"Despicable Me" Movie

Last night I couldn't sleep for a long time (the Irish coffee I insisted on drinking at 7pm is to blame) so I "thunked out" a few blog posts. The fact that my family and I now quote Despicable Me to each other all day long has prompted me to let you know about this AWESOME movie! It's a kids' movie, but with enough witticisms and funny lines to please the grown ups. I'm not going to turn this into a spoiler, so watch it yourself. But it was hilarious! Steve Carrell outdid himself. In fact, his performance as "Gru" is in my opinion, his best. One of my favorite aspects of the movie is that it is simply fun without that obnoxious, sugar-coated, propagandizing undertone to it. Yes, I appreciate that the environment, gay tolerance, recycling, animal rights, homeschooling and world peace are all important in their own place, but please! Not in my movies. I hate feeling like I am subtly being lectured to during what is supposed to be a kid's movie. Ice Age was like that. Horton Hears a Who was another. The list could go on. It could be that I read too much into it. But after all, I'm an English major and my job is to dig up hidden messages and read into simple implications. Still, I like to credit movie producers with at least my level of intelligence. If I can pick up on something, then I'm inclined to think that it wasn't put there by accident.

Ok, that was a minor tirade. Point being, Despicable Me is just a really fun movie that I think most families could enjoy together.