Minions: The Rise of Gru

Minions: The Rise of Gru doesn't live up to Despicable Me, let alone other popular animated films.

Sometime later, we’re reintroduced to little Gru (a pitch-shifted Steve Carell), whose dreams of supervillainy get him laughed at by his classmates (if you think this embarrassment might inform his story, think again). And of course, what would Gru be without the Minions in his basement, hundreds of whom appear on screen, but four of whom are the actual focus. Whatever semblance of story The Rise of Gru features, it wobbles like the empty skin-suit of a real kids’ movie (like the three Despicables Me!). It sends Kevin, Stuart, and Bob in one direction, and Otto in another, on divergent missions to help Gru, but both storylines seem to suffer from severe cases of anti-drama and anti-comedy. Ultimately, enjoying it comes down to whether or not you can tolerate 90 minutes of “le ooga booga banana por favor,” and if you’re under the age of 3, the answer is probably yes — but in that case, any parent may as well just plop their kid in front of a YouTube playlist of D-Billions instead. Absolutely, but it’s difficult not to in a year that gave us the Pixar instant-classic Turning Red. Minions: The Rise of Gru is ultimately inoffensive, but children deserve a little better than a flurry of random images that feel barely connected. Wrapped up in all this is the question of who this movie is for, if the Minions rose to prominence over a decade ago? He’s the closest thing the movie has to an actual character, since his five former teammates mostly melt into the background as an indecipherable blob (a handful of funny gags aside).

The adorable, inscrutable roly-poly yellow henchmen return for a '70s-styled adventure.

Such is the case with “Minions: The Rise of Gru”: inevitably, it sort of succeeds, even if that means relying on silly gags, lots of butts, and the kind of set pieces that would only fly (literally) in the animated space. But The Vicious 6 have no use for a kid, even if he is Gru, and the mini boss enacts his revenge by making off with the group’s newly-snatched weapon, a gem-laced necklace that draws upon the power of the zodiac (again, the ’70s!) to do, well, bad stuff. Inevitably, they succeed, even if one of them is stripped naked in the process (the Minions love many things, but they really love butts). Gru is just crazy about The Vicious 6, a supervillain supergroup once led by Wild Knuckles (voiced, of course, by Alan Arkin) and recently taken over by Belle Bottom (Taraji P. Henson), and when he gets a chance to maybe join them, he jumps at the chance. Of course the Minions would get their own spinoff, and a canny one at that: 2015’s “Minions” smartly went the prequel route, tracking the wacky history of the little guys, setting them up on a snazzy ’70s-fueled adventure, and eventually leading them to their beloved “mini boss,” kid Gru. Seven years later, the little guys are back for another story, though this one is besieged by classic retconning problems, mainly that Gru was maybe always kind of a sweetheart? And while the grumbly Gru (voiced by Steve Carell throughout the franchise) turning away from his long-running bad guy schemes in favor of family and fun has made for some delightful, silly features in the past, as the series attempts to mine his younger years, things are getting oddly complicated.

June 30, 2022 8:55 PDT - By Sam Mendelsohn - Box Office News. After a franchise-packed June which was the highest grossing month since December 2019 (though ...

In the past year we’ve seen two films top $1 billion globally and a handful of others get in the high nine-figures, but animation has been absent from this success. The genre has yet to return to pre-pandemic highs, and while most of the big titles this summer have over-performed expectations, the one to under-perform wasLightyear. Whether the issue was specific to the Pixar film or a sign of a depressed market for animated films is hard to say. In the past year we’ve seen two films top $1 billion globally and a handful of others get in the high nine-figures, but animation has been absent from this success. Filling that void isMr. Malcolm's Listfrom Bleecker Street. The Jane Austen-inspired British period piece tells the story of Selina (Freida Pinto) who is recruited for purposes of revenge by her best friend Julia (Zawe Ashton) to pose as an eligible bachelorette for the titular Mr. Malcolm (Sope Dirisu) who has a list of hard to meet demands for his prospective match, demands that Julia could not meet. In addition to Gru and the anarchic energy ball Minions, the film introduces the supervillain collective the Vicious 6. Rise of Gru is the fifth film in the Despicable Me/Minions franchise, following three Despicable Me’s and the first prequelMinions. The new installment tells us how Gru went from a young boy with evil ambitions to the supervillain fans know and love.

Sergio Pablos must own a swimming pool filled with Dom Pérignon, because he's the genius who created the Minions. Those yellow talking Tic Tacs are the best ...

This time, little Gru — growing up in the groovy 1970s — is obsessed with a Suicide Squad-esque group of villains called the Vicious Six and dreams of joining their ranks. The Vicious Six have personality, but are mostly a missed opportunity. Director Kyle Balda’s film looks sharp — most CGI at this level does these days — but audiences don’t expect visual splendor from “Minions” movies. Still, there is Gru-m for improvement. And yet it is damn near impossible not to love those little scamps. With ho-hum names such as Bob and Kevin, they speak in helium-pitched, gibberish Span-French-talian, hit each other with blunt objects and giggle about their pain.

NEW YORK — A '70s vibe adds verve to the animated origin story "Minions: The Rise of Gru" (Universal).

The Catholic News Service classification is A-II — adults and adolescents. The result is a generally wholesome and breezy bit of entertainment. Yet she does make the sign of the cross at one point and consistently holds her hands together in a prayerlike pose.

'Minions: The Rise of Gru'. 4.5 stars (out of five). Rating: PG, for action violence and mild rude humor. Starring (voices): Steve Carell, Taraji P. Henson, ...

Editor's Note: The following contains Minions: The Rise of Gru spoilers.Gru and the Minions are back at it, unleashing their villainy across theaters everywhere ...

Devasted by loss, Gru and his newly rehired Minions host a funeral for White Knuckles. Just as Gru is about to convey his deep appreciation for his newfound mentor, Gru spots White Knuckles in the distance! They tie Gru to the hands of the clock on the clock tower. In a lovely little easter egg, the good guys encourage Gru to shoot for the moon. Unfortunately, White Knuckles sacrifices himself to Belle Bottoms' scorching fire breath so that Gru and the Minions can repossess the Zodiac Stone. With the stone in hand, Gru immediately turns the Vicious 6 into rats, who the good guys (who have since shown up and been truly of no help to anyone) cart away to jail. Gru pleads with White Knuckles that the two of them need to form their own crew to rival the Vicious 6, but it's no use. When Gru and White Knuckles return valiant from their simple heist to find that the Vicious 6 have completely destroyed White Knuckles' house, White Knuckles finally gives up.

Gru is the hunchback villain with the Eastern European accent who once plotted to steal the moon. But in the 1970s, Gru is just an 11-year-old suburban kid in ...

Director Kyle Balda creates a traffic jam of chases and collisions with the Vicious Six morphing into giant animals, including dragons, tigers and monkeys. The plot, which would have to go some to be described as thin, is merely an excuse to get these characters on the move. Gru is the hunchback villain with the Eastern European accent who once plotted to steal the moon.

Nonsense is underrated, particularly as we struggle to make sense of the soul-grinding wheel of torture known as the news cycle. Minions can help—a little.

The rest of The Rise of Gru shows how Gru and his little yellow helpers scramble to reclaim the Zodiac Stone, with Belle Bottom and her gang in pursuit. But the chaos they bring to bear is nothing compared with the madness of the real world. He’s sent off an application to join the Vicious 6, a crew of evildoers with a top-secret lair in the basement of a local record store. Belle Bottom ( Taraji P. Henson), a comely baddie in a fuchsia satin jumpsuit, has recently become the leader of the Vicious 6 after overthrowing its founder, the aging hipster Wild Knuckles (Alan Arkin, with his marvelous Brooklyn lilt), ironically just after he’s risked his life to procure the Zodiac Stone for the group. But even though Gru successfully boosts the Zodiac Stone, his loyal and eager-to-help servants, the Minions (all voiced, in trademark gibberish-speak, by one of the franchise’s masterminds, Pierre Coffin), aren’t as meticulous. Minions: The Rise of Gru is hardly the best of the Despicable Me movies or spinoffs.

Origin story is a groovy '70s adventure; slapstick violence. “Minions: The Rise of Gru” is a “Despicable Me” prequel/origin story about how 11-year-old Gru ...

In the movie, he ended up being a superhero and going beyond his usual capacity, but here he finds the time to follow his calling. In addition to the brief scenes of drinking and smoking, there’s a bit of gambling. But overall, the film — which is based on Suzanne Allain’s novel of the same name — is generally light, entertaining and tame enough for tweens. While the content is appropriate even for young elementary-schoolers, the film’s intentionally calm pace and focus on talk over action make it a better fit for tweens and up. But overall, this is a very mild, gentle film with strong messages about the importance of family, doing the right thing even when it’s hard and the transformative power of friendship. Language is limited to rare exclamations like “dang it” and “oh my God.” There’s a kissing reference, and a cork pops during a celebration.

“Minions: The Rise of Gru” takes place in 1976. Had I seen it that year, I would have laughed my six-year-old self silly and demanded to see it again and ...

There’s Stronghold ( Danny Trejo), a nunchaku-wielding nun named Nun-Chuck ( Lucy Lawless), the Nordic strongman Svengeance ( Dolph Lundgren), and a dude with an enormous lobster claw for a hand. Especially if you’re old enough to get the 1976 jokes yet feel young enough to find bemusement in all the goofy slapstick. As punishment, Gru is subjected to a type of torture I would happily endure: He’s tied to a giant record player that will spin, for 48 hours straight, the greatest disco song ever recorded, the Andrea True Connection’s “More More More.” Seeing the star of “The Sound of Music” get her ass kicked by a nun is my kind of meta! This time, however, it’s a tad less exhausting and actually works to the film’s advantage. Nefario gives Gru a 45 of Linda Ronstadt’s cover of “You’re No Good,” the key to entering the secret hideout. Now that the much-older Wild Knuckles is out of the picture, The Vicious 6—I mean Five—are looking for a much younger replacement. As a result, this latest (and hopefully last) chapter in the Despicable Me Universe (DMU) felt tailor-made for the less mature aspects of my sensibilities. Readers of this site know of my soft spot for the Minions, those yellow, pill-shaped purveyors of trouble who are hopelessly devoted to Gru ( Steve Carell). They make me laugh and I’m not even remotely remorseful about that. With her ever-changing wardrobe and enormous Afro, (which is animated with an impressive amount of texture) Belle looks like Cleopatra Jones. The other four members have equally pun-based names. They are there to retrieve a necklace of gems called The Zodiac Stones. Once retrieved, it will give the Vicious 6 an unlimited amount of power on the night of the Chinese New Year. Considering all the groan-inducing needle drops that occur in this series, I expected The Zodiac Stones to be accompanied by that trash classic-slash-astrology lesson “Float On” by the Floaters. Unfortunately, the filmmakers are not that clever. Granted, that song came out in 1977, but “Minions: The Rise of Gru” uses Lipps Inc.’s 1980 banger, “Funkytown” not once, but twice.

'Minions: Rise Of Gru' Notches Best Previews For Animated Pic During Pandemic With $10.8M.

Dominion‘s third week came in at $39.8M. Elvis ends week 1 with $48.3M at 3,906 theaters. 3-day of Elvis, meaning around $18.7M. Box office sources believe Zoey 101 and Ruby & the Rockits actor Austin Butler is the key for bringing in the under 25 crowd as Elvis comes off of some ecstatic buzz. On Rotten Tomatoes, critics gave Rise of Gru a 69% vs. The Chris Melendandri produced animated sequel was looking to gross between $70M-$80M over four days at 4,391 locations. This, no doubt, bodes for another excellent weekend at the summer box office. Universal/Blumhouse’s The Black Phone ends week 1 at 3,150 with $35.1M after a $2.5M Thursday, -7% from Wednesday. Universal/Amblin’s Jurassic World Dominion at 4,233 earned $2.7M, -11% from Wednesday for a running total in week three of $316.1M, 9% behind previous chapter Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom at the same point in time. Top Gun 2 ends its fifth week with $47.2M at 3,948 sites sending its running total to $538.4M; the highest grossing movie of the year to date, 31% ahead of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Top Gun 2 grossed $4M on Thursday, -7% from Wednesday. Outlook is a 20% ease in the pic’s 4-day sixth weekend from last weekend, so around $23.7M. That beats the $6.25M combined two day previews of Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Disney’s previews combined $5.2M previews for Lightyear. Rise of Gru also bests the previews of 2015’s Minions which minted $6.2M off showtimes that began at 5PM and went on to make $46M on its opening day (including those previews) and a $115.7M opening. Minions 55% Rotten. Despicable Me was the best reviewed of the series at 81% fresh, part 2 with 75% and part 3 at 59% Rotten. Universal/ Illumination’s Minions: The Rise of Gru has grabbed the best previews for an animated movie during the pandemic with $10.75M. That’s purely from showtimes that started yesterday at 2PM from 3,350 theaters.

Minions: The Rise of Gru earned the third-biggest preview gross ever for an animated feature behind 'Toy Story 4' and 'Incredibles 2.'

Minions: The Rise of Gru was supposed to open in early July of 2020 and then in early July of 2021. Minions opened with $115 million, still the sixth-biggest animated opening, in July of 2015. Not to pick on Disney yet again, but the sheer size of this Thursday preview gross (which, yes, began as early as 2:00 pm) shows that Covid cannot be held responsible for Lightyear’s comparatively poor theatrical performance.

Those current projections forecast that the fifth entry in the animated franchise is on track for the lowest opening since the original “Despicable Me” picked ...

“Despicable Me 2” opened with $84 million in 2013 and went on to earn $970 million worldwide, while “Despicable Me 3” hit $1 billion from a $72.4 million start in 2017. Those current projections forecast that the fifth entry in the animated franchise is on track for the lowest opening since the original “Despicable Me” picked up $56 million back in 2010. However, the first movie grew on positive word-of-mouth reactions to become a hit with families and end with $543 million worldwide.

If you're a person older than the age of 25 (and I'm being generous with my dating here, given that the first Despicable Me film came out back in 2010) ...

Once upon a time, we might have just considered this how one “grows up,” in which one sheds childish things in favor of the taste of scotch or a finely-kept and groomed mustache or the novels of Jonathan Franzen or the films of Nora Ephron and Ron Howard, but that’s no longer the case. Once upon a time, we might have just considered this how one “grows up,” in which one sheds childish things in favor of the taste of scotch or a finely-kept and groomed mustache or the novels of Jonathan Franzen or the films of Nora Ephron and Ron Howard, but that’s no longer the case. Perhaps this wouldn’t be such an issue if there was a clearer demarcation between the needs of adults and children at the cinema, but as properly “adult” entertainment has made its way from taking up half of the multiplex to filling the few screens at the arthouse to only finding a home on streaming services, mature folks looking for a good time at the movies have found their options limited by market demands — a family of four will always bring in more ticket sales than a pair of adults, after all. Perhaps it’s just a sort of Pavlovian response, like a contagious yawn, that one seems to laugh harder when they’re in the company of those being entertained, but there’s something to be said for just how much these movies entertain their target crowd and just how little they give a fuck about whether the parents are having a good time or not. Anyhow, back to the point: If you’ve read my reviews for any length of time, you’re probably aware of my exhaustion with most children’s media these days, in which I regularly praise movies that a whole host of folks would consider “terrible” for simply having the gall to be oriented around making kids laugh. Now, to quickly get the matter of the film itself out of the way: If you are a child or the parent of a child and/or you like Minions, you’ll most likely enjoy this little romp.

Your handy guide on how you can watch Illumination's long-awaited sequel Minions: The Rise of Gru.

If you have watched any of the Despicable Me movies, then you’ll most likely want to watch Minions: The Rise of Gru as the backstory. Minions: The Rise of Gru picks up directly from where Minions ended. Illumination has released three official trailers for Minions: The Rise of Gru. The first trailer was released way back in 2020 when the release was first announced. So, you could expect the same for this movie as well, which means the DVDs of Minions: The Rise of Gru can be out sometime around October or November 2022, which is also when the digital release will happen. The answer is both yes and no. Minions: The Rise of Gru was premiered at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, on June 13, 2022. Minions: The Rise of Gru will not be streaming anywhere online right away. Although it might be helpful to watch Minions before watching Minions: The Rise of Gru, it’s not necessary. After that, Minions: The Rise of Gru will move to Netflix, where it will be available for streaming for 10 months, and finally, return to Peacock. The plot follows a young Gru trying to become a supervillain. Finally, the movie is getting its much-awaited theatrical release on Friday, July 1, 2022. Let’s all go bananas this summer with Minions: The Rise of Gru. Because these yellow little things will stop at nothing.

After releasing in Australia last weekend, Minions: The Rise Of Gru is looking groovy in expanded overseas box office rollout this weekend.

The overseas projection on TROG was $70M+ coming into the session and so far signs are positive. Germany got in on the action on Thursday with $600K, giving Gru the No. 1 spot at 698 locations and across 1,359 screens. Czech Republic’s Thursday start was $300K, achieving the biggest animation opening day ever. Israel’s Thursday opening was $400K — as noted above, the biggest animation opening day ever — taking 80% of business. And Argentina kicked off with $400K for the biggest launch of an Illumination animation in terms of box office (which in recent years has been highly boosted by inflation). In terms of admissions, the opening day is the second biggest for Illumination, only below Minions. Australia boogied to great mid-weeks and entered frame 2 yesterday with a $1.4M Thursday — an incredible +303% on the opening Thursday last week.