Plot? PLOT? We don’t need nabu nabu sneaka plowa!

Yeah, the Minions are back for more throw-darts-at-a-wall silliness and I went from bored to chuckling so often that I just can’t hate the movie. But I’m really not inclined to hate The Minions… they are amusing anarchic noise-makers that are designed to make you chuckle. Sure, they are a marketing person’s dream, but if you ignore capitalism and just let yourself giggle, they work.

And this new flick – now set in the 70s from the last one’s groovy 60s – is so chockful of jokes for the adults, it’s kind of hard to hate them for at least trying to entertain the Olds. That’s more than a lot of kids films do.

But this is a lesser film (in my book) from the last one (which I inexplicably loved (probably because I was high on nitrous oxide or something)). So I was a little more bored and waiting for the needle drops and random jokes. Which did happen often enough.

<random aside>The flick ends with a chorus of minion angels “singing” You Can’t Always Get What You Want and I couldn’t help but imagine a confused Keith Richards opening that movie check and going, “Wait? What now?”</random aside>

Oh… there is a plot. Young Gru wants to join a league of evil but, since he’s just a kid, they reject him. And there’s a magic pendant and an excuse for Michelle Yeoh to be funny and Alan Arkin to make me happy he’s still working. None of which matters since every plot point is just a moment in between random setups and jokes.

So, yeah, it’s amusing enough. I can’t hate it even if I was sometimes drumming the arm of the seat… before chuckling at some random gag. Good enough for a wild record-breaking weekend box office that I studiously avoided (only to wind up in a packed theater on a Wednesday at noon with theater workers commiserating about the mess the crowds leave).

Score: 75