Despicable Me 3

A no-frills third installment of <em>'Despicable Me'</em>. I found the initial few scenes of <em>'Despicable Me 3'</em> to be solid, with a few chuckles chucked in there. However, from around minute 30 it loses all steam and ends up being a fine but uninspiring 90 minutes. The voice cast are alright, but the characters themselves aren't all that interesting. Steve Carell and Trey Parker are good, as is an underused Kristen Wiig. Jenny Slate's character seems forgotten, like I feel like it sets up something with Valerie Da Vinci early on but I don't even recall what happens to her here - a waste, as my first impressions were positive. The minions are fine, not as funny at this point but there's some minor amusement there still. I, also, didn't dig the addition of Gru's brother, fwiw. Pharrell Williams' music, meanwhile, feels overused and ever so slightly rehashed. Gone are the days of 'Happy' - but hey! Only two years until <em>'Despicable Me 4'</em>! Woo...

Despite having state-of-the-art security, the world’s largest diamond is stolen from under the very noses of the anti-villain league and so that gets “Gru” and “Lucy” shown the door! They are not the giving up sort, though, and so set about planning to recover it from arch villain “Balthazar Bratt”. Touchingly, their daughter “Agnes” tries to help out by selling her toys but luckily before she has to start selling herself, “Gru” discovers that he has a long-lost twin brother - “Dru”. Thing is, it turns out that he’s even more villainous that “Balthazar” and is determined to recruit his brother into the ways of lucrative crime - and to steal the diamond from it’s previous pincher too! The story is a bit lightweight; is a bit of a confused mess at times and the mischievous minions don’t really feature enough to make too much difference to a plot that comes across more as a marketing exercise than a worthy sequel to the first, much quirkier and more entertaining film from almost seven years ago. A lively 1980s soundtrack chivvies it along and the youngsters will probably embrace the deftness of the slapstick scenarios - especially towards the end, but there’s not so much for the grown ups here and already this franchise is beginning to look like it has run it’s course.