Solid A.

Very funny and entertaining though more kid-friendly than most flicks.

The first feature from Illumination Entertainment is not perfect, but it is charming and entertaining.

It is clear this film aims to please and it does so with great verve. At times it is almost exhausting in its cheerful bid to generate positive word-of-mouth. -inhales- Nonstop 3-D action! Humor aimed at adults and children! Heartstring-abusing sentiment, including orphans who dream of a loving and stable home! Roller coasters! Kittens! Original hip hop/pop songs from the Neptunes' Pharrell Williams! -exhales-

There is never a dull moment and I indeed smiled throughout, but I do not feel the various elements, however endearing in and of themselves, fuse into a masterful overall film. I doubt this Steve Carell vehicle will become a beloved modern classic, à la Ratatouille or How to Train Your Dragon, but it is fine summer entertainment.

B+

This is hilarious.

Very cute, and full of zip and warmth. It doesn't make as much of an emotional impact as Toy Story 3 did (but what does?). Steve Carell does excellent voice work as Gru, and the minions steal the show. B+

Despicable Me is a good first entry for Illumination Entertainment and while it may not rank up with this year's How to Train Your Dragon or Toy Story 3, it is still a good fun film. Gru is a very fun and easy villain to watch on screen and his humor is usually spot on thanks to the great voice work of Steve Carell. His new arch nemesis Vector, however, is slightly underused and a bit bland at times even with Jason Segel doing a fine enough job with the voice work. The kids are great but the minions are what steal the show and offer a lot of comic relief. The plot doesn't really jump out and challenge other animated films but it stays put and amuses the entire time. The film gets a bit predictable towards the end but its still great fun and a good entry for what is only an average summer. Also, I do have to give kudos to them for the wonderful smart joke of the Bank of Hell being formerly known as Lehman Brothers. **1/2

Absolutely beautiful animation - - the textures are state of the art!

Unfortunately, that's the only good thing I can say about Despicable Me which is sadly just another homogenized Hollywood product film. The story is typical of so many animated movies of the past five years: lazy and unoriginal. The trite humor is telegraphed far ahead so you will know when you are supposed to laugh and then the joke is repeated just in case you missed it. The false sentimentality is obviously manufactured to try to manipulate the audience into the emotions Pixar creates (through authentic storytelling), but fails miserably. Even though it only had a 95 minute running time, it felt like three hours of boredom.

1 out of 5.

just curious, bradley

how does your yearly top 10 list look like now?

I don't want to further derail this thread, so I've given your question some thought and added my current list to the Top 10 of 2010 thread in Cinemania.

This movie was so adorable. I consistently had a smile on my face throughout. The story isn't the most original, but it works - and the film is also pretty hilarious. I absolutely loved the minions and Agnes. A summer gem. A-

It's cute. It's has enough laughs and Gru and the girls are enough to make the movie work, especially at the end.

***

I felt like everything was 'not that ...', not that good, to begin with. Actually, not so memorable, too.

C+

Really cute and funny!

8/10 (B+)

Boring or meandering would be the words. The seemingly random barely connected series of silly events are not fused with enough humor or cuteness (surely, the fluffy line is great, but that doesn't sustain a movie,) to make it worth attempting to follow. Not saying a chuckle never escaped my lips, but each scene followed a hit and miss situation that was frustrating to be involved in. Oh and also, it's been maybe 4 months and I remember only flashes.

I laughed several times, which makes this film superior to the person Michael A.

C+

Well that's not really surprising since you watched it 4 MONTHS AGO. No one is going to remember large chunks of a film if they haven't watched a film in that long of a time.

Not everybody's memory is that miserable.

I liked when they killed the old man fishing off of a guardrail.

It was better than I expected.

I distinctly remember the vast majority of 2001: A Space Oddysey even though it is indescribably more dense than this, and I've only seen it once around a year and a half ago. A film that is worth remembering I can easily recall most of it for at least a year on one view. However, this held very little to remember.

Have I written about this film? Well..

Few laughs here and there, but mostly BORING.

Glad to see that KJ is coming to it's senses on Despicable Me over the last few posts - - the early reviews were wack...

Aside from Ratatouille and Toy Story 3 this is certainly more enjoyable than Pixar's recent offerings (I'm looking at you Wall-e and Up ).

WALL-E is the king of kings
UP is outstanding

Yikes, um I don't think I could disagree more. Wall-e was not meant for mere enjoyment, but I still found it exponentially more fun than DM. And Up, outside of the few contemplative scenes, was a large ball of ebullience. I hate to be a Pixar fanboy, but even Car's (their whiff) was about 3.2 times as fun as this chaotic, silly, mess of a movie.