News for today's 2018

The Way, Way Back: A droll little gem

6:00 PM Tukiyooo 0

<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b><i>The Way, Way Back</i> </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b>(2013) • <a href="http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/fox_searchlight/thewaywayback/" style="color: #27a9c5; text-decoration: none;">View trailer</a></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b> </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b>4.5 stars. Rating: PG-13, for dramatic intensity, sexual candor, mild profanity and brief drug content</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>By <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/12885694730612878577" style="color: #27a9c5; text-decoration: none;">Derrick Bang</a> • </b></span>Originally published in <i><a href="http://www.davisenterprise.com/" style="color: #27a9c5; text-decoration: none;">The Davis Enterprise</a></i>, 7.19.13</b></span></span></span></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>            <br /><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We don’t necessarily realize this right away, but the battle lines are drawn in this film’s opening scene: War has been declared, and no quarter will be given.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvCyQabpflPPBF1BKb9qzar4ef45S-FFX6vtjO6ov1iy0ua8FkQa8rBp7LEJp9B-4BVGNo9UE3QmcPcq126wPJhUkMinn7VUnM1HsG_IYjRG63XD56Blah3b6eXZ55o2Rb6j-fpiUjvKI/s1600/Way+Way+Back+blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvCyQabpflPPBF1BKb9qzar4ef45S-FFX6vtjO6ov1iy0ua8FkQa8rBp7LEJp9B-4BVGNo9UE3QmcPcq126wPJhUkMinn7VUnM1HsG_IYjRG63XD56Blah3b6eXZ55o2Rb6j-fpiUjvKI/s400/Way+Way+Back+blog.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Having enjoyed a delightful day together, which has lent weight to their growing<br />fondness for each other, Susanna (AnnaSophia Robb) and Duncan (Liam James)<br />return home to a chilly reception from the aggressive adult that this boy has grown to<br />loathe: the bully who has become his divorced mother's constant companion. And,<br />just like that, the day's magic evaporates...</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sadly, our adversaries are badly mismatched, which the villain of this piece knows full well. And he’s perfectly willing to reduce his opponent to emotional rubble.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>The Way, Way Back</i> is one of the best coming-of-age tales ever caught on film: a captivating blend of snarky comedy and heartbreaking pathos that evokes pleasant memories of <i>Summer of ’42</i>, <i>Stand by Me</i> and other classics of the genre. This project is cast to perfection, with every actor — in parts large or small — making the most of the sharp script from writer/directors Nat Faxon and Jim Rash.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Very few films leave us wanting more, as the screen darkens, the lights come up, and we regretfully abandon our seats. I didn’t want this one to end. Indeed, I wanted to watch it again, if only to catch some of the dialogue that was buried beneath the laughter coming from last week’s delighted preview audience.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The action takes place in the summer beach community of Marshfield, Mass., and the surrounding area on Boston’s South Shore. Although the setting is contemporary — only because we spot smart phones and ear buds — the locale feels oddly timeless, as is appropriate for the narrative. Youthful angst knows no specific era; the desperation of adolescents struggling for maturity has been relevant ever since Shakespeare’s <i>Romeo and Juliet</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This anywhen atmosphere is further amplified by Water Wizz, the somewhat dilapidated water park that plays such an important role in these events. (It’s no set; <a href="http://www.waterwizz.com/">Water Wizz</a> is a fully operational, mom-and-pop operation in East Wareham, Mass.) Back in the day, Hollywood sometimes used traveling carnivals and circuses as settings for coming-of-age sagas; fading theme parks seem to have become the modern equivalent. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’d love to see this new film on a double bill with 2009’s under-rated <i><a href="http://derrickbang.blogspot.com/2009/04/adventureland-enjoyable-ride.html">Adventureland</a></i>, which has a similarly nostalgic vibe, although its protagonist is a bit older. Now, <i>that</i> would be a grand night at the movies.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyway...<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fourteen-year-old Duncan (Liam James) has been dragged along for a summer “vacation” at the beach house owned by his divorced mother Pam’s (Toni Collette) overbearing boyfriend, Trent (Steve Carell). To say that Trent is a calculating bully would be understatement; he views Duncan as a potential impediment toward his pursuit of Pam — an absolutely accurate appraisal — and snatches every opportunity to crush the boy’s already fragile spirit.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><a name='more'></a><br />  <div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Carell should play bad guys more often; he’s <i>really</i> good at it. We want to smack the condescending smirk off Trent’s face the moment we meet him, and it just gets worse. Carell modulates his line deliveries so that only Duncan detects the underlying disdain; everybody else in the room believes that Trent is trying his best to “get along” with the “obstinate” boy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The dialogue is note-perfect; Faxon and Rash have an almost scary talent for capturing the way cheerfully ruthless adults can wreak havoc with an adolescent’s disorienting emotions. The verisimilitude likely results from an author’s core mantra, to “write what you know.” Rash claims, in the press notes, that he actually endured what became this movie’s opening scene, when his mother’s second husband played a similar head-game with him.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No wonder so much of this film’s anguish feels genuine.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But that’s not to say that Faxon and Rash have delivered a downer: far from it. True, Duncan’s plight initially gets worse, as he’s surrounded by the neighbors in this beach resort — well known to Trent — who take this setting as an excuse for spring-break-ish hedonism. But the filmmakers ensure that we share Duncan’s view that these adults are behaving very, very badly ... and that Pam, in her own way desperate enough to go along, is making a massive mistake.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But Duncan can’t articulate his own feelings, let alone find a way to offer relationship advice to his mother.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just about the point we’re ready to die from the agony of sharing this poor kid’s worst nightmare — each of Trent’s orchestrated humiliations a bit worse than the previous one — things improve. A bit. Maybe. Probably.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Summertime next-door neighbor Betty (Allison Janney), an often inebriated free spirit with absolutely no filter, is a hot mess whose husband deserted her and their three kids. One of the latter, Susanna (AnnaSophia Robb), is a mite older than Duncan, but not so much that she’s unattainable. She also obviously understands the heartbreak of divided parents; like Pam, Susanna compensates unwisely, in this case by hitching her fragile psyche to the local “mean girls” led by Trent’s bitchy daughter, Steph (Zoe Levin).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The immediate circle of adults is completed by Trent’s longtime friends, Kip and Joan (Rob Corddry and Amanda Peet), a wealthy couple whose sybaritic tendencies clearly poison the group dynamic. Joan is just as condescendingly unpleasant toward Pam, if a bit more artfully, as Trent is to Duncan. Peet is marvelously waspish, with Joan easily reducing Pam to deer-in-the-headlights uncertainty. We can’t help but shiver.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Duncan finally — mercifully! — finds respite at Water Whiz, where he comes under the perceptive eye of the park’s gregarious manager, Owen (Sam Rockwell). Although manifesting the persona of a goofball motormouth, Owen recognizes a desperate misfit going under for the third time. A bond is struck: initially fragile, built on Duncan’s failure to recognize when Owen is joshing him, but soon much, much stronger.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Owen’s carefree manner notwithstanding, he’s smart enough to understand the need to proceed very cautiously with his new young friend.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sadly, though, Owen doesn’t take similar care when dealing with Caitlin (the always effervescent Maya Rudolph), an employee who obviously likes him, but wishes that he’d fer-gawd’s-sake grow <i>up</i>, already.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Few young actors could survive being surrounded by such an ensemble cast of scene-stealers, but James rises to the occasion. That’s not merely impressive; it’s essential. This is Duncan’s story, and James is in virtually every scene. He perfectly captures Duncan’s awkward helplessness: the boy’s inability to fence with a cruel authority figure — Trent — who outmatches him in every respect.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">James even delivers silence unerringly, his expressive face an often tortured tapestry of misery, his words and emotions so bottled up that he can’t get <i>anything</i> out. It’s a genuinely sublime performance ... and <i>oh</i>, how we feel this boy’s pain.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rockwell is a similar revelation. Although often typecast as a loutish jerk, thanks to varied efforts such as <i>Choke</i> and <i><a href="http://derrickbang.blogspot.com/2012/10/seven-psychopaths-deranged-in-all-wrong.html">Seven Psychopaths</a></i>, those of us who admired his one-man tour-de-force in 2009’s <i><a href="http://derrickbang.blogspot.com/2009/07/moon-thoughtful-sci-fi.html">Moon</a></i> know that he’s capable of much, much better. His work here fits that rarefied bill; his reading of Owen is rich and subtle, the character an engaging blend of gentle “tough love” and spontaneous acts of hilarious irresponsibility.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And yes, Owen uncorks a seemingly endless stream of Faxon and Rash’s hilarious one-liners, all delivered with impeccable timing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Collette, who always brings her A-game, gives James a run for his money, as this story’s most tragic figure. Pam is caught between what she wants, and what she believes she must settle for: a dynamic most of us recognize all too well. Watch Collette’s face, as Pam struggles over who to side with, during Trent’s constant verbal duels with Duncan; she’s a master of subtlety.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Janney is a hoot as Betty, the archetype of the neighbor who doesn’t understand boundaries, and whose candor forces everything about her to bleed into everybody else’s life. And yet, her own personal agonies notwithstanding, Betty is the most honest person in the noxious little group that Trent assembles ... and, in her own way, probably the kindest.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Robb deftly handles her quieter role as Susanna: an island of calm in this roiling ocean of uncontrolled emotions. River Alexander is a hoot as Peter, Susanna’s younger brother, a cocky preteen trying to cope with how his mother fusses over his lazy eye. (Betty’s ill-advised solution: a garish eye patch.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finally, Faxon and Rash give themselves small but memorable acting roles as Water Wizz employees: the former as Roddy, who controls access to the park’s signature slide tunnel; the latter as the nerdy Lewis, who staffs a sales shed that nobody visits.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My one complaint: Although Rob Simonsen’s underscore is reasonably well employed, the intrusive pop songs are bad choices that work against the film’s tone. They sound like weak Paul Simon imitations: mawkish and awkwardly sentimental, when the story clearly demands edgier material.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But that’s a small thing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Its many delights as a successful film aside, I also must mention that <i>The Way, Way Back</i> boasts its own underdog back-story. Faxon and Rash met in 1999 as members of the Los Angeles-based Groundlings Theater, whose graduates include Paul Reubens, Kristin Wiig, Will Ferrell and this film’s Maya Rudolph. The two began writing what became <i>The Way, Way Back</i> almost a decade ago, and their script eventually wound up on the 2007 “Black List,” an annual compendium of Hollywood’s best unproduced screenplays.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then they wrote and won an Academy Award for 2011’s <i><a href="http://derrickbang.blogspot.com/2011/12/descendants-doing-right-thing.html">The Descendants</a></i>. Thus armed with the clout to revive their earlier project, they’ve made their directorial debut with <i>The Way, Way Back</i>. Given the on-screen results, they’re clearly as skilled at extracting engaging performances, as they are at putting choice words in their characters’ mouths.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This one’s a treasure. See it quickly, before friends spoil any of its many pleasures ... and before media hype blows it out of proportion.</span></span>

The Way, Way Back (2013) • View trailer 4.5 stars. Rating: PG-13, for dramatic intensity, sexual candor, mild profanity and brief drug ...

Despicable Me 2: Villainy lite

1:00 AM Tukiyooo 0

<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b><i>Despicable Me 2</i> </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b>(2013) • <a href="http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/universal/despicableme2/" style="color: #27a9c5; text-decoration: none;">View trailer</a></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b> </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b>3.5 stars. Rating: PG, and quite needlessly, for mild rude humor</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>By <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/12885694730612878577" style="color: #27a9c5; text-decoration: none;">Derrick Bang</a></b></span></b></span></span></span></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>            <br /><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thank goodness for the minions.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2010’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://derrickbang.blogspot.com/2010/07/despicable-me-deliciously-evil.html">Despicable Me</a></i> got much of its hilarious edge from the personality transformation experienced by Gru, the vaguely Slavic super-villain who mellows out — but only somewhat — after encountering a trio of trusting little girls.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgatsADfffRrHfBD9MPMdtAO8g6vJwg_-CavWPd3OGSaem_BTEBDPoAEvtotuV__6AGiHrnCVKXNPdPCKnnYCU-TNtxAhpEA8jts0lWq8T-EForqgL2ssxKkV7G3lE4t142bdNCId9fvD0/s538/Despicable+Me+2+blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgatsADfffRrHfBD9MPMdtAO8g6vJwg_-CavWPd3OGSaem_BTEBDPoAEvtotuV__6AGiHrnCVKXNPdPCKnnYCU-TNtxAhpEA8jts0lWq8T-EForqgL2ssxKkV7G3lE4t142bdNCId9fvD0/s400/Despicable+Me+2+blog.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Sent undercover as the owner of a mega-mall's boutique cupcake emporium, Gru is<br />annoyed to discover that he has been saddled with an assisant: Lucy Wilde, an<br />aggressively eager agent of the Anti-Villian League. Their goal: to figure out which<br />neighboring shopkeeper actually is a dastardly criminal mastermind.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gru’s introductory strut in that first film — to a deliciously snarky title song written and performed by Pharrell Williams — was the stuff of greatness. Here was a gleeful scoundrel who’d embrace badness big and small, whether stealing the Earth’s Moon, or stealing candy from a baby. And he wouldn’t merely snatch the sweet from the crestfallen tyke; he’d replace it with a cod liver oil sucker.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Watching this fellow struggle against the arrival of a hitherto buried good side — trying to stay wicked in the face of unconditional love from Agnes, the youngest of his new wards — was the stuff of classic character comedy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This sequel’s Gru, alas, has completed this makeover, and has fully embraced his light side. As a result, he’s both less interesting and less funny. His inventive genius now reduced to concocting playful gadgets for Agnes’ birthday party, the low point arrives when — a paid actress having failed to show up — Gru dresses himself as the world’s most unlikely fairy princess.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Which, yes, results in a genuinely poignant moment between Agnes and her <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">de facto</i> daddy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don’t intend to suggest that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Despicable Me 2</i> is either disappointing or unsatisfying: far from it. Returning directors Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud maintain their engaging blend of character comedy, goofy slapstick and oddball peril, and returning scripters Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul certainly know the territory.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But the latter are on their own this time, whereas the first film derived from a story by Sergio Pablos ... and he may be the essential missing ingredient. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Despicable Me 2</i> is a more conventional animated comedy, in terms of its standard-issue narrative and predictable plot hiccups. We never knew what would happen in the first film, which was much of its charm; this sequel, in contrast, lacks that element of uncertainty.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fortunately, Daurio and Paul have the good sense to grant more screen time to the first film’s breakout stars: the mischievous, hapless and hilariously speech-challenged minions.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We can’t get enough of them, and this new film takes ample advantage of that fact.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(To be more precise, we certainly haven’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yet</i> gotten enough of them. Let’s see what happens next year, when they get their own movie.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><a name='more'></a><br />  <div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With Gru (again voiced by Steve Carell) out of the super-criminal game, he has settled into the comfortable shoes of adoptive parenthood. He dotes on little Agnes (Elsie Fisher), tries to keep hyperactive Edith (Dana Gaier) out of trouble, and does his best to ignore Margo’s (Miranda Cosgrove) slide into boy-crazy adolescence.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gru’s massive underground lab, once the source of magnificently devious weapons and vile thingamajigs, has been re-purposed into a factory that crafts signature jams and jellies ... much to the delight of the minions, who love sampling the raw ingredients. They’re less interested in the finished result; Gru’s resident genius, Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand), just can’t get the mix right.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nor is he interested in trying. Gru’s first crisis arrives when Dr. Nefario reluctantly departs, having been offered alternate employment with the promise of actual skullduggery. The second crisis erupts when Gru is snatched by Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig), an eager-beaver agent of the Anti-Villain League.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The AVL chief, Silas Ramsbottom (Steve Coogan), has become deeply disturbed by a recent eruption of super-villainy, and most particularly by the discovery of a nasty serum that — in some laboratory test footage — transforms a cute, cuddly bunny into a purple, frazzle-haired, mindless and indestructible eating machine.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Obviously, such a serum would have ghastly results, if employed for the wrong purposes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Borrowing a note from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To Catch a Thief</i>, Ramsbottom gives Gru a cover identity and makes him the owner of a cupcake emporium in a nearby mega-mall. Ramsbottom is convinced that one of the mall’s other shop owners is the mastermind behind this dastardly plot; Gru and Lucy — who’s sweet on her new partner — are tasked with figuring out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">which</i>shop owner.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gru’s suspicion immediately turns to Eduardo Perez (Benjamin Bratt), the rotund and flirty owner of the nearby Salsa & Salsa restaurant, because he bears a striking resemblance to history’s most heinous super-villain ever, El Macho. But that’s not possible, because El Macho perished years ago, when he rode a dynamite-laden shark into an erupting volcano.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Evidence points instead to Floyd Eagle-san (Ken Jeong), proprietor of the local hair-replacement club for men. But Gru can’t get Eduardo out of his mind ... and the obsession becomes even more intense when the restaurant owner’s suave son, Antonio (Moises Arias), makes a move on the smitten Margo.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At this point, Gru’s objectivity has been compromised, and his increasingly frenzied suggestions fall on Ramsbottom’s deaf ears.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, Gru’s minions have been vanishing — singly, and in groups — and spirited to parts unspecified, for reasons unknown. Gru doesn’t notice for quite some time; it’s not easy to keep track of several hundred (thousand?) nearly identical yellow, pill-shaped henchmen in blue little-kid overalls. Even if they do have individual names such as Kevin, Bob and Stuart.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On top of which, Gru is forced to contend with various undesired match-making efforts, whether they come from nosy neighbor Jillian (Nasim Pedrad) or Gru’s own wards. Not to mention his oil-and-vinegar relationship with Lucy, which we all know is destined for greater things.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The core plot advances leisurely, intercut with unrelated minion escapades and sidebar distractions. Some of the latter integrate nicely with the narrative; others don’t. Gru and Lucy’s battle with Eduardo’s attack chicken is quite funny, whereas Gru’s blind date with a fitness-obsessed bottle blonde doesn’t work at all.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The minions pretty much steal the show, because of their impressionable innocence, their bratty (but benevolent) tendency toward mischief, and their side-splitting approach toward speech. If the apparent gibberish sometimes sounds like actual words, that’s no accident; Coffin and Renaud voice all the minions with a random blend of French, English, Spanish, Italian and Indian.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, while a French theater patron may recognize the minion phrase <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">poulet tiki masala</i> as an Indian chicken dish, the words certainly don’t have that context in the storyline. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As for what happens to all those missing minions, well, let me point out that the filmmakers were inspired by a 1960 Warner Bros. Tweety and Sylvester cartoon, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hyde and Go Tweet</i>. Draw your own conclusions.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Carell has a great time with Gru’s often exasperated, Eastern European overtones, and the animators do a correspondingly slick job of matching the character’s expressions and movement to the actor’s vocal mannerisms. The overly enthusiastic Lucy is coordinated equally well with Wiig’s mildly snarky delivery.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bratt is a stitch as the overblown Eduardo, and Brand is just as funny as the ancient, ultra-lethargic Dr. Nefario. Cosgrove, Gaier and Fisher are adorably girl-like as their respective characters.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mostly, though, this film benefits from Coffin and Renaud’s unerring sense of timing. They’re equally adept at both extremes: getting the maximum emotional mileage from a tender moment between Gru and Agnes, or earning a belly laugh from competitive, shifty-eyed interactions between minions.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Editor Gregory Perler keeps things moving at a good clip; the 98-minute length feels just right. And you’ll definitely want to hang around for the minions’ final-scene cover of the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All told, this sequel is a thoroughly enjoyable lark, with enough to captivate both adult and small-fry viewers. Any mild disappointment arises mostly from remembering its predecessor; Coffin and Renaud haven’t maintained the momentum present in (for example) each new <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ice Age</i> entry.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But if faced with an Independence Day weekend choice between <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Despicable Me 2</i> and the overwrought, under-humored and occasionally loathsome new take on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Lone Ranger</i>, I strongly advise the former.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can’t go wrong with the minions.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>