The pill-shaped troublemakers, Minions, are back for their 7th adventure in Minions & Monsters, this time renewing the golden age of Hollywood in their search for monsters to star in their fledgling cinema-making careers. Their visits to such icons as Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd are hilarious and nostalgic; together with their smart-ass asides, the first half of this Illumination spectacle is memorable and a gold-star index for high-class comedy.
The return to the golden age of cinema through the shenanigans of our little troublemakers is not only funny, but it also returns us historically to the beginnings of cinema and a fanciful Gilded Age. Credit director and the voices of Pierre Coffin
However, the second half, as they search for monsters to be in their new-studio movies is lackluster with an ambling, desultory wandering that gains a big blob Irene rolling over everyone in a messy but not funny rampage. The only amusing monster is Dort (voice of Jesse Eisenberg), looking much like the mechanical menace Gort from The Day The Earth Stood Still. That this metal mensch catches the eye of a cute suffragette is further proof that the monsters are hardly scary.
So quick are the Minions’ asides, it’s hard to believe that one of the target audiences, kids, can catch even half of them. Yet, the mischievous eyes and loopy mouths can satisfy children and adults alike.
With an inventiveness to rival Pixar’s, Illumination has a long way to go before it retires from Minions’ adventures. For this summer, it vies with Toy Story 5 for top entertainment honors.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts NPR’s It’s Movie Time and Cinema Classics as well as podcasts Back Talk and Double Take (recently listed by Feedspot as two of the ten best NPR Movie Podcasts) out of WCBE 90.5 FM, Columbus, Ohio.Contact him at JohnDeSando52@gmail.com