Minions: The Rise of Gru, the fifth film in the Despicable Me franchise, takes us to 1970s San Francisco where a young Gru has just declared that he wants to be a supervillain and sets out to join a group named Vicious 6. Much like the previous films of the franchise, Minions: The Rise of Gru, featuring the voices of Steve Carell, Taraji P Henson and Michelle Yeoh, is just the kind of fun one would expect it to be.
In his review, The Empire’s Olly Richards wrote, “Like the Minions, this installment is barely distinguishable from any of the others, but it’s easy to be won over by its nutty joy and enthusiasm.”
Variety’s Peter Debruge called Minions: The Rise of Gru the funniest film from Hollywood in 2022. “Six months into 2022, it’s the funniest film Hollywood has produced thus far. Audiences know what to expect, and Illumination delivers, offering another feel-good dose of bad behavior,” the review read.
Collider’s Rebecca Landman pondered about the appeal of “children’s movies about world-dominating villains” and wrote, “Why are these children’s movies about world-dominating villains so fun? Because at their core, they’re not about anything evil at all. Minions: The Rise of Gru, like the other Despicable Me films, uses the guise of villainy to explore how broken people turn to ambition and validation to compensate for all the love missing in their lives. While we may not all be able to relate to or approve of a little boy who cheese-rays innocent bystanders or fart-bombs an entire movie theater, we can instantly feel compassion for that same little boy’s desperate search for validation.”
The Hollywood Reporter’s Frank Scheck opined, “Carell, necessarily adopting a higher-pitched but still amusingly accented voice, continues to be a hoot as the devilish Gru, who somehow manages to be endearing even when behaving at his worst. And kids will continue to adore the gibberish-speaking Minions, especially when they bare their cartoon butts. But hey, they could have worse role models.”
