So I am back home from this week’s Barking Mad About Films trip to the cinema and this weeks choice of viewing was Minions
Those cheeky little yellow fella’s from the smash hit film Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2. I personally saw the first film as a big fan of Steve Carrell and the thought of him as a super villain with promise of laughs sold me and it is a film I do very much enjoy, its sequel though I felt was a let down, about as much as I can remember from it is Pharell’s song ‘Happy’ which now appears everywhere, however as with the sequel and its predecessor the one thing that you could rely on was laughs a plenty from the gibberish talking, banana loving minions!
So with the let down of the sequel but love of the minions characters it was with some trepidation that I went into their stand alone film set B.G (Before Gru)
The film is about the minions quest to find an evil leader with plans of world dominatin and err become their minions. The film starts great showing the Minion’s various attempts at finding leaders, with Dinosaurs and Napoleon just 2 of the characters we see in a fun opening wonderfully narrated by Geoffrey Rush
One disaster leads to another with our Minions on the run finding sanctuary in a cave where they live a happy life but find they are bored and need a new ruler to follow, Kevin along with an excited young Bob and music loving Stuart eventually volunteer to find this new leader and send for the rest of the minions when they are employed
A trip to a convention of villains from a chance trip from a crime robbing family (voiced by Alison Janney and Michael Keaton) the minions go for the top and target Scarlett Overkill (voiced by Sandra Bullock) to be their new employer
A daft premise of how they get employed duly follows and the story gets a bit silly when Scarlett reveals her plan is to be Queen of England and a trip to London duly follows to steal the crown from current Queen Elizabeth (voiced by Jennifer Saunders)
A simple enough storyline and Minions causing mayhem is all you really need to know about this film. The fun is constant but your liking of this film will 100% come down to how much you can tolerate the minions as they are on full show in this film, I personally found my self with a smile on my face at the silliness of it all nearly throughout the whole film and certainly enjoyed it more than Despicable Me 2, sure it has weak moments, a Godzilla Minion sequence seems a bit daft but the Minons are as cute as ever and they are hard to not dislike and don’t turn purple in this one!
Set in the Sixties the film has a fantastic soundtrack featuring the Who, Kinks, the Doors and more and some great references for adults to enjoy too, with references to Warhol, the Beatles and Nixon amongst them and Gru fans will love the cameo at the end from Steve Carell, special mention also I fell goes to Jon Hamm as Herb, Scarlett’s husband, I know him as Don Draper from Mad Men but here he is a hip and fun character
If you don’t love the Minions, I suggest you hide as they seem to be everywhere at the moment as merchandise has gone through the roof for this one, Haribo sweets, Minion Tic Tacs, the Happy Meal from McDonalds and of course toys but of course if you do love the Minions enjoy the ride and they don’t seem to be going anywhere soon as Despicable Me 3 is due in 2017. Will we see a female minion, or will fire hydrants continue to be their love interests?
