Tag: Steve Coogan

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Movie Review: Minions – A Bit Exhausting To Watch

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The Minions, those gibberish spewing sidekicks from Despicable Me, are back with their own feature movie. It’s a bit of an origin story, and a clear shameless attempt to cash in on the success of Despicable Me.

The movie starts out with an intro that covers just why the Minions are predestined to serve evil masters. Following all that, it jumps to 1968 where we meet the brave Minions living in New York City, but are sadly master-less. They then learn of a Villain-Con taking place in Orlando, and off they go, hoping to find a new big bad guy to follow. So of course, they get into tons of trouble, winding up riding along with bank robbers, and meeting a motivational speaker who is set on world domination. The movie jumps to different locales and has a lot going on, making it sometimes hard to follow for a children’s movie.

I think it needs to be said. There’s a reason the minions are pill shaped, and that’s because they should be taken in small doses. While their gibberish is cute for a few minutes, it only takes a while before it starts to grate on your nerves.

The best way to describe the movie is shrill, but cute. It’s at times fun, and mostly cute, but occasionally cloying. This is a kid’s movie for kids, not one for adults to enjoy with kids.

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But then, with the rock and roll soundtrack, references to the Beatles, Japanese monster movies and the musical Hair, the jokes sometimes seem focused on adults. Maybe it was a way for adults to feel like they belonged in the audience, but I think the references were mainly just confusing to kids.

I can’t say it wasn’t cute. The movie was straight up adorable. The Minions are designed to be cute, so it’s hard not to enjoy their antics, but they were just too cute. It was too over the top and these little sidekicks are certainly not deep enough to have earned their own movie.

While I know sidekick spinoffs have worked in the past, with movies like Puss & Boots and the Penguins of Madagascar, those side characters actually had an interesting plot around them. Puss & Boots was a suave, debonair feline and the penguins were prison break artists. The most I can tell of the Minions is that they speak in gibberish and bumble around, knocking lots of stuff over and generally screwing up other people plans.

While it’s great for a side gag, it doesn’t work for an entire movie. It’s actually a bit exhausting to watch.

While your kids might make you suffer through this, I can’t say it’s one to watch for single adults. It’s a bit too cute, a bit too loud and a bit too bright for most people over 12 to walk away from without a massive migraine.

Sometimes, a sidekick is just a sidekick and it’s ok to leave them at that. For that reason, I got to say this is one to skip…unless your kids make you see it.

WE GAVE IT: 2.5 Stars

2.5 Stars

 

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Movie Review: Night at the Museum: Secrets of the Tomb – A Franchise that’s lost its magic.

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I think we all know that Night at the Museum movies are hardly high art. In fact, they’re about one step up from those straight to video movies the Olson twins made in the 90s. But the magic they do have is that they’re entertaining. So does Night at the Museum: Secrets of the Tomb hold up to the original?

This time around, Larry (Ben Stiller) learns that the magic Tablet of Akhmenrah, the Egyptian artifact that brings the Museum of Natural History’s various exhibits to life, is starting to lose its powers. That means that Larry will soon have to say goodbye to friends like Teddy Roosevelt (the late Robin Williams), Egyptian Pharaoh Akhmenrah (Rami Malek), miniature cowboy Jedediah (Owen Wilson) and his Roman general friend Octavius (Steve Coogan). So off Larry goes to a British museum, so he can find a replacement magic tablet.

So yeah, the entire plot was conceived with the purpose of sending the museum guard to yet another museum, so he could continue meeting various historical figures. The previous movies did well with this formula, so I guess there seems to be no reason to stop now.

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Except, this results in a strange lack of energy, as if everyone is just sick of making these movies. Of course, I guess that’s what you get when you base an entire franchise of movies on a 32 page children’s book. You know what this movie is? It’s that movie you play over and over for your kids so you can get a break from them. It’s more background noise than anything else. It’s a PG non-interactive babysitter.

And an excuse to show off an array of CGI effects. Those are still as decent as the original. But that’s about all it has going for it. The first movie was supported by a cast of heavyweight comics. In this third installment, all the priors are tired and Robin Williams carries it all with his frantic energy.

Much like the tablet itself, this franchise has lost its magic. A phone in script and exhausted characters go on a short trip. In order to pad the script, two of the characters get stuck in a heating shaft and everyone has to go look for them for 45 minutes.

One bright shining spot in this is Rebel Wilson, who plays the British equivalent of Stiller’s character. As a guard at her own museum, she steals every single scene she’s in, making Stiller fall even more flat.

He clearly phoned in his effort and I think I know why. Rumor is, that when he was trying to get The Secret Life of Walter Mitty made, he actually had to sign on to do a third installment of this series. I guess when you shove someone back into a role, and hand him a tired script, you can’t really blame him for not putting forth much of an effort.

Hopefully, the studio will get the message and stop making these movies. But I highly doubt it. The movie has already raked in $17 million and is holding steady at number 2 at the box office. Despite the fact that it’s not worth the watch, it apparently was worth the making.

WE GAVE IT: 2.5 Stars

2.5 Stars

 

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