It's smarter, wilder and funnier before the monsters enter the equation, but lucky number theory works out for this mostly delightful seventh entry in the 'Despicable Me' franchise.
By Guy Lodge
Plus IconGuy Lodge
Film Critic
@guylodge See All
Courtesy of Universal From “Sunset Boulevard” to “The Artist,” “Singin’ in the Rain” to “Babylon,” Hollywood’s transition to sound cinema has long been a fertile period for later film artists to recreate with all the more evolved tools at their disposal — and so it proves, most happily and improbably, for the Minions. The frenetic antics of Illumination‘s mascot army of yellow miscreants have always been indebted to vintage slapstick. So in the creatures’ third collective solo feature, director, writer and voice artist Pierre Coffin makes that influence official, explicitly referencing the likes of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd in an adventure that quite logically see the Minions become silent comedy stars — “logically,” of course, being a relative term in this antic story universe — only for their trademark gibberish speaking style to ruin the dream.
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