Despicable Me [PG]

When a new and younger villain commits the “crime of the century” by stealing the Pyramids, Gru’s career as a super villain becomes threatened. Out of sheer desperation, Gru concocts a plan to pull off the true crime of the century: he plans to steal the moon. But in order to pull off this fantastic heist, he needs a shrink ray and unfortunately the only one he knows of is locked away in his arch rival, Vector’s lair. So Gru adopts three little girls to distract Vector while he steals the shrink ray, but his plan to steal the moon takes a downward turn when he begins to become attached to the girls. 

I just missed this as the cinemas and was really annoyed about it because I only heard cute and good reviews about it. So when it came into work last week, I could not wait to bring home a copy and curl up with a glass of wine for a night of good family fun. Such was not the case. 

When a new and younger villain named Vector commits the “crime of the century” by stealing the famous Pyramids from Egypt, Gru’s career as a super villain becomes threatened. With the bank refusing to finance his miniscule heists, Gru has to come up with a plan to commit a crime that’s even bigger than stealing the man-made wonders of the world. Out of sheer desperation, Gru comes up with a plan to commit the true “crime of the century”: he plans to steal the moon. Unfortunately his plan requires a shrink ray and the only on that he knows of is locked away in Vector’s lair. So Gru adopts three little girls to distract Vector whilst he steals the shrink ray. But Gru’s plan takes a downward turn as his deadline draws nearer and he becomes attached to and distracted by the girls. 

The film definitely had potential and it was cute and sometimes clever, but ultimately I was a little disappointed with it. It seemed to me that the story was taking one step forward and then two steps back, all the while sort of going in circles. Gru goes from hating the children, to not minding them, to thinking they’re cute, to hating them again. It was kind of all over the shop. 

The film did harbour some hidden comedy treasures such as a sample from the famous bed scene from The Godfather, but all in all the occasional funny delights that were very loosely scattered throughout the film did not take my mind off how vague and unstable the story was. 

Featuring the voice talents of Steve Carell, Russell Brand, Will Arnett, Jason Segal, Mirada Cosgrove, Kristen Wiig, Dana Gaier, and Julie Andrews, Despicable Me was a cute little family movie filled with action, comedy, and a little bit of love. It’s a fine film to watch at least once, but I don’t think that it’ll make it into the collection.