Review: More Minion mayhem in 'Despicable Me 4'

Should a review of a “Despicable Me” movie be a thoughtful analysis or just a list of the funny stuff the Minions do in it? As much as I might believe in the value of film criticism, I kind of suspect that even the finest points of assessment would be dismantled about as fast as a Minion can says “Bello!”

Since they first emerged in the original “Despicable Me” in 2010, the Minions have marauded through movie theaters with impunity, soaking up some $4.6 billion in ticket sales and spawning a franchise that with its latest entry, “Despicable Me 4," and counting the multiplying “Minions” spinoffs, numbers six movies and counting.

Along the way, they’ve accumulated bits of vocabulary from around the globe to add to their gibberish squeals. In “Despicable Me 4,” I heard “antipasti,” “bazooka” and something that sounded a little like the old “Goonies” line: “Hey you guys!”

So the Minions continue to evolve even if the movies don’t. Six films in and with more on the way, too much of a good thing is becoming more of a pressing question in “Despicable Me 4,” a silly and breezy installment from Illumination Entertainment that passes by with about as much to remember it as a Saturday morning cartoon.

That’s not all bad. Much of what makes the “Despicable Me” movies fun is that they avoid any sense of seriousness like the plague. They stand proudly in the Looney Tunes realm of animation, with little aim beyond loosely stitching slapstick sequences together. There’s a good chance you might cry during a Pixar movie, but if you wept during a “Despicable Me” movie, someone might call for help.

For “Despicable Me 4,” which opens in theaters July 3, the filmmakers have, as if unsure about where to go next, smashed four or five sequel plotlines together. The film starts with a school reunion — the Lycée Pas Bon School of Villainy Class of ’85 — where Gru encounters an old rival, Maxime le Mal (Will Ferrell), a French-accented cockroach-obsessed villain.

Gru is attending, though, as an agent for the Anti-Villain League. (One hopes there is somewhere an Antihero League led by Travis Bickle and Walter White.) Gru traps Maxime and arrests him, but in short order, Maxime breaks out of prison and vows revenge on Gru, sending their family — wife Lucy (Kristen Wiig), and their three adopted children, Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier), and Agnes (Madison Polan) — into witness protection.

This gives the movie a few jokes about Gru, who may be a family man now but who still has the bearing of a supervillain, trying to blend in. He tries to impress their next-door neighbor, a snobbish country club member named Perry Prescott (Stephen Colbert). But there’s also a new character at home: baby Gru Jr.

That allows for some decent gags — the Minions, dressed like a race car pit team, help change dirty diapers with t-shirt gun — but overly familiar ones. Gru Jr. is crawling in the footsteps of another child born into an atypical family with a big-torso'ed, spindly-legged father: Jack-Jack of “The Incredibles 2.”

That may be why “Despicable Me 4” also quickly moves on from this narrative, shifting for a time into a heist movie. Gru is blackmailed by the Prescott daughter Poppy (Joey King) into stealing a honey badger from his old school. Meanwhile, the Minions, back at AVL headquarters, are used as guinea pigs for a new serum. Five of them are turned into the Mega Minions, a Fantastic Four-like assemblage of Minion-ized superheroes that have powers (flight, elasticity, a ray-gun eyeball) that they’re predictably useless at controlling. One boulder-shaped Minion is keen enough to swallow a bomb before it detonates but not to prevent his belch from causing just as much damage.

So, yes, it will take a lot more than a so-so sixth film to slow down the Minions. Though there’s little that distinguishes this latest, overstuffed “Despicable Me,” series veteran director Chris Renaud (with co-director Patrick Delage and writers Mike White and Ken Daurio) are in something between cruise control and autopilot on this careening, carefree sequel.

The “Despicable Me” movies have always benefitted from the somewhat judiciously meting out their Minions. Even if they very handily upstage the franchise’s main characters, they’re second-banana henchmen who patiently wait for their many cameos. In “Despicable Me 4,” one gets trapped in a vending machine and nonchalantly spends the rest of the movie there. If that’s not a show of force, what is?

“Despicable Me 4," a Universal Pictures release, is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association for action and rude humor. Running time: 95 minutes. Two stars out of four.

This image release by Illumination & Universal Pictures shows a scene from "Despicable Me 4," (Illumination & Universal Pictures via AP)

This image release by Illumination & Universal Pictures shows Gru, voiced by Steve Carell, left, and Lucy, voiced by Kristen Wiig, holding Gru Jr. in a scene from "Despicable Me 4," (Illumination & Universal Pictures via AP)

This image release by Illumination & Universal Pictures shows Maxime, voiced by Will Ferrell, left, and Gru, voiced by Steve Carell, in a scene from "Despicable Me 4," (Illumination & Universal Pictures via AP)

This image release by Illumination & Universal Pictures shows Gru, voiced by Steve Carell, and Gru Jr. in a scene from "Despicable Me 4," (Illumination & Universal Pictures via AP)

This image release by Illumination & Universal Pictures shows Gru, voiced by Steve Carell, in a scene from "Despicable Me 4," (Illumination & Universal Pictures via AP)

This image release by Illumination & Universal Pictures shows a scene from "Despicable Me 4," (Illumination & Universal Pictures via AP)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea launched at least one short-range ballistic missile off its east coast Monday, South Korea’s military said, a day after the North vowed “offensive and overwhelming” responses to a new U.S. military drill with South Korea and Japan.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile was launched from North Korea's southeastern town of Jangyon at 5:05 a.m. It said an additional, unidentified ballistic missile launch trajectory was detected 10 minutes later, a suggestion that North Korea might have performed two missile launches.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said South Korea’s military has boosted its surveillance posture and is closely exchanging related information with the United States and Japan.

The launch came two days after South Korea, the U.S. and Japan ended their new multidomain trilateral drills in the region. In recent years, the three countries have been expanding their trilateral security partnership to better cope with North Korea’s evolving nuclear threats and China’s increasing assertiveness in the region.

The “Freedom Edge” drill was meant to increase the sophistication of previous exercises with simultaneous air and naval drills geared toward improving joint ballistic-missile defense, anti-submarine warfare, surveillance and other skills and capabilities. The three-day drill involved a U.S. aircraft carrier as well as destroyers, fighter jets and helicopters from the three countries.

On Sunday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry issued a lengthy statement strongly denouncing the “Freedom Edge” drill, calling it an Asian version of NATO. It said the drill openly destroyed the security environment on the Korean Peninsula and contained a U.S. intention to lay siege to China and exert pressure on Russia.

The statement said North Korea will “firmly defend the sovereignty, security and interests of the state and peace in the region through offensive and overwhelming countermeasures.”

Monday’s launch was the North’s first weapons firing in five days. On Wednesday, North Korea launched what it called a multiwarhead missile in the first known launch of a developmental, advanced weapon meant to defeat U.S. and South Korean missile defenses. North Korea said the launch was successful, but South Korea dismissed the North’s claim as deception to cover up a failed launch.

In recent weeks, North Korea has also floated numerous trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea in what it has described as a tit-for-tat response to South Korean activists sending political leaflets via their own balloons. South Korea responded by briefly resuming its anti-Pyongyang frontline propaganda broadcasts for the first time in years.

In mid-June, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin struck a deal vowing mutual defense assistance if either is attacked. Observers say the pact could embolden Kim to launch more provocations at South Korea. The U.S., South Korea and others believe Pyongyang has been supplying conventional weapons to Russia for its war against Ukraine in return for military and economic assistance.

Meanwhile, North Korea opened a key ruling party meeting Friday to determine what it called “important, immediate issues” related to works to further enhance Korean-style socialism. On the meeting’s second day, North Korea's leader spoke about “some deviations obstructing” efforts to improve the country's economic status and unspecified important tasks for resolving immediate policy issues, North Korea’s state media reported Sunday.

In this photo provided by the U.S. Navy, a U.S. fighter jet takes off from USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier during the Freedom Edge exercise by the U.S., Japanese and South Korea at East Sea on Friday, June 28, 2024. (Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Rashan Jefferson/The U.S. Navy via AP)

In this photo provided by the U.S. Navy, a U.S. fighter jet prepares to take off from USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier during the Freedom Edge exercise by the U.S., Japanese and South Korea at East Sea on Friday, June 28, 2024. (Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Rashan Jefferson/The U.S. Navy via AP)

FILE - The Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is anchored in Busan, South Korea, on June 22, 2024. The newly-inaugurated Freedom Edge exercise is wrapping up in the East China Sea, having brought together Japanese, South Korean and American naval assets for multi-domain maneuvers for the first time.(Song Kyung-Seok/Pool Photo via AP, File)