"Despicable Me 2"

“Despicable Me” was an excellent movie.  “Despicable Me Two” is a good movie.  What else can I say?  I liked the movie but it’s very difficult to picture the irascible Gru from the first movie as a family man and he just isn’t despicable any more.  That’s OK.  That premise in the original movie made the progression and ending of that movie very, very sweet.  We loved to see him take the three sweet little girls into his “family.”  But, let’s face it, Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) just isn’t despicable anymore.

Lucy Wilde (voiced by Kristen Wiig) “kidnaps” Gru at the beginning of the movie after a giant magnet steals a laboratory and enlists Gru into the AVL (Anti-Villain League) to stop some kind of world domination.  Gru agrees to work “undercover” at a mall and suspects Eduardo (voiced by Benjamin Bratt) as being behind the brains behind the magnet.  In the mean time Dr. Nefario (voiced by Russell Brand) leaves Gru because he misses evil.  Also, Gru’s oldest “daughter” likes Eduardo’s son.  The AVL believes that wig merchant Floyd Eagle-san (voiced by Ken Jeong) is the culprit and “they” believe they solved the case.  As this is happening Gru and Lucy discover they have feelings for each other with Gru’s girls hoping they will get together but she is leaving for Australia until she realizes Gru was right and she hang glides out of the airplane to “find” him.  Dr. Nefario changes his mind about evil and helps Gru with jam containing antidote to restore the minions who have become evil under Eduardo’s ray gun.  Ultimately, Gru saves the world and then dates Lucy 147 times before finally popping the question.  You have to love Agnes, the youngest of the three girls who, along with Margo and Edith are happy to gain a mother.  Technically, the “plot” is even more complicated than this.  I know.  I know.  I didn’t really understand some of what was going on here and really didn’t care.  But I’m not saying I didn’t like it.

The Minions (Gru’s yellow servants) are wonderful and they even invade the closing credits with lots of 3D fun and are scheduled to be in their own movie in December of 2014.  I’m not a big fan of 3D but this was one of the better 3D movies that I have seen.

I have decided to start rating my movies with “awards.”  I’m calling these awards “The Schwichtenbergian Awards For Cinematic Excellence.”  I could award from one to seven “Schwichtenbergian Shields,” depending on how well I liked the movie.  Movies such as “Fargo,” “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”, “True Stories” or “Up” would rate seven shields.  Loser movies such as “Sherlock Holmes” and “Madagascar 3” would probably (but barely) get two shields.  Ultimately, it depends on my mood I guess.  I would give the original “Despicable Me” six shields and would give this one five shields.  Anything over three is worth seeing.  If you compared this to a grading system, seven shields would be like an “A” while six shields would be like a “B+” and five like a “B”.  Four shields would be a “C” and three would be a “C-”.  Two shields would be a “D” and one shield would be an “F.”