Film review: Despicable Me 4 doesn't reinvent its Minion-infested wheel
Despicable Me 4: Gru and crew go into hiding - but for how long?
- Despicable Me 4
- ★★★☆☆
- Cinema release
opens with the Anti-Villain League’s finest, Gru (voiced by Steve Carrell), capturing Maxime (Will Ferrell), his former nemesis from the Lycée Pas Mal, aka international villainy’s finishing school.
But when Maxime — who has harnessed the awesome powers of the indestructible cockroach — escapes from his cell in a maximum security prison and threatens the newly arrived baby Gru Jnr, Gru and his family are forced to go into hiding and take on new identities in the idyllic town of Mayflower. Naturally, things do not go to plan,
Co-directed by Despicable Me veteran Chris Renaud and Patrick Delage, this latest outing for Gru and his babbling minions doesn’t attempt to reinvent the wheel, even if we do get Mega-Minions capable of all manner of superhero-style feats that take their hi-jinks onto another level.
For the most part, though, we get Gru staggering from one self-inflicted disaster to the next as he attempts some minor social climbing, embarks on the ill-judged heist of a honey badger, and struggles to cope with the ego-crush of a reformed evil mastermind obliged to seek anonymity.
As fast, frenzied and irreverent as always, this latest addition to the franchise offers little that’s new but doesn’t disappoint.
