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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

‘MInions: The Rise of Gru’ adds to the franchise

Dan Webster

Above: “Minions: The Rise of Gru” opens wide on Friday. (Photo/Universal Pictures)

The “Despicable Me” franchise is now up to six feature films and still rising. That sixth installment, “Minions: The Rise of Gru” opens wide on Friday.

Steve Carell returns as the voice of Gru, this time captured as a 12-year-old wanting to join a group of supervillains called the Vicious 6. He ends up getting on the wrong side of the group and has to depend on his minions (all voiced by Pierre Coffin) and, ironically, the former Vicious 6 leader known as Wild Knuckles (voiced by Alan Arkin).

The film was directed by three filmmakers: Kyle Balda, Brad Ableson and Jonathan del Val. Other prominent cast members include Taraji P. Henson, Michelle Yeoh, RZA, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Lucy Lawless, Dolph Lundgren, Danny Trejo, Russell Brand and the great Julie Andrews (as Gru’s mother).

The film is getting middlingly average reviews.

Peter DeBruge of Variety wrote, “Audiences know what to expect, and Illumination delivers, offering another feel-good dose of bad behavior.”

Thomas Floyd of the Washington Post wrote, “Packing their shtick into a speedy 87 minutes, returning director Kyle Balda delivers a perfectly painless romp that should enthrall kids, entertain adults and keep Minion cosplayers employed for many a birthday party to come.”

Meanwhile, Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian wrote, “The MacGuffin plot is perfunctory and frankly this is a franchise now running on the thinnest of fumes.”

Those fumes sure are cute, though. Anyway, as always you get to decide – or, at any rate, your children do.