{"id":8958,"date":"2010-07-08T07:36:04","date_gmt":"2010-07-08T12:36:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/?p=8958"},"modified":"2016-01-10T12:30:21","modified_gmt":"2016-01-10T17:30:21","slug":"review-despicable-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/2010\/07\/08\/review-despicable-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: DESPICABLE ME"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>No one ever said living as a middle-aged adult was easy. There is the constant state of worry about job stability, Social Security, maintaining the \u2018excess around the middle,\u2019 irritable mood-swings, being upstaged by a younger super-villain\u2026 wai-, what? Hmm, maybe not that last one; but then most middle-aged adults aren\u2019t Gru.<\/p>\n

You see, Gru (Steve Carrell) would really like to be the world\u2019s most nefarious super-villain but his efforts have been less than favorable. Sure, he may have successfully stolen a Times Square JumboTron and the Statue of Liberty (no, the other one), but he has little to show for it. To add insult to injury, he\u2019s just found out that one of the ancient Egyptian pyramids has been swiped, and he <\/em>had absolutely nothing to do with it. Gru\u2019s been outclassed by the new \u201cyounger\u201d\u00a0villain on the block, Vector (Jason Segel). Under these circumstances, a typical middle-ager would probably hang it up and start looking for a new line of work. But not Gru. He\u2019s not ready to let go of the night-vision goggles and blowtorch that easily. Nope, Gru\u2019s got one more diabolical plan up his sleeve and oh, it\u2019s a doozy. He\u2019s going to steal the MOON!<\/p>\n

To get the job done right, he\u2019s got to steal a shrink ray with the help of his bumbling old assistant Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand, in a well-disguised voice) who\u2019s hard of hearing, and tends to invent some less than menacing weapons. That plan was easy, but then he loses the ray to his nemesis. How can Gru get it back? He\u2019s going to exploit innocent children for his personal good! Three sweet, adorable cookie sellers will do the trick. Of course, there\u2019s a catch: these three girls \u2013 Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier) and the uber-cute, fuzzy unicorn loving Agnes (Elsie Fisher) \u2013 are orphans. For the plan to work, Gru must adopt the kiddies, get the shrink ray back from Vector and then, steal the moon \u2013 all without losing his dastardly fa\u00e7ade and becoming a respectable father figure.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Though in scope and context, it might not exactly match up to Pixar standards, Despicable Me<\/strong> does well as a reputable first attempt from Universal\u2019s fledgling computer animation department. The script is thankfully devoid of overused pop-culture references and toilet humor (well, there is that one<\/em> joke), instead relying on well-placed comedic timing while offering much of its humor visually. Co-directors Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud emphasize much of that with Gru\u2019s \u201cminions\u201d. They\u2019re little yellow pill-shaped fellas who do the hard work of carrying out Gru\u2019s plans, and offer plenty of opportunity for laughs. However, there are extensive beats in which not a word is spoken and laughs are unfettered with the simple act of a popped balloon or a sloppily executed act of sabotage. Craftily laden with daft, yet silent cat and mouse games, Despicable Me<\/strong> even invokes the smart slapstick hilarity of old Mad magazine Spy vs. Spy strips. The directors also created a smart laughable contrast of old vs. new, from Gru\u2019s blackened Addam\u2019s Family-esque house and his cumbersome stainless steel vehicles, to Vector\u2019s space-age villain lair and his fancy, sleek jet-set styled machines.<\/p>\n

If so much is pleasantly happening visually, why then did the animators resort to presenting Gru\u2019s adventures in 3D? The heavily relied upon stunt adds more depth and texture to the film. From the gimmicky first-person POV rollercoaster ride to the vastness of Gru\u2019s underground lair, the use of 3D is precise, never showy. True 3D aficionados may want to stick around during the credits for some hilarious play on the novelty.<\/p>\n

As a middle aged adult, this reviewer tends to get cranky with the burgeoning amount of sloppily laid-out animated stories. On the contrary, this movie is pleasingly off-kilter. Amidst the entire smart, if not whimsical visual play, Despicable Me<\/strong> possesses a lovable conscience, revealing that even a cold, dastardly super-villainous, middle-aged heart can grow warm if given the right conditions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No one ever said living as a middle-aged adult was easy. There is the constant state of worry about job stability, Social Security, maintaining the \u2018excess around the middle,\u2019 irritable mood-swings, being upstaged by a [click for more]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[206],"tags":[2922],"series":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8958","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-review","8":"tag-despicable-me"},"aioseo_notices":[],"nelio_content":{"autoShareEndMode":"never","automationSources":{"useCustomSentences":false,"customSentences":[]},"efiAlt":"","efiUrl":"","followers":[],"highlights":[],"isAutoShareEnabled":false,"networkImageIds":[],"permalinkQueryArgs":[],"series":[],"suggestedReferences":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8958"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=8958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}