Susan Granger’s review of “Despicable Me 4” (Illumination/Universal Pictures)
Moviegoers love those Minions – or was it the lure of air-conditioning – that made the family comedy “Despicable Me 4” top the Fourth of July weekend with an estimated five-day domestic box-office of $122.6 million at 4,428 theaters – making this the top-grossing animated franchise of all time.
This time Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) – the reformed supervillain-turned-Anti-Villain League agent – launches more Minion mayhem as he, his wife Lucy (Kristen Wiig) and their adopted daughters (Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, Madison Skyy Polan) welcome Gru Jr. (Tara Strong), an infant who rejects Gru’s paternal attention.
They face off with a new nemesis, cockroach-obsessed Maxime Le Mal (Will Ferrell). Gru and snooty Maxime first met when they were students at Lycee Pas Bos, a French boarding school for aspiring bad guys. When they attend a reunion at their alma mater, antagonism surfaces as old tensions erupt.
It seems that – before Maxime and his femme-fatale girlfriend Valentina (Sofia Vergara) escaped from the Anti-Villain League’s maximum-security prison – he recorded a video message vowing to ‘exterminate’ Gru.
So AVI’s concerned boss Silas Ramsbottom (Steve Coogan), following witness-protection protocols, relocates the entire Gru brood to tranquil suburban Mayflower, giving them new identities – which Gru calls “high-stakes pretending.”
Discarding his usual scarf and dark attire, Gru plays a part-time solar power salesman/stay-at-home dad, while Lucy becomes a high-class beautician, working in an elite salon on Main Street.
As part of his mission, Gru’s needs to befriend his country-club next-door neighbors: Perry (Stephen Colbert), Patsy (Chloe Fineman and their larcenous teenage daughter Poppy Prescott (Joey King).
Last but not least, Silas enlists the little yellow Minions (vocalizing Pierre Coffin’s gibberish) to train as AVI agent and, during the final credits, one of the Mega Minions mutates into a superhero.
Directed by Chris Renaud & Patrick Delage from a script by Mike White & Ken Daurio, it’s familiar fare, studded with zany visual gags that invariably elicit laughs from the little ones.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Despicable Me 4” is a silly 6, playing in air-conditioned theaters.
