{"id":24958,"date":"2022-06-30T01:52:26","date_gmt":"2022-06-30T08:52:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=24958"},"modified":"2022-06-30T01:52:26","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T08:52:26","slug":"minions-the-rise-of-gru-offers-more-minion-mayhem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=24958","title":{"rendered":"MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU Offers More Minion Mayhem"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Running Time: 87 minutes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This animated film from Universal Pictures opens at\ncinemas on Friday, July 1st<\/sup>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Despicable Me<\/em> animated film series started up in\n2010 and has since become a massive movie franchise. One of the reasons for its\nsuccess is the Minions, the central character\u2019s group of unexpectedly cute and\ngood-natured little yellow assistants. These unusual beings spawned their own\nsuccessful spin-off prequel title in 2015. This week sees the release of Minions:\nThe Rise of Gru<\/em>, which is a sequel to the previously noted film. Like most\nfollow-ups, the events on display are a little less fresh and unique than they\nwere in previous installments. However, it\u2019s a pleasant animated feature that\nwill deliver enough chuckles to amuse young audience members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Truth be told, this effort could have been released under\neither franchise banner, since it focuses on both the title characters and\ntheir boss. A nearly 12-year-old Gru (Steve Carrell) aspires to join the\nnotorious \u201cVicious 6\u201d group of supervillains led by Wild Knuckles (Alan Arkin).\nWhen Knuckles is usurped from his position by Belle Bottom (Taraji P. Henson),\na new opening appears in the organization. Young Gru decides to apply, but his\ninterview quickly goes south. To prove his worth, the kid steals a powerful and\nprecious stone from the Vicious 6. He soon finds himself being kidnapped by\nKnuckles and pursued by the rest of the group. Four Minions, including Kevin,\nStuart, Bob and Otto (all voiced by Pierre Coffin) set out on a journey to\nretrieve the stone and rescue their boss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story is very simple and slight. Gru learns from his\nidol and the Minions travel cross country to locate him. What follows are a\nseries of scattershot jokes as the story jumps between s trio of plotlines with\nthe characters gaining new experiences as they reconvene in San Francisco.\nThese bits include a likable scene in which the yellow creatures discover that\ntheir unique body shape can help them move around town at a rapid clip. But\nsome of the humor is very broad and the verbal gags are blunt, at times landing\nwith a bit of a thud. And the screenplay introduces an interesting Biker\ncharacter (voiced by RZA), who falls by the wayside and is underutilized in the\nstory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This effort is set in the 1970s and the screenplay does make\nuse of the time period to generate some laughs. There is an entertaining credit\nsequence paying homage to James Bond<\/em> movies of the era, as well as\nplenty of references to music, biker and kung-fu flicks. This is particularly\nevident in a comical subplot involving acupuncturist\/kung-fu expert Master Chow\n(Michelle Yeoh), who agrees to train Kevin, Stuart and Bob in order to help\nthem take on large and threatening opponents. Seeing these small, silly\ncreatures learn to practice martial arts and develop some physical strength is\nfun to witness and results in several laughs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The climax also looks sharp as several of the characters\nsquare off in San Francisco\u2019s Chinatown. Mention is continually made of the\nimportant stone and its connection to animals of the Chinese Zodiac. Of course,\nthere is no shock that many of the more dangerous lifeforms ultimately appear,\nbut thankfully the filmmakers also squeeze every bit of comedy out of the\nelaborate sequence by adding smaller wild creatures into the mix. It results in\na new character that might be the cutest addition to the series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This film is a hit-and-miss endeavor and one which doesn\u2019t\nadd a great deal to the story of Gru or his little helpers. Still, the film\nmoves at a rapid pace and does earn a chuckle for every attempt that doesn\u2019t\nhit the mark. Minions: The Rise of Gru<\/em> isn\u2019t going to earn accolades for\nbeing the best animated feature of the year, but this reviewer did find it\nlikable. Families simply looking for a good time will generally be entertained\nby these vibrantly animated characters and their latest shenanigans. \n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Running Time: 87 minutes This animated film from Universal Pictures opens at cinemas on Friday, July 1st. The Despicable Me animated film series started up in 2010 and has since become a massive movie franchise. One of the reasons for its success is the Minions, the central character\u2019s group of unexpectedly cute and good-natured little […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":24963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[209,911,1455,5765,7283,8689,11673,14009,14014,14016,14017,14018,14019,16087,17489,18035,19077,19589,23571],"class_list":["post-24958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-209","tag-alan-arkin","tag-animated","tag-despicable-me","tag-family","tag-gru","tag-kids","tag-minions","tag-minions-2","tag-minions-the-rise-of-gru","tag-minions-the-rise-of-gru-film-review","tag-minions-the-rise-of-gru-movie-review","tag-minions-the-rise-of-gru-review","tag-pierre-coffin","tag-rza","tag-sequel","tag-steve-carrell","tag-taraji-p-henson","tag-universal-pictures"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24958\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}