Andy Gapin

Despicable Me is one of those movies that gets totally over marketed for so long that by the time it finally comes out, you’re mostly just relieved the marketing will die down. I was sold on this movie about 3 seconds into the first trailer I saw for it, but spending the last few months seeing this previewed before every movie I’ve seen got a bit annoying. Lucky for everyone, Despicable Me delivers in a serious way.

Despicable Me is a fun movie that entertains, but doesn’t stray too far from standard ideas. Coming out two weeks after Toy Story 3 hurts it a little, though pretty much any movie would have trouble following that up. Still, Despicable Me is a great movie that I really loved a lot.

I like that things moved along quickly, but throughout the entire film, I felt like I had already seen it and already knew the characters. I even had a nickname for the littlest girl that Gru adopts before even seeing the movie. I had been referring to her as Boo.0 as she reminded me pretty heavily of Boo from Monsters, Inc. She’s super cute.

The minions are pretty entertaining, but I’m still not quite sure what they are and I’m curious as to what they were saying throughout the movie. During the credits, I used the Best Buy Movie Mode app on my iPhone to translate, but sadly, the app doesn’t work throughout the entire movie. That’s probably a good thing though, no one needs a theater full of people holding up their phones during a movie.

If you want to root for an evil villain and not feel bad about it, Despicable Me is for you.

Rating: A-

Personally, I think the trilogy+1 thing is rarely a good idea. An ongoing series is one thing–say what you want, Jason X was awesome–but doing four movies is kind of silly. Shrek Forever After isn’t really much of an exception to this. It’s far from bad and it might even been better than the third one, but the whole thing felt unnecessary and a little forced, not natural at all.

The movie entertains, but not enough to justify the new $20 ticket price at a select few AMC theaters for IMAX 3D. Thanks to reading this article, I decided to just go for the 2D version and save my money. I’m glad I did too. The movie was worth $6 for an AM Cinema ticket, but I would have been furious if I paid $20 for a ticket (not that I think the AMC near my house is one of the theaters charging that).

Shrek 4 has everything a Shrek movie should have, except for new ideas. Shrek was a great concept for a movie or three, but it doesn’t scale out to four movies very well. By the end of the third movie, all the clichés and fairy tale references had been used up and not much was left. Definitely not enough for a fourth movie. Had this flick taken the place of the third one, things might be different.

Still, Shrek Forever After holds true to the fact that you really can make a movie that has something for everyone.

As a huge Shrek fan, there was no way I was going to wait to see this one, so I’m not suggesting anyone should, but what I am suggesting is to take advantage of the cheapest theater option possible.

Rating: C