Despicable Me

The umpteenth film in this short span of months to come on both 3d and flat screens, Despicable Me actually works wonders in the 3d format. Take away the fancy “throw stuff at the screen” effects and it still works.

Our villainous hero is Gru (Steve Carrel), who’s supposed to be a big time villain, but is more of a wash-up. His grand plan is to shrink and steal the moon itself, but he can’t even get a loan from The Bank of Evil (“Formerly Lehman Brothers,” as its sign proclaims) to secure his plan. When he does get the shrink-ray essential for his plan, it’s swiped from him by up-and-coming baddie Vector (Jason Segal).

Good ol’ Gru fails to steal back the shrink-ray from Vector’s fortress, and that’s when he sees three orphan girls: Margo, Edith and Agnes sell some cookies to Vector. Shameless opportunist he is, Gru adopts the girls as unwitting pawns in his scheme. Despite his efforts, Gru ends up liking becoming a surrogate father for these three.

This film’s use of 3d effects is not despicably inept in the least. Whether in the film’s amusement park scenes, or in its displays of villainous gadgetry, the 3d effects are, simply put, there. Subtlety works great in other effects films, but with a format that eschews subtlety, one shouldn’t ask for anything less.

Without the 3d effects, everything else, as I said before, still works. Gru makes a likeable anti-villain, Vector a capably smug real-villain, while Gru’s harsh mother (Julie Andrews in a Transylvanian accent) and Gru’s yellow “minions” are hilarious highlights.

Whatever the price you pay for this film, Despicable Me is worth it all the way.