home
radioSimon Dillon reviews this colourful and cheerful summer holiday fun
Despicable Me was good silly fun. Despicable Me 2 is more of the same and almost as good.
The plot sees dastardly ubervillain turned adoptive father Gru recruited by the AVL (Anti-Villain-League) to stop another villain who has stolen a top secret Arctic laboratory along with several of Gru's minions for genetic experimentation. He is reluctantly teamed up with AVL agent Lucy Wilde, and of course at first he doesn't like her but slowly. You get the picture.
Directors Pierre Louis Padang Coffin (bit of a mouthful) and Chris Renaud maintain much the same look and feel as the original, and the vocal talents of Steve Carrell, Kirstin Wiig, Benjamin Bratt, Steve Coogan and Russell Brand are put to good use. It isn't exactly a spoiler to say that whereas the first Despicable Me was about the orphans getting a father, this is about them gaining a mother. But in spite of predictability this is good solid fun; nicely animated and scripted, with enough daft gags involving the minions to keep the children happy whilst entertaining the adults with jokes about dating.
In short: colourful and cheerful summer holiday fun. 
Simon Dillon was born the year Steven Spielberg made moviegoers terrified of sharks He loves books and films, writing the former and reviewing the latter. His novels include Peaceful Quiet Lives, Children of the Folded Valley, Spectre of Springwell Forest, and Uncle Flynn. Simon is a fully committed Christian, but doesn’t like to “identify” with any particular denomination. He doesn’t do hugs, and generally prefers moody, sombre Gregorian chants to bouncier Christian music (with a few exceptions). In his reviews, he isn’t interested in counting f-words and miniskirts, but he attempts to unpack the message of the film, with faith issues in mind.
Comment
Bookmark
Tell a friend
Print version
I thought this film wasn't as good as the first, because the jokes this time around were more fart-joke oriented. The first one have one of the most over-the-top premises I've seen for a movie, ("We're going to steal the moon!") and made good use of this. I'm not sure where the despicableness comes in this movie, but it is a good-all around affair that shows that this sequel wasn't just a cash grab.