Despicable Me

Starring Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Kristen Wiig, Miranda Cosgrove, Will Arnett, Danny McBride, Jack McBrayer and Julie Andrews
Screenplay by Cinco Paul & Ken Daurio
Directed by Chris Renaud & Pierre Coffin
website: http://www.despicable.me/

IN SHORT: Flat out funny for all ages. [Rated PG for rude humor and mild action. 95 minutes]

Disney set the standard and held it for decades. After Walt died and the company lost focus others tried to fill the creative hole left behind. It took years for a company like Pixar (now Disney-Pixar) to emerge and set a new standard. Why are we covering all this history? It's not to vex our publicist from Universal. It's to pay a compliment to a film that hits the high bar.

As a comedy for all ages, Despicable Me works with gags that are silly enough for the little kids and collegiates who indulge. For those of us of parental age to whom such indulgences are but a memory, the film offers up consistent giggles and is a very enjoyable, nay, it's a terrific sit.

Gru (Steve Carell) is the greatest criminal/villain the world has ever known, with three (alleged) Time magazine cover stories attesting to that fact framed on the wall of his villain's layer. How evil and despicable is he? Consider this: when a trio of orpaned little girl kidlets comes a calling at his door, selling cookies, Gru sends them packing! Orphans selling cookies!! Despicable!

It's hard out there for a criminal mastermind . . .Times have been tough and the business has been slow. What's worse, Gru has been upstaged by a new, evil wunderkind named Victor Perkins -- nom de evil, Vector (Jason Segel) -- the inventor of the Pirhana Gun. Not one to refuse a challenge, Gru rounds up his usual band of cohorts -- inventor Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand) and a whole messa yellow skinned Minions (voiced by directors Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud) -- and sets to work. His scheme? To Steal The Moon!

And so begins Despicable Me, which had yours Cranky giggling consistently from start to finish.

The plan to steal the moon requires a loan from the Bank of Evil, where a more senior Perkins (Will Arnett) rules the loan department --- that's the great thing about noms de evil. Gru hasn't got a clue that the banker is father to the competition. But he still needs a shrinking ray. The one working ray has been stolen . . . yes, by Vector! As it sits in his impregnable fortress of eviltude, Gru must find a way to enter and steal. His plan? It seems Vector has a soft spot for little orphaned girls sellilng cookies and so Gru adopts three tykes -- Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier), Agnes (Elsie Fisher) -- from Miss Hattie's School for Girls. And that's sorta kinda how they all become one big happy family, with a thing that looks like a dog and a plan to get that shrinking ray!

The girls, of course, want a dad. They expect Gru to be that dad and, well, in the battle of great criinal masterminds, not a single one of them in the history of the world has ever managed to avoid a ballet recital and/or anything else a precocious tyke required. So while the Bank refuses to finance the Steal The Moon operation, the girls have a piggy bank. And Gru has his rocket to the moon. But can he steal the shrinking ray, and then the moon and still get back in time for the big recital ???

On average, a first run movie ticket will run you Ten Bucks. Were Cranky able to set his own price to Despicable Me, he would have paid . . .

$8.50

Parents take your kids. Kids take your Parents. Then get wallpapers here

And you indulgent collegians etc (you know who you are) wait for the late show.

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