Despicable Me 2

[Jimbo]

Saw the trailer for it Friday night, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwXbtZXjbVE

Looks pretty fun, I'm sure my nieces and I will see it.

[Ironwood]

Day one here.  Loved the first one.

Ahem.

I mean Elena loved the first one.

Squid Gun.  Oh Yeah.

[Brofellos]

Still waiting for a spin-off TV show with just the minions.

[Surlyboi]

Day one. The first one was ridiculous.

[Threash]

I can't be the only one that was totally bummed one of the poor minions floated off into outer space.

[Ironwood]

I'm sure they got him back.

[Merusk]

Sounds like the perfect space for a short film.

[Ironwood]

This is disappointing shite.  Really.

Every last ounce of actual good sucked from the first one and replaced, pretty much, by Minion slapstick.

Avoid.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Do not think we are the target audience here.

[Ironwood]

Fairly sure we are.

Elena and I went.  Elena and I didn't enjoy it as much as the first.  Elena and I adored the first one and rewatched it that afternoon.

Seems to say it all to me.  Best find a better movie to take the kid to because this one's a waste of popcorn.

(You do realise we're mostly fathers and Uncles here now ?  Sad, ain't it ?)

[Merusk]

That sucks.  Maybe I'll go watch Lone Ranger tomorrow instead then.  Still haven't seen Man of Steel yet either.

[Surlyboi]

Honestly, with all the minion merchandising going on, this doesn't surprise me. Saddened, yes. But not surprised.

[Ubvman]

...

Seems to say it all to me.  Best find a better movie to take the kid to because this one's a waste of popcorn.

(You do realise we're mostly fathers and Uncles here now ?  Sad, ain't it ?)

I often go to see these G-rated movies by myself nowadays. My expectations are a lot lower seeing how ill-behaved so many of the kids parents bring (or drop off at) to cinemas these days. My 11 year old niece liked it, dunno how old you have to be to start finding the characters tiresome, she liked the minion slapstick. BTW, Gru's story is done; the next movie in the franchise is going to be a minion's prequel.

Monster's University is actually a lot more interesting. My niece liked it a lot but found the ending for Monster U. a bit of a downer (albeit more adult and realistic). I explained it all worked out in the end in Monster Inc.

[murdoc]

I explained it all worked out in the end in Monster Inc.

You explained how they all went to school to learn a skill that was outdated and replaced 10 years later? 

[Lakov_Sanite]

And you thought UP was sad.

[Ironwood]

UP was an abortion.

[Lakov_Sanite]

It's fun to say things isn't it?

[Ironwood]

As a kids film and a Pixar movie, it failed on almost every level.  It was terrible.

You don't agree ?

[Lakov_Sanite]

That it failed on every level and that it was an abortion? I disagree.  It's well liked by many, still has an incredibly high rating with viewers and many really do love the movie.  I personally did not enjoy UP but the hyperbole in these movie threads is getting ridiculous.

[eldaec]

I liked Up.

As a kids movie I can see the problems though.

[Shannow]

Movie critics loved it, UP that is.  Which says something.

It also had the cone of shame, which was awesome.

[SurfD]

As a kids film and a Pixar movie, it failed on almost every level.  It was terrible.

You don't agree ?

Disagree, on both levels.  It was pretty much pure Pixar, considering they pretty much built their brand name around character driven stories, which was pretty much everything Up was.  As a kids movie, I thought it also did very well, since it had pretty much everything needed to keep the kids engaged and distracted.

Hell, Monsters U was argueably less a kids movie then Up was, since 90% of the school culture stuff going on would go right over the head of most "children".   Then again, I think other then A Bugs Life and the toy story franchise, most Pixar movies are not really aimed at "children" anyway.

[UnSub]

Honestly, with all the minion merchandising going on, this doesn't surprise me. Saddened, yes. But not surprised.

I believe the Despicable Me minions movie is due out at the end of 2014.

[Ironwood]

Mawkish and ridiculously unbelievable self indulgence with extremely bad and unsympathetic characters.  Also, if you want to introduce the topic of death and grieving to your child, you'd be quicker just watching a snuff film rather than horrendous drawn out death sequence that is the first half an hour.

I get that I'm not going to get agreement with this, but it's less about Hyperbole and more, I suspect, about opinion.  It's also one that Elena watched and specifically didn't want to watch again.  The wife also hated it.  Possibly a Scottish thing ?     I tend to go to these things with Elena and sit with a smile on my face, no matter what, so that I don't spoil anything for her (you can all probably guess how bad it would be if I let myself go during...) and I tend to find that she's quite a good indicator of what's working and what's not.  We both tolerated The Lorax and Dispicable Me 2, but didn't like it much.  We both loved Dispicable Me and most of the other Pixar ones.  We both get a giggle out of Cars, though not mad for them.

The only one we differ on is Megamind and I quite understand that ;  It's a cartoon, but it's about as far away from a kids film as you get.

Hey ho.

(Also, this is just 'one of those things'.  It's like WUA trying to tell us all that the Star Wars films were good because OF THE MONEY.  Sure, UP has about 98% approval, but it's not for me.)

[MahrinSkel]

But..."SQUIRREL!!!"  Sometimes the minor characters and small funny bits save a movie (Over the Hedge and the laser-field scene springs to mind).  Unlike some animated 'kids' movies, Up didn't make me groan by beating me over the head with the moral and had some genuinely funny moments.

--Dave

[Ironwood]

Oh yeah, Elena loves over the hedge, but I think it's fairly tiresome.  Aimed way too squarely at kids, I think.


I agree with what you said, but not in regards to UP.  No sir, I didn't like it.

[Lantyssa]

Mawkish and ridiculously unbelievable self indulgence with extremely bad and unsympathetic characters.  Also, if you want to introduce the topic of death and grieving to your child, you'd be quicker just watching a snuff film rather than horrendous drawn out death sequence that is the first half an hour.

I must be Scottish then.  Seriously, UP was utterly depressing.  A movie about Ellie and Carl would have been great.  What we got... no.  I was too scarred to find much joy in the rest of it.

[Arthur_Parker]

I thought UP was a great kids film.

[TheWalrus]

My kids love it. I think it's great, although I usually try to find something to do for the beginning because of teh sadness.

[Surlyboi]

Just came back from seeing it. Definitely not at good as the first, I blame Kristen Wiig. She tends to make everything suck.

That said, it had its moments.

[Ironwood]

She was in the first one too.

 

[Arthur_Parker]

I expected to enjoy it more than the 1st as, outside here, I'd heard good things.  I liked it but think the 1st was better, daughter thought it was great though, so doesn't matter.

[Shannow]

Must admit I enjoyed it. The movie was basically a vehicle for squeezing in as many sight gags as possible. (And talking of squeezing in gags lets talk word play gags and the 'cloudy with a chance of meatballs 2' trailer. ). Wiigs character was weak.

Two things , 1. I want a chip hat at my next party, 2. The 90s boy band minions had me loling.

[Merusk]

Absolutely mediocre.  The 10 year old enjoyed it, I nearly fell asleep twice.

The whole subplot with the boyfriend: Why?
Minion gags were 50% of the movie, meaning they lost the charm. They were good in the first one because they were punctuation, while in 2 they try to be whole paragraphs.

Did it have it's moments? Yes. Were there enough of them? No.

[Rendakor]

I saw it and quite enjoyed it. Not as good as the first but still pretty damn funny.