IR Film Review: MINIONS & MONSTERS [Illumination/Universal]
The Minions can function within any time period as long as they serve the Big Boss. What "Minions & Monsters" does is still play to that concept while still paying a heavy tribute to early film history. While the first 1/3 builds up the mythology, the 2nd 1/3 is interesting in that it tells a creative original story about the Minions in Hollywood. The story does get very meta in the end (and in retrospect...the beginning as well) but it is a love letter from the Paris based Illumination back to the beginnings of Hollywood. The shenanigans are just as funny but this about how certain Minions...in this case James, a cyclops Minion, who is a dreamer and likes to draw and paint. Through a series of events, James sees himself making it in Hollywood though, like all Minions movies, it is just a set of overlapping circumstances and how their enthusiasm both undoes and elevated what they are doing. But there is just a sense of mania in this film which, when mixed with genre and odes to the silent film era, plays to the early works of cinema really well. If one is a scholar of film in any regard the first three minutes plus eventual respects to Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton among others is very nicely done.
A train sequence which obviously makes no logical sense offers another manic sensibility of the silent film era. There is even an ode to the movement to talkies and how it backfire on the Minions. James, Henry (his bestie who laughs at the jokes the others don't) and Ed (their silent friend) are also given encouragement by their first film director (a beautifully cast Christoph Waltz who gives his character a lot of heart). The heads of the studio (meant to hark to Louie B. Mayer and the Warner Bros -- and the Weinsteins) are two large brothers (both voiced by Jeff Bridges). This path leads to a third act split between a would-be robot conqueror (Jesse Eisenberg) who has a romantic subplot and who also wants to rule the world. The trio's parallel storyline involves the opening a portal for monsters (a vignette earlier in the movie precedes and explains it). This makes reference to "King Kong" as we;;. Add to that the big bad played as a pipsqueak octopus with dark glee by South Park's Trey Parker. Gru wanted to be evil but you can feel the dark undercurrent within Parker’s charm even if he doesn’t say it since this is very family friendly. The characterization does have an edge and a knowledge to it which makes it slightly different and more multifaceted that the other Minions films. "Minions & Monsters" does come to a fun conclusion but it does offer a lot of Easter eggs and references that will definitely make for repeated viewings. B+
By Tim Wassberg
