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Despicable Me 3 (2017)
Despicable Me 3 (2017)
2017 | Animation, Comedy
Minions! In short bursts (0 more)
The pointless subplots (0 more)
Time to stop making these now
The original Despicable Me is a firm favourite in our house. If we come across it while channel hopping, it usually stays on until the end and still manages to raise plenty of laughs. The second Despicable Me was OK, but not very memorable. The Minions movie was a train wreck, and proved that they’re at their best when in short bursts and as part of someone else’s movie. And now we have a third Despicable Me, which continues the trend set by the second of just being OK, but now with the added feeling that they really should stop making these.

A news report introduces us to 80s TV child star Balthazar Bratt. After a successful run of his own TV show, things went badly wrong for Balthazar when puberty hit and the squeaky voice and zits resulted in Hollywood ditching his show. Balthazar disappeared from the public eye and the report then asks the question ‘where is he now?’. Cut to the ocean, and a diamond heist on a ship which, if you’ve seen the relevant trailer, means you’ve pretty much seen the entire scene. Balthazar uses bubblegum as a weapon, along with a keytar, and enjoys tackling his enemies with 80s inspired dance fights. The scene ends with Gru, naked and caught up in the bubblegum, embarrassing himself as he floats through the city for all to see while a couple of minions enjoy themselves at a beach party. Yep, pretty much the whole original trailer has just played for us.

Gru and Lucy both find themselves sacked from the Anti-Villain league for failing to capture Balthazar during the heist but they don’t have long to think about what to do next before Gru discovers that he has a twin brother called Dru, that he knew nothing about. Dru got to live with his dad while Gru got to live with his mum following their parents split. They all then head off to Freedonia for a family reunion.

The rest of the movie is pretty much a big mess, with far too many dull and pointless subplots. The main story involves the two brothers, getting to know each other and eventually teaming up to recover the diamond from Balthazar once again and to finally capture him. But this is all at the expense of pretty much every other character in the movie. The Minions have already gone off on their own subplot, having left Gru to go in search of a more villain-like life. Ending up in jail, they soon decide that they miss Gru, so break out in order to try and get back to him in time for the end of the movie. And as for the girls – Agnes is on the hunt for a unicorn, because a bloke in the pub said there was one in the woods, Margo is trying to avoid a local boy who has a crush on her and Edith just doesn’t really feature very much at all. And after briefly helping Gru out at the start of the movie, the main focus for Lucy throughout the rest of the movie is to try and be accepted as a mum to the three girls.

The final act, with the brothers working together to stop Balthazar from getting his revenge and making a big mess in Hollywood, is fairly entertaining, and the Minions still manage to raise big laughs in pretty much every scene they feature, but overall this was pretty disappointing.
  
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Kristy H (1252 KP) rated Falling in Books

Feb 13, 2018  
F
Falling
4
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Emma Montague is an Englishwoman living in the U.S. She left behind her parents as soon as she could: feeling trapped by her mother's snobbery and outgoing personality, so different from Emma's quiet and introverted self. But life in the high-powered banking world in New York City isn't exactly for Emma either. She finds everyone so false: women who only care about clothes and finding a man, too many nights at bars, and pressure to use dating apps. Her one long-term relationship winds up nowhere, and so Emma finds herself on the move again: this time to the beach town of Westport, CT. She takes a break from banking and finds herself renting a house in this seaside town. Emma quickly finds herself falling for landlord, Dominic, a bartender in Westport. A father to six-year-old Jesse, Dominic seems to be the opposite of Emma in every way. Emma isn't sure that the two could ever really be together, but she can't seem to stop her heart from falling for Dominic. Are they meant to be?

Ugh, this book. Some of it was enjoyable, and yet so much of it was just so damn frustrating. First of all, the entire thing seemed like it was based on just a mountain of stereotypes and tropes. Emma has built-in stereotypes and preconceived notions about Dominic (a bartender can't be anything like a banker, apparently, or share any of the same interests). Every woman in the banking world is a vapid idiot except Emma. All New Yorkers just want to get married and move to the suburbs. And so on and so on. It gets really old after a while.

Then, the whole different worlds thing: Emma versus Dom style. As a moving forward plot device, it just seemed incredibly forced. I understand that the "we're from two different worlds" idea still exists today, but really? It's that hard to overcome that a woman considers just dropping the only guy who has ever made her happy, because he seems beneath her? It would be different if the book put forth some real reasons that their class differences threatened their relationship, but it really doesn't. It's all half developed and mostly based on Emma's speculation.

That brings me to Emma. I wanted to like Emma. I could see a lot of Emma in myself - a quiet introvert who doesn't take well to people, who needs time to warm up. I understand that. But oh my gosh, she drove me crazy. So wishy washy! So indecisive! So unable to just follow her *own* thoughts and feelings. She drove me insane. It's very hard to fully enjoy a novel where you often want to wring the neck of the main character.

All of that, truly, I could have probably forgiven if Green hadn't taken the plot off the deep end near the end of the novel. I was so irritated and so upset: I went through all of the above for THIS? I won't spoil it, but let's just say I didn't sign up for a Nicholas Sparks novel. Any of the novel's redeeming qualities (a cute cat, a somewhat cute kid, Emma's dad) went out the window.

Overall, I just didn't enjoy this one. Too much of the plot devices irritated me, and then-BOOM-the actual plot drove me over the edge.