Despicable Me 4

Stream on Peacock

Runtime: 1 Hour and 34 Minutes

Rated PG

Gru and his family have welcomed a new baby into the crew and have been living a (mostly) normal life with the minions, until Gru’s past with the Anti Villain League (AVL) caches up with him. Maxime Le Mal, who Gru helped lock away, escapes from prison and is bent on revenge. Gru and his family must go into a witness protection like program with the AVL and as usual things do not go according to plan.

Themes:

Family, villains, lying, witness protection, parenting, superheroes, super powers, experimentation, karate, heists, babies, fatherhood, fitting in, school, and love.

Language:

Name calling such as jerk, loser, and idiot. “What the….” is said a couple of times. At the end, one character sounds like he is about to say a curse word, but instead says, “oh strudel.”

Stuff to be aware of:

Gross - One human character has the body of a cockroach. A goat poops on the floor. A character breaks his toe and it hangs off his food in very unnatural and gross way. This is played for humor. There is a gun that turns people into human/roach hybrids. A baby pees and it leaks out of his clothes and unto the floor. A large flock of birds poop on a character.

Sexual - A minion rips his clothes off and can be seen in his underwear. There is a brief scene with a bus in which a minion’s butt can be see as he moons people from the bus window. The song, “I’m Too Sexy” plays in a car as it drives off. One minion tries to kiss another one. A minion kisses a cow.

Violence - A character gets cut on the cheek and the cut is red. There is lots of slapstick violence in the vein of Looney Tunes. If you have watched a Despicable Me or Minions movie you won’t see anything worse than past movies. One character gets shot in the butt with a tranq dart. Another character gets electrocuted.

Other - Evolution is briefly mentioned in a speech. Some adults drink martinis at a country club. One scene involves a minion playing slot machines in a casino.

Overall:

If you are watching this movie you likely have seen the other three (and the two spin off Minion movies). You are gonna get exactly what you would expect from a Despicable Me movie here. Nothing more, nothing less.

The Good - The minions will likely make you laugh if you let your inner child out. Gru interacting with a teen girl who knows her stuff is entertaining. (spoiler ahead) If you have been following these movies you will enjoy all the returning cameos toward the end of the movie. I always enjoy seeing Gru in a heist, even if it feels forced.

The Bad - The story is very disjointed. It is like the writers had a bunch of funny situations they wanted to put the characters in and then they tried to put all of them in this movie. This results in an explosion of a bunch of small story lines that feel like they have been forced to fit together. The writers do connect them all, but it isn’t done well. The writers easily write out Dru and other things from the last movie which is probably for the best since there is too much going on all ready. Likely, if you’re watching the fourth one you know what you’re gonna get.

The Odd - Why haven’t the three girls aged? Cockroach people….