Despicable Me 2 Review

Despicable Me was one of Universal Studio's best selling animated features. In fact, it was the highest-grossing non-DreamWorks/non-Disney-Pixar animated film in North America. This lofty title was overthrown by its sequel, Despicable Me 2 (2013). That's worth talking about.

While Gru (Steve Carell) the ex-super villain is adjusting to family life and attempting an honest living in the jam business, a secret arctic laboratory is stolen. The Anti-Villain League decides it needs an insider's help and recruits Gru to the investigation. Together with the eccentric AVL agent, Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig), Gru concludes that his prime suspect is the presumed dead super villain, "El Macho" (Benjamin Bratt), whose teenage son Antonio (Moises Arias) is also making the moves on Gru's eldest daughter, Margo (Miranda Cosgrove). Seemingly blinded by his over protectiveness of his children and his growing mutual attraction to Lucy, Gru seems on the wrong track even as his hordes of Minions are being quietly kidnapped en masse for a malevolent purpose.

Despicable Me had lots of heart and some great characters. Most of that movie's energy revolved around an evil super villain having to get along with three young girls who like fluffy pink unicorns. The characters bounced off one another very well and it made for a lot of situational comedy. In Despicable Me 2, the lovable characters return, but they are all getting along perfectly well and their situations aren't nearly as creative and funny. Now Gru is set on being a good father and taking care of his new daughters. That's all fine and dandy, but the characters' story arches seem to be watered down to a standardized prepackaged family drama that's been overdone many times before. Furthermore, Gru has turned from being a great bad guy to a boring good guy. That's a critical thing the first movie had. His previous nastiness undercut the prevailing sweetness perfectly well. This makes the movie hopelessly nice and insufficiently naughty. The characters in Despicable Me 2 manage to be fun, but they lack some of the depth of the first movie.

Despicable Me 2 could easily have been called "The Minions Movie." Don't get me wrong, the Minions are hysterical. They steal every scene they show up in. They are cute, they are funny, they sound silly. The way the movie was advertised, you'd have thought it was all about little yellow guys who were incapable of speech doing nothing but a bunch  of silly physical gags. There are a lot more Minion shenanigans in this movie, and it's a stitch! They don't technically say anything, but the way they are animated and the sounds they make you can usually tell what it is they are saying or in some cases singing. It's an indication of good animation when we can tell what a non-verbal character is saying or thinking. By the end of the movie every child is going to want their own Minion toy. Heck, I want one!

Despicable Me 2 is a cute movie. It doesn't quite exceed the quality of its predecessor, but it has enough charm, humor, and warmth to make it a solid family film. It's a credit that the writing can be so funny in the moment that you don't have time to stop and realize it lacks cohesion, dramatic tension, or a life lesson for the characters or audience to learn. The movie is a lot more like getting together with old friends for a few laughs and seeing what they've been up to. And that's just fine! Kids will get a huge kick out of revisiting the same sort of jokes while adults will be entertained enough to enjoy it with their kids. Despicable Me 2 is worth owning on Blu-Ray if you've got kids who will want to watch it repeatedly. I enjoyed it, but not enough to get my own copy to watch again and again.

There are tons of Minion antics between the two movies. Which one is your favorite? Comment below and tell me why!

Little Miss Sunshine Movie Review

Comedy-drama movies are an odd thing. They juxtapose contrasting moods that ultimately form a story during which we can both laugh and cry. I’m sure that is an insanely difficult thing to pull off well. Little Miss Sunshine (2006) did it perfectly. I honestly can’t imagine a better film that is full of honest emotional drama and laughable situations.

In Albuquerque, Sheryl Hoover (Toni Collette) brings her suicidal brother Frank (Steve Carell) home to the care of her dysfunctional and bankrupt family. Sheryl’s husband Richard (Greg Kinnear) is unsuccessfully trying to sell his nine-step self-help and self-improvement technique to reach success. Her son Dwayne (Paul Dano) has taken a vow of silence as a follower of Nietzsche and aims to be a jet pilot. Dwayne’s grandfather Edwin (Alan Arkin) was kicked out of a retirement home for heroin addiction. When Sheryl’s seven-year-old daughter Olive (Abigail Breslin) has a chance to compete in the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant in Redondo Beach, California, the whole family travels together in their old Volkswagen Type 2 microbus. The Hoover family deals with every imaginable obstacle a road trip can have as well as escalating conflicts with one another as they try to give Olive every chance she can get to reach her dream.

The thing that stands out most to me in this movie is the acting. The performances are full of remarkable subtleties. The actors (and of course, the writer Michael Arndt) really grasp how unspoken reactions can be funnier than witty comebacks or sarcastic dialogue. It demonstrates also that pain and conflict can be the source of some of the funniest material. For example, Dwayne’s eyes frequently portray a bleak, dead outlook on life and the character is full of teenage angst and disgust. In reaction to his family’s antics, he just tilts his head in an almost imperceptible way to get us to crack up.

After the initial individual character introductions, there is a brilliant scene of the family dinner. This serves to develop the dynamics between the characters. The dialogue feels so natural here and we get a clearer understanding of how the family views one another and what kind of conflicts there are between family members. All the characters are so well developed that you can’t help but empathize with them and their losses and successes.

There is genuinely funny comedy in this movie. I was cracking up throughout the movie. But the funny moments come and go, and in their place is some very real drama. I felt bad when Olive cries for fear of being a loser and potentially losing her father’s love and respect. I felt uneasy when Frank’s academic rival appears at the same gas station, causing to resurface the feelings and thoughts that drove him to attempt suicide. I empathized with Sheryl who is at her wits end trying to keep the family together and happy. You will laugh and cry in this movie, and these two contrasting emotions the movie tries to elicit don’t detract from each other. It is excellent writing!

The Hoover family encounters just about every problem they can on a road trip. One of the earliest problems is after their first stop; they can’t get the VW bus to start again. The aging van’s clutch breaks. Since the van is so old and obsolete, the part must be special ordered which will take up to two weeks. Richard is unwilling to give up, and they take the advice of the mechanic; they push the van until they reach 20 miles per hour and start the engine in third gear. This means they avoid stopping unless absolutely necessary and that it takes a group effort to get the bus moving. Not only is this a hilarious running gag that is used in very creative ways, but it also represents the family needing to work together to keep the family moving and reach their goals.

I simply adore the overall theme of the movie. It is through pain and suffering that we learn and grow the most. The movie is about ideals and dreams versus illusions and reality. The beauty pageant in particular shows us thematically how ridiculous and subjective ideals are. The Hoovers are a family that suffers though trials together, refuses to give up, and decides to do what they like, in spite of what the world dictates is best.

Little Miss Sunshine is “rated R for language, some sex and drug content.” There really isn’t any sex in this movie; we just see the covers of some of grandpa’s porn magazines. We also see grandpa snorting heroin once or twice. I didn’t think it was worth getting offended by them. Language is pretty prominent, though. I do not like profanity, but there are situations in real life that are so intense that nothing can beat a well placed F-bomb. Little Miss Sunshine is full of situations like these. I don’t like how much profanity is in the movie, but it is meaningfully implemented. Anger, rage, and frustration become so intense that saying “gosh darn it” would just sound incredibly stupid.

Little Miss Sunshine is a beautiful movie that is very well written, remarkably well acted, and skillfully directed. There are reasons it won academy awards for best original screenplay. Even the cinematography and color palette are eye-catching. If you can tolerate the profanity, I highly recommend seeing this movie. It’s humbling and dramatic, but still hilarious and funny. I’ve got a copy sitting on my movie shelf along with other favorites.

What is a dramatic comedy, or “dramedy” movie that you really enjoyed? Do you have a favorite? Comment below and tell me why!

Bewitched Movie Review

Remakes of old television shows into movies generally aren’t phenomenal. These remakes seem to be an attempt for the baby boomer generation to enjoy one last fling with a show they enjoyed growing up with, and to possibly spark some interest in a younger audience. For example, The Addams Family (1991) was not bad, but the whole novelty behind it was that it was an Addams Family movie. Nora Ephron’s Bewitched (2005) seemed to be vying to rekindle interest in the classic 1960’s television show, but it seemed more like a poorly disguised promotional advertisement rather than a nostalgic trip down television lane.

Isabel Bigelow (Nicole Kidman) is a naïve, good-natured witch who is moving to San Fernando Valley to reinvent herself and escape from the superficiality of the witch world. Her Father (Michael Caine) doesn’t think this is a wise move for her, and tries to convince her to come home. Washed up actor, Jack Wyatt (Will Ferrell) is attempting to save his career and pursues an updated version of the well known sit-com, Bewitched. Jack insists on getting no name actors to fill the cast to ensure that he looks all the better in contrast, especially for the role of Samantha; they need the nose wiggle to be just right. After encountering each other at a bookstore, Jack persuades Isabel to play Samantha for Bewitched. Isabel tries to keep it a secret that she is a witch while she pretends to be a witch trying to keeping it a secret that she is a witch. Isabel gets frustrated with Jack’s shallow superficiality, but keeps given him second chances until the end up falling in love and start making the show a success. Finally, Isabel reveals to Jack that she actually is a witch but it doesn’t go over as well between them as it did between the two television characters they portray.

Bewitched is a meta-Bewitched movie. It’s a movie about making a television show based on a television show. Nearly every character with any significant dialogue mentions how much they loved the original show; Isabel wonders to herself what Samantha would do in her situation, Jack talks about how he loved Bewitched as a kid, and so on. It’s clear that in writing Bewitched the TV show was well consulted for content, but it is only talked about, not incorporated. The only real similarities are that there is a witch trying to be normal who falls in love with a human. All of the references and set recreations from the old television show seem to expect the viewer to recall fond memories, but when coupled with such a cliché love story, the fondness is besmirched.

Some of the actors were well cast, but had an additional character to play between them and the ideal role. Nicole Kidman would have made a good Samantha, and Shirley MacLaine would have made a good Endora (Samantha’s mother), but instead they were cast as actors portraying those characters. They didn’t get to play those roles that they were well suited for and instead got to play some uninteresting character trying to play Samantha and Endora. Will Ferrell once again is typecast as a stupid, rude, and conceited loser. Ferrell always seems to try very hard to convince the audience that he’s funny by acting over the top and by rapid-firing weak gags and juvenile jokes. When he’s in a role like this he seems to be acting toward the audience rather than getting a natural interaction between him and the other actors. Will Ferrell is great in his counter-typecast roles, such as in Stranger than Fiction (2006), but he ends up being obnoxious in his usual casting.

Lots of cameo appearances show up in Bewitched including Stephen Colbert, James Lipton, and Conan O'Brien. Among the more bizarre cameos is Carole Shelley playing Aunt Clara, and Steve Carell playing Uncle Arthur. Both characters are relatives of Samantha from the original Bewitched show. The original TV series is stated a number of times that it was “just a TV show.” But somehow Samantha’s relatives show up for no logical reason. Aunt Clara helps Isabel cast a spell on Jack, but Isabel thinks nothing of the doorknob stealing character from television. Uncle Albert is Jack’s favorite character who shows up out of nowhere to help Jack race after Isabel.  The movie even draws attention to the surrealist situation. Uncle Albert is driving Jack recklessly through traffic in pursuit of Isabel and Jack cries out, “I'm going to be killed by a fictional character!” It never explains why these two characters from a television show that is established to be a work of fiction appears in real life. The movie’s setting violates its own rules this way.

The all star cast had such potential to make a decent Bewitched movie, but the additional level of separation in this “meta-movie” really weakened the impact of the story’s potential, and Will Ferrell’s typecast role only made the movie more annoying. This movie is not Bewitched, it is about some actors trying to make a Bewitched remake. If you’re a really big fan of the old TV show, you might enjoy hearing the characters talk about the TV show, but you will be disappointed by the fact that your favorite characters aren’t in the movie that it is claiming to remake. If you’re not already a Bewitched fan, you would probably be better off spending the evening with The Addams Family.