Film / Reviews
Minions
Minions (U)
USA/France 2015 91 mins Dir: Pierre Coffin, Kyle Balda Cast: Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm, Pierre Coffin, Michael Keaton, Steve Coogan
The equivalent of being in a small room with a hyperactive toddler babbling in your ear, Minions is a mildly amusing idea ultimately overstretched to unnecessary length. It’s a litmus test of sorts, designed to see whether the enormously popular, yellow, pill-shaped Despicable Me sidekicks can sustain their own movie. The answer is yes… for about 10 minutes. After that, their incessant French/Polynesian nonsense language (‘Minionese’) starts to wear thin.
In the Despicable Me movies, both of which take place after the events of Minions, this was less of a problem as the cut and thrust was with Steve Carell’s enjoyable slaphead megalomaniac Gru, the sidekicks acting as offbeat distractions. Here however, they’re front and centre, with mixed results. Still, at least it features one memorable sequence: a great prologue transitioning from hand-drawn animation to CGI as we learn the history of the Minions, and how they have served various despicable masters since the dawn of time.
Having unwittingly bumped off each of their bosses (Dracula’s fate is especially brilliant and an example of the movie’s occasional adult-skewing humour), the Minions now in the 1960s are on the search for a new master. Our heroes Kevin, Stuart and Bob ultimately end up in hippy dippy New York and eventually Orlando where, at Villain Con (Comic Con for baddies), they discover stylish megalomaniac Scarlet Overkill (Sandra Bullock). She then enlists the hapless Minions in a diabolical scheme to steal our Queen’s Crown Jewels. Cue a soundtrack cribbed from whatever 1960s anthology set was close to hand and plenty of shots of people drinking tea.
The central problem with Minions, aside from its lack of truly big laughs, is its lack of heart. The characters simply don’t engage our sympathies in the way that Woody, Buzz, Nemo or any of Pixar’s other classic creations do so effortlessly. And this can’t help compound the mildly underwhelming humour even further. Bonus points come from Bullock’s enjoyably sassy vocal performance, and also that of Mad Men’s Jon Hamm as Scarlet’s surfer dude-voiced inventor husband Herb. Sweet and inoffensive it may be but unless you’re especially discerning, don’t expect it to linger in the memory.
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