Minions 2015

Christy Lemire, ChristyLemire.com: Fittingly, because they're pill-shaped, the Minions work best in small doses. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Like trying to form a rock band out of three Ringos. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: There must have been a million Minion ideas that Lynch and everyone involved simply weren't able to incorporate into the film. Here's hoping the best of them find their way into "Despicable Me 3," due out summer 2017. Read more

Jesse Hassenger, AV Club: Minions has idiosyncratic roots, but it's a franchise play all the way. Finally, even 5-year-olds have their own movie that mechanically cashes in on something they loved when they were younger. Read more

Kerry Lengel, Arizona Republic: Despite the dizzying pace of carefully calibrated incongruities, "Minions" somehow never generates more than the occasional chuckle. Read more

Tom Russo, Boston Globe: Impressive as it is that the filmmakers get so much comedic mileage out of their characters' half-intelligible prattling, the conventional dialogue is bafflingly flat. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: I got tired of this joke before the movie ended, but I appreciate the gusto with which the filmmakers -- particularly Coffin, with his nimble vocalizations -- carried it out. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: "Minions" is every bit as cute as it's supposed to be, a happily empty-headed animated frolic that rarely pauses to take a breath. Read more

Maricar Estrella, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: Parts of the story are quite dark and unnecessarily gruesome for younger audiences. Even a bedtime story is turned into a humorless plot point. Read more

Joe McGovern, Entertainment Weekly: If Minions were a toy, you'd hide its batteries. Read more

Boyd van Hoeij, Hollywood Reporter: The minions -- like the proper sidekicks they are -- never really learn or change, always getting caught in variations of the same scenario. Read more

Jake Coyle, Associated Press: What are the Minions but stand-ins for kids?... Nothing makes them double over like a good pratfall, and they will insist on a goodnight kiss or bedtime story. Teaming and relentless, they will melt the heart of any guardian, even a supervillain. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: "Minions'" all-silliness all-the-time philosophy will put a smile on faces and keep it there, like a fizzy beverage on a hot afternoon. Read more

Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News: A fun, cheerful time passer that's filled with many random zingers that will leave you snickering afterward. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: A loud, frenetic kid pleaser, though parents' brains may short-circuit. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Why shell out money to see this in the theater when you can just buy a DVD next year? Or, more to the point, buy the plush toys that something like this is really all about. Read more

Jacob Hall, New York Daily News: Since the Minions themselves are barely characters, much of the film falls on the shoulders of Bullock. She isn't up to the challenge. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: While "Minions" explores nominally new narrative ground, it folds neatly into a series that now includes two features, various shorts, books, video games, sheet music and a theme park attraction. So, you know, different but also the same. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Minions may just be an excuse to cash in on the phenomenal success of the Despicable Me franchise (Part 3 already has a release date: June 30, 2017), but as crass commercial enterprises go, this prequel gives its all. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Inconsistent and undisciplined, Minions is more an adjunct to marketing than a legitimate motion picture. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: It's not whether this prequel can mint money; that's a given. The questions is: Can the minions carry a movie all by their mischievous mini-selves? 'Fraid not. Read more

Soren Anderson, Seattle Times: Two words: mild chuckles. Two more words: needs Gru. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: The bottom line is that the filmmakers are working with nothing here - no characters to speak of, no interpersonal relationships, no story with any suspense or capacity to engage, and no script with any humor or wit. What can they do? Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: As you would expect, the script - there is one, sort of - feels as if it was written to fill the blanks in a Mad Libs story. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "Minions" is product, pure and simple. Little kids will love it, but grown-ups will feel like they're being held hostage in a Fisher-Price test laboratory. Read more

Christopher Orr, The Atlantic: There's plenty of high-velocity comic inanity on display to keep kids happily diverted. But the movie's major flaw is an extension of its own premise: Search as they may, the minions never find a villain worthy of their subservience. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: With its episodic stream of slapstick gags, Minions has moments of piquant absurdity, but mostly its shrill-but-cutesy anarchy works as a visual sugar rush for the preschool set. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: Few gags hit solidly. Minions relies on mayhem too often - too loud, too much and too pointless. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Tests the notion that what audiences enjoyed as a side dish can satisfy as an entree; I don't know if the movie picks up as it goes along, or if it merely beat me into submission, but after 20 minutes or so, I did finally start laughing. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: The Minions have busted out of the 'Despicable Me' franchise and gone rogue in this berserk slice of slapstick silliness. Read more

Brian Truitt, USA Today: Brian Lynch's screenplay features a series of amusing sight gags and physical comedy that mostly hits; watching the Minions play polo while riding Corgis is an exercise in cuteness. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice: Minions isn't a disaster; it's probably just too much of a potentially good thing. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: I, too, once enjoyed the Minions, in the small doses that they came in. But the extra-strength "Minions" is, for better or for worse, too much of a good thing. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The begoggled, capsule-shaped, banana-colored scamps who stole the show in two installments of the popular Despicable Me franchise deserved something better than this indifferently animated, catch-as-catch-can venture in comedic chaos. Read more