Funny but not as good as the Despicable Me movies. I miss the interaction between Gru, the girls and the Minions. Enjoyable but the Minions are a bit to dumb to support an entire movie.

This is the prequel to the despicable me films, and follows the trials of a group of minions as they are on the hunt for their 'big boss' (of evil). The focus is on 3 specific minions (and a teddy bear called Tim), as they hunt and (in an evil way) set out to save the day. I went into this film ready for a nice relaxing bit of fun that I can just ride for the next 90 minutes. There was a little concern over how this would play out, but that was mainly because the last CG film I saw was 'home', which is absolutely awful. Luckily, I re-watched 'cloudy with a chance of meatballs' which helped me get over that. Could this film stand up against the others in the series though? Especially as the minions don't speak a language as such, rather a cobbled together set of words from various places. Ultimately, this film actually did work quite well, it was funny and the minions style of classic visual humour worked really well. The cinema-full of kids seemed to really enjoy it, as did I. That said, it wasn't as good as I had hoped. I went in expecting something a little cleverer, not too much, but just something subtle to add a little more than the classic slapstick, this was sadly not the case. This lack of confidence in the audience went right up to the last scene where it deemed it necessary to tie into the future films a little too much. I would have loved an open ending, a little more like the classic tv shows where at the end of each episode they walked into the distance, looking for their next big boss whilst Willie Nelsons 'On the road again' is playing in the background. But alas no. I don't mean to over-criticise this film though, it was fun, and suitable for all, which is always a hard thing to do. Also, when you compare with the other big CG hit this year (Home), it was so much better and more enjoyable. The narrator alone (Geoffrey Rush) was an excellent choice, and I would have loved more of him going through the film. On thing to take-away is the great choice in voice over case. There are many excellent actors/actresses in the list, but none that you feel are purely there for star power. They could easily have gone for a member of One Direction or something which would have certainly made the film feel too much like a PR piece marketing towards kids (that is not to say that I haven't been seeing minions in every shop window in town right now) My wifes review: Ba-na-nas!!! (yes, I know this isn't really a review, but it was said with such glee, I would take it as a positive review)

If you look up the phrase ‘milking the cash cow’ it simply says “see: Minions (2015)”. I liked Despicable Me as much as anyone else and sure, the Minions were amusing as the inept sidekicks. However, for some reason beyond everyone’s control, the Minions became their own thing. Have some lunch boxes you can’t sell? Slap a Minion on there. Found an inspirational quote you like? Why not spice it up with a picture of a Minion! It’s not entirely surprising then that this sort-of prequel to the franchise got the green light. It goes back and tells the origin story of the Minions, but for some reason ends up stuck in 1960s England. The story is a mess - the Minions are trying to find a new master but end up stealing the crown jewels and becoming king of England. There’s enough material for a decent caper comedy but the critical error was forgetting to make it funny or entertaining. In fact, Minions is an irritant that makes you constantly want to turn it off. That’s quite an achievement really. I have to give a nod to the production values - the animation looks really nice. Aside from that, there’s nothing to like. It’s an annoying, humourless mess of a film. http://benoliver999.com/film/2016/12/20/minions/

A really sweet movie with kind of clever jokes. However not as well done as the Despicable Me movies.