem “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” with an entirely Gru-ish twist. Writers Ken Daurio (“Despicable Me 3”) and the prodigious Mike White (“White Lotus”) keep the action moving along briskly enough. Pharrell Williams’ likable “Despicable Me 4” theme song “Double Life” is probably not going to be the new “Happy.” But the latter was so catchy it required a vaccine.
‘Despicable Me 4’
Rating: PG for action and rude humor.
Cast: Steve Carell, Kristin Wiig, Joey King
Director: Chri Renaud, Patrick Delage
Writer: Ken Daurio, Mike White
Running time: 95 minutes
Where to Watch: In theaters July 3
Grade: B+
Boston Movie News 