Despicable Me

My Rating: 3 /4

I must admit, I wasn't particularly excited about this movie. It seemed like just another box-office hogging, dumb-looking, star loaded animated movie. But for the most part, I was wrong. While the cast is again(just like my last review) star loaded, that certainly brings in some great acting from the voice talents of Steve Carell(Get Smart), Jason Segel(I Love You, Man), Russel Brand(Bedtime Stories), Will Arnet(Monsters V.S. Aliens), Danny McBride(Drillbit Taylor), Miranda Cosgrove(The Wild Stallion) and Julie Andrews(Shrek 2, 3, and 4). With talent like this, the acting is without question fantastic. All of the characters are portrayed to their full potential. Nothing is questionable. Unless you have no imagination whatsoever. But Steve Carell of course steals the show and I don't know if it's just good acting or if it's just flat-out funny but you actually get to hear him in a Russian accent. In one scene, instead of "my turn", he says "my torn" and it just made me laugh for some reason. You just never hear that guy outside of an American accent. It's like hearing Brad Pitt's old country accent in that WWII Quentin Tarantino movie that I probably shouldn't mention the name of. But I think it just made the film more enjoyable. But, this accent centers around the plot, which then centers around Carell's character, Gru(above). Gru is, well, I don't know how else to say it, a super villian. He lives in a nice neighborhood and pretty houses flood the block, then you see Gru's huge, haunted-house looking, dark semi-mansion. He has spikes and armored suits as the main theme of his home's decor, and he carries a Medieval mase with him whenever the doorbell rings, and he has pet that I'm pretty sure isn't from this planet and probably has rabies. Oh, and he drives this 20-ft. tall -death machine-type vehicle that more than likely is a danger to society. AND, he has a large weapon-factory of evil that's run by little yellow minions that I also am sure are not from this planet. That is what he calls his basement. So, he really is the hard core- bad-guy of animated films. One day, a new villain named "Vector"(Jason Segel), steals what I believe is the Pyramid of Giza and is considered a better villain than Gru. So, Gru comes up with a master plan that would make him the greatest villain in history, TO STEAL THE MOON. Now I don't want to spoil this movie so i will just not go into the details. But as part of his plans, he adopts three orphans. And he just may find out he would make a good dad. So, the plot is obviously silly, but hey, what did you expect from an animated kid's movie? The satisfaction, however, expands outside of the targeted audience. There's comedy, there's seriousness, and well, it's just plain fun. And I found myself just enjoying the movie. I was was never bored, never minded the small amount of predictability, and I was never confused. It's this heartfelt, funny, ideal animated movie. I guess there may have been some minor details I wasn't liking, and maybe I dwell ed on it too much. Or, maybe it wasn't something I didn't like, it's just that the level of how good it was wasn't the highest it could go. I may even have graded it on this a little too harshly. But oh, despicable me.
Starring: Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Miranda Cosgrove, Directors: Pierre Coffin
Russel Brand, Chris Renaud
Will Arnet, Julie Andrews.