CHICAGO – Excelsior! Comic book legend Stan Lee’s famous exclamation puts a fine point on the third and final play of Mark Pracht’s FOUR COLOR TRILOGY, “The House of Ideas,” presented by and staged at City Lit Theater in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. For tickets/details, click HOUSE OF IDEAS.
Film Review: ‘Despicable Me 3’ Reemerges as Despicably Dull
CHICAGO – This is it. The point where Gru and his Minions went from mildly irritating to excruciating. The series will undoubtedly entertain the children it’s intended for, my twins probably would have liked it if they had been able to come. But pity the poor parents who have to sit through another film full of Minion fart noises… which seems to last for roughly three whole days.
Rating: 1.5/5.0 |
The movie starts off with Gru (voice of Steve Carrell) and his now wife Lucy (Kristen Wiig) being drummed out of the anti-villains league after letting a super villain named Evil Bratt (Trey Parker) slip through their fingers. Bratt was the child star of an 1980s sitcom who let his mischievous TV alter-ego go to his head after he hit puberty.
Now I happen to love the 80’s, but every joke here is of the worn out seen it a thousand times before variety – starting with Evil Bratt’s hairstyle, which is part mullet part flattop. He’s decked out in shoulder pads which shoot bubble gum, and a moustache straight out of “Simon & Simon.“ There’s even an 80’s robot, but he’s not half as charming here as he was in “The Muppets.” The one saving grace is at least the movie gets good mileage out of its soundtrack including the predictable, but still reliable, “Bad” by Michael Jackson.
Gru and Dru (both voiced by Steve Carell) are Bonding in ‘Despicable Me 3’
Photo credit: Universal Pictures