Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to brush your teeth. Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the anarchy of “Minions & Monsters,” the relationship woes of “The Invite” and the music bio “Peter Asher: Everywhere Man.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join “CTV News Toronto at Five” with anchor Zuraigah Alman to talk about the anarchy of “Minions & Monsters,” the relationship woes of “The Invite” and the music bio “Peter Asher: Everywhere Man.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 12:20)
I join CTV Atlantic’s Stephanie Tsicos to talk about anarchy of “Minions & Monsters,” the relationship woes of “The Invite” and the music bio “Peter Asher: Everywhere Man.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Akshay Tandon to talk about the new releases in theatres, including The anarchy of “Minions & Monsters,” the relationship woes of “The Invite” and the music bio “Peter Asher: Everywhere Man.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join “CP24 Breakfast” hosts Nick Dixon and Jennifer Hsiung to talk about the anarchy of “Minions & Monsters,” the animated adventures of Disney+’s “X-Men ’97” and the Prime Video “Legally Blonde” prequel “Elle.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Minions & Monsters,” a chaotic animated film now playing in theatres, the jellybean shaped Minions unleash real monsters on Los Angeles when they try and make a monster movie.
CAST: Pierre Coffin, Trey Parker, Allison Janney, Christoph Waltz, Jesse Eisenberg, Jeff Bridges, Zoey Deutch, Bobby Moynihan, George Lucas, Phil LaMarr. Directed and co-written by Pierre Coffin.
REVIEW: A Valentine to the movies, “Minions & Monsters” is equal parts shambolic and sentimental. The trademarked Minion madness is still firmly in place, but director Pierre Coffin wears his love of movies on his sleeve, weaving tributes to 100 years of the Universal logo, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, “The Blob,” the pioneering 1902 film “A Trip to the Moon” and the opening scene of “Citizen Kane” throughout.
The action begins with a tour through the Universal Studios museum. Exhibits include George Lucas (playing himself) in a glass case and statues of Minion movie legends James and Henry (Pierre Coffin supplies the voices of all the Minions). When the tour group admits they don’t know anything about the Minions, eager tour guide Olivia (Alison Janney) gives them a history lesson. “They are legends who changed Hollywood forever,” she says.
As the story goes, the Minions, on a quest to work for the worst villains in history, stumble into a train robbery movie shoot in 1920s Hollywood. Thinking the robbery is real, and they’ve come across a new bad guy they could work with, they are instead discovered by studio heads Frank and Elwood Bright (both voiced by Jeff Bridges) who instruct director Max (Christoph Waltz) to cast them in a series of slapstick silent movie comedies.
They become “Kings of the Box Office,” but their time at the top is cut short. Unable to adapt to the advent of sound because of their incomprehensible gibberish language, they lose their film contract, but not their passion to make movies. Shunned by Hollywood, James comes up with an idea to make his magnum opus, “Minions & Monsters.”
To find the perfect monsters they use a stolen spellbook to conjure up real beasts like the Lovecraftian Gary Orcam Oliver Magma Ichabod the Deceiver, a.k.a. Goomi (Trey Parker), sea creatures Phillip (Bobby Moynihan) and Howard (Phil LaMarr) and a multi-eyed orange blob and “eater of worlds” called Irene.
When the creatures reveal their secret, evil apocalyptic plan, the Minions must embrace their heroic side to save the world and their movie.
“Minions & Monsters” isn’t really about the story, it’s about a heartfelt love of movies—”Watch the movie play in a theatre full of people,” says tour guide Olivia about the film-within-the-film. “There’s nothing better.”—and the antics of the title characters.
The sheer silliness on display is infectious. Conjuring up memories of everything from vaudeville and Bugs Bunny to The Three Stooges and silent era comedians like Harold Lloyd, they go beyond slapstick to create something akin to pure unadulterated joy.
I chose the word “unadulterated” for a reason. The definition fits, their comedy is pure and untainted, but I also believe it’s humor for un-adults. That’s people of all ages who allow their inner child to get lost in the movie’s juvenile humor.
The movie cleverly suggests the Minions could have been silent movie stars, and, for sure their absurdist, physical humor is perfectly suited to the medium. But “Minions & Monsters” isn’t a silent movie and if I have a quibble, it’s that I found some of the Minionese—i.e. their gibberish Banana language—scenes less effective than their slapstick sequences.
“Minions & Monsters” has fun animation, better action scenes than “Supergirl” and loads of laughs for movie fans of all ages.
Bob Dylan sang “You gotta serve somebody,” and so it is with the Minions, the curious tribe of yellow jellybean-shaped troublemakers made famous in the “Despicable Me” movies.
They were born to be bad, to work under some of the greatest villains in history, but what are they to do when their old bosses, baddies like T-Rex, Dracula and Napoleon don’t require their services? If you are minions named Bob, Kevin and Stuart (co-director Pierre Coffin who supplied the voices for all 899 minions) you hitchhike to Orlando, Florida and attend the 1968 Villain-Con International looking for work.
The star of Villain-Con is the world’s first female supervillain Scarlett Overkill (Sandra Bullock). “When I started out people said a woman could never rob a bank as well as a man,” she says. “Well times have changed!” Her current evil plan involves stealing Queen Elizabeth’s (Jennifer Saunders) crown and taking over the throne. Hiring the Minions, she arms them with groovy 1960s weapons like a Lava Lamp Gun and a Hypno Hat, they set off on the mission, but when the Minions are involved, even the best laid plans can turn to gibberish.
During the screening the old saying, “Less is more,” sprung to mind. Would “Stand by Me” work if it was only about Ray Brower (the dead body)? How about “Mola Ram and the Temple of Doom”? What can be interesting or fun in small doses doesn’t always work in center stage. Like an orchestra made up of nothing but triangle players, sometimes it’s best to leave an asset in the background.
There is no denying the Minions’ cute appeal and their zest for the surreal side of life is contagious but as characters they’re limited by speaking Minionese, a nonsense language (equal parts Italian, Spanish, French and baby talk) that pretty much rules out sophisticated verbal jokes or long scenes of dialogue. Instead they make noises and frequently sing to stretch the running time to feature length. Don’t even ask about character development. They’re yellow, out of control and loud and that’s all they’ll ever be. “Inside Out” this ain’t.
Not that any of this will matter to kids very much. They love the Minions and they love their Minion stuffed animals. They love the gibberish and the physical humour. So what if there’s not much for anyone over the age of ten? Haters gonna hate. Minions gonna Minionate.
Universal’s first 3D-animated movie “Despicable Me” is a generous mix of German Expressionism, a Spy vs. Spy vibe and The Jetsons. It is stylish, gently funny and should be a big hit with kids and adults alike. It’s not exactly “Toy Story 3” but it is as close as we’re likely to get until the next Pixarian offering comes barrelling into theatres.
Bad guys don’t come much worse than Gru (voice of Steve Carell). He’s a supervillain, complete with minions, an evil genius assistant (Russell Brand), a panda skin rug in his lair and a plan to shrink the moon. The only things standing in his way are Vector (Jason Segel), a Bill Gates look-a-like rival evil overlord who is determined to throw a wrench into Gru’s plan, and Margo, Edith and Agnes (Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier and Elsie Fisher) three orphan girls who force him to rethink his diabolical dealings.
“Despicable Me” has lots to recommend it. State of the art 3D animation, good voice work (more on that later) and lots of grin worthy moments, but despite all that it is the jellybean shaped minions who steal the show. They speak gibberish, ineptly do Gru’s bidding and supply most of the film’s memorable laughs. Swag-Are-Us is sure to have shelves full of the little buggers and for once I get it. Dammit! I want a minion, either real or stuffed. Doesn’t matter.
The script stays on track and, with the exception of one jab at Lehman Brothers—they’re the namesake of the Bank of Evil—avoids the trap of peppering the story with current pop culture jokes. Too often kid’s animated movies rely on current references for humor, but looking back, how effective is the Arsenio Hall impression in “Aladdin” for today’s audiences. Funny at the time for sure, but eighteen years later it can hardly be called timeless. “Despicable Me,” like the Pixar films, avoids that trap and instead relies on humor that arises from the situations and characters and a good dollop of heart to sell the story.
More traditionally, for today’s animated features, the casting tends towards big stars, but unlike so many other animated films that shape characters around their celebrity counterparts—“Madagscar” I’m looking at you— “Despicable Me” actually contains some very nice voice work. Carell, the name-above-the-title star could have easily brought his familiar Michael Scott intonation to the role and everyone would have been pleased, but instead he actually creates an unrecognizable voice—it’s sort of a cross between Ricardo Montalban and Bela Lugosi—that is more than just an extension of his well-known comic persona. It’s a great performance even though we never actually see him on screen.
If “Toy Story 3” and “How to Train Your Dragon” hadn’t come out last month “Despicable Me” would be the best animated movie of the year so far.
Sometimes they are diabolical. Occasionally dastardly. They are, of course, supervillains, the evil geniuses who give Superman, Batman and other caped crusaders a reason to get up in the morning.
Supervillains like Professor Moriarty and Dr. Fu Manchu, with their craving for world domination and habit of calling everyone around them “Fools!,” have been scaring moviegoers for decades, but the Professor and the Doctor are rather conventional compared to the Lightning from the 1938 film, The Fighting Devil Dogs.
Lightning was the first crime mastermind to wear a wild costume — a black shiny helmet and robe that later inspired Darth Vader’s outfit — and he set the tone for hundreds of cinematic supervillians.
In this weekend’s Despicable Me, a new supervillain, Gru (Steve Carell), rethinks his plan to steal the moon after becoming a dad. It’s a comedic take on the standard baddie, but nonetheless Gru has most of the accoutrements of his evil trade.
Here’s a checklist:
Accent
Having a sinister accent is par for the supervillain course. Gru’s sounds like a cross between Ricardo Montalban and Bela Lugosi, but he is just the latest in a long line of baddies with a brogue. Who could forget Batman & Robin’s icy Mr. Freeze? Played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, the frosty bad guy intoned, “The Ice Man cometh!” in a menacing accent that sounded a lot like, well, Schwarzenegger.
Doomsday Devices
What’s an evil overlord without a diabolical device of destruction? Gru has an arsenal of shrink and freeze rays, but those pale by comparison to Doctor Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina) and his Spider-Man 2 explosive superweapon or the Green Goblin’s Pumpkin Bombs — Jack-o’-lanterns that can melt through a three-inch-thick sheet of steel.
Catchphrase
All good supervillains have a motto. Gru could learn a thing or two from the Clown Prince of Crime, the Joker (Jack Nicolson) who cackled, “Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?” to his victims before offing them. It’s catchy, but not as memorable as Mr. J’s other well known quote, “This town needs an enema.” Even better is Terence Stamp’s haughty command “Kneel before Zod!” from Superman II.
A.K.A.
Finally, Gru fits the baddie bill but does fall down in one aspect of supervillainy, however; no evil nickname. Perhaps he could take his lead from the Joker a.k.a. “the Harlequin of Hate” and go by the Fiend of Fatherhood.
