JustVim Blog: Despicable Me Movie Review

Starring: Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Kristen Wiig

Director: Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud

Synopsis: In a happy suburban neighborhood surrounded by white picket fences with flowering rose bushes, sits a black house with a dead lawn. Unbeknownst to the neighbors, hidden beneath this home is a vast secret hideout. Surrounded by a small army of minions, we discover Gru (voiced by Steve Carell), planning the biggest heist in the history of the world. He is going to steal the moon (Yes, the moon!) in Universal's new 3-D CGI feature, Despicable Me. Gru delights in all things wicked. Armed with his arsenal of shrink rays, freeze rays, and battle-ready vehicles for land and air, he vanquishes all who stand in his way. Until the day he encounters the immense will of three little orphaned girls who look at him and see something that no one else has ever seen: a potential Dad.The world's greatest villain has just met his greatest challenge: three little girls named Margo, Edith and Agnes.
“Not despicable enough. Not cute enough. Not funny enough. At least they push the 3-D to near absurd levels. Yes, roller coaster, I'm talking about you.”

Not every supervillain can be, well, super at their job. They aspire to greatness, but may learn they aren't cut out for their ignoble profession. Maybe it's because they're not as bad as they'd like to think.Despicable Me follows Gru, who looks like a cross between Uncle Fester and Dr.. He lives in a nice house in a nice neighborhood, a perfect cover for his vast underground lair where his minions -- who resemble a hybrid of Twinkies and those cute little aliens from Toy Story -- and his mad scientist colleague, Dr. Nefario, build his gizmos and weaponry.

Having fallen on hard times, Gru sets out to pull off his biggest heist yet: stealing the moon! But he's competing with a younger upstart, the nerdy Vector (Jason Segel), and finds his cold heart slowly but surely melting when three adorable orphans -- Margo, Edith and Agnes -- enter his life. Suddenly finding himself responsible for something other than his own wicked schemes, Gru may just go from bad to dad.

Despicable Me is perfectly rote animated family entertainment, a familiar but fun little movie that owes more than a passing similarity to How The Grinch Stole Christmas, where a dastardly character out to steal something big has a change of heart after encountering an adorable little moppet (or, in this case, three of them). It's a formulaic tale whose outcome is evident from the get-go, but it should nevertheless win over its intended audience.

As the movie progresses ... it's clear that beyond some mildly clever sight gags, it is content to mine the same middling formulaic territory of so many other kids' films.

It's not an especially inspired film, and everything in it is calculated for maximum emotional manipulation -- and it works because, damn, if those precious little tykes and Gru's minions aren't cute and funny. But Gru and Vector feel like low-rent knock-offs of The Grinch and Syndrome from The Incredibles, respectively. Carell is simply miscast as Gru; you never believe him as a supervillain so his change of heart lacks impact.

The film is overrun with colorful characters. Gru's assistant, Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand), is like James Bond's Q, a genius at inventing devices. But his hearing isn't always acute. So when asked to design a dart gun, he concocts something that sounds like dart, only the word begins with an "f."

Supervillains exploiting orphan girls is funny! At the inevitable melting of Gru's stony heart, the film turns into something else entirely. That which it turns into is sloppy and a little unsatisfying, but it is still irresistibly sweet, thanks to Agnes!!