Sidekicks rarely shine when thrust into the spotlight, but what about a few hundred of them?
The Minions, having been the best part of the two previous “Despicable Me” movies, have swarmed the screen in “Minions.” As candidates for center stage, they are seemingly ill-suited. Slavishly — if rarely competently — devoted lackeys, they’re underlings by both definition and verticality.
They don’t speak intelligibly, which, to be fair, isn’t a bar all of Hollywood’s leading men reach. Instead, they talk in a bright babble that belies their fondness for colorful phonetics. “Banana” and “piñata” are their kind of words.
Their unsuitability for the lead role, or just about anything else, is much of the fun of “Minions,” a happy henchmen overload that largely succeeds in its simple mission: More Minions!
Directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda, “Minions” begins in fine form. The little yellow ones are already humming the Universal theme as the film begins.
With Geoffrey Rush narrating, we get the history of the Minions, which stretches back across eons and begins with them — a curios early mammal — literally walking out of the sea.
Soon, they’re on their way to Villain-Con, a riff on Comic-Con but one that celebrates the likes of Scarlet Overkill (Sandra Bullock), an evil world-conqueror in a beehive. The trio inadvertently win jobs in Overkill’s entourage, and they’re soon enmeshed in her plan to take the British throne, along with Overkill’s inventor, Herb (Jon Hamm).
The irreverent slapstick unfortunately gives way to the kind of action set pieces that have now even corrupted children’s movies. The bombast is loud enough to drown out the best thing the movie has going for it: the chuckles and squeaks of the Minions.
