Posted on 07/11/2015 3:13:11 PM PDT by NYer
As is our habit for July birthdays, my adult daughter and I go to a movie to celebrate. This is a decades long tradition for us and often the only movie we see at a theater all year. Now that she has children, they inevitably tag along for a fun family outing. We make a day of it – noon Mass at the Cathedral, lunch at a favorite restaurant, and then a movie. Our tastes are simple and tame, so it isn’t a problem for the kids to join us – usually that is.
Although our birthdays fall on July 1 and 2, we waited for the Minion movie to come out today – July 10. Who wouldn’t enjoy the harmless fun of yucking it up with those cute little pill-shaped protagonists, right? Why I even have priest friends who sport a biretta-wearing Minion as their Facebook profile photo. They’re everywhere – spokes models for several brands from yogurt to cereal. With their penchant for bananas, unique language, and silly antics Minions are the epitome of harmless fun – or so I thought.
Yes, I do realize that the first movie, Despicable Me, found the Minions seeking a villain to follow as well but, in the end, Felonious Gru found redemption and became a good guy after all.
Spoiler alert: In the latest Minions we wait throughout the entire movie for a redemptive quality that never comes. There is a heartbreaking lack of morality in the entire film. You’d hope those little yellow capsule bodies would at least contain a conscience. But, in their quest to follow one villain after another, those lovable, little chuckle-heads never find anyone respectable to whom they want to attach themselves – not even the Queen of England.
Equally distressing for our young companions, are the risqué scenes mingled in with the dark humor. We see a Minion drop his pants to reveal a thong and a trio of hypnotized guards who strip to their boxers to gyrate, twerking-style.
I’ve forgiven or chosen to ignore the gratuitous bathroom humor, injected in many movies for kids these days – ostensibly to keep the boys and teens interested – but I draw the line at a character who says, ‘It’s just feels so good to be bad’ and then never changes her tone.
Sadly, the only thing I found enjoyable about Minions was the excellent Beatles soundtrack and the Minions’ version of a walk across Abbey Road. In my estimation the $7.50 matinee fee was money poorly spent indeed. With such appealing (and therefore influential) characters, my hope would be for good reinforcement of moral values.
FYI, ping!
America has turned into an open sewer in just about every way.
My suggestion is to modify your tradition-— mass, hamburgers and a visit to an art museum.
The author has a problem with bathroom humor, but no problem with the Beatles? When they have a song called the Fool on the Hill and John Lenon saying this “Jesus El Pifico, a garlic-eating, stinking little yellow, greasy fascist bastard catholic Spaniard”
Hollywood ceased to have any moral values decades ago and society as a whole has now joined them in that lack of morality. It seems a little odd that anyone would expect moral values in something like "Minions" that Hollywood knows will be a big draw.
Hollywood? Always a refuge for communists. The end speech by Charlie Chaplin in “The Great Dictator” is but one of many clues strewn across many movies.
You can’t expect too much from most movies these days.
Hey - at least we're digging up "reprehensible people" like General Nathan Bedford Forrest & his wife...
That "horrible role model" Robert E. Lee is probably next.
Floaters from the sewer like Obama The Perpetual Lying Machine, "Felony" Clinton, and Dirty Harry Reid are celebrated...
I guess I am farther behind times than I thought.
and that big a-hole in the White Hut just keeps on dumping on our nation.
Did I leave out any piece of liberal idiocy. Let me know.
They were playing a song from Hair, or at least I thought so at the time! So I took this as a joke on the nude scene from the play, which was big cultural news IN THE SIXTIES !!!
Just saw it incidentally. The grandkids thought it was too scary. I do agree with the amorality theme being conspicuous, but am I the only one that thought Scarlett was a riff on Hillary Clinton?
Gee, thanks, now you have given them the plot line for the next movie.
The renaming frenzy could become a nightmare, with tons of schools across the south named for Barack Obama and other characters from the upcoming civil war.
My son remarked that with the minions with such a young Gru, they can do another prequel/sequel OR cartoon based on it
FYI, your post reminds me of something P.T. Barnum once said. Something about a fool and his money...
THANK YOU! I thought I was the only one. The whole Hairdo, crown, stringy hair as a kid. The speech about power/ being evil and her grand entrance going to her castle. The only thing missing was the philandering husband.
I just got back from watching Minions and thought it had enough adult laughs to keep me entertained, and nothing that I wouldn’t let my 5 year old watch, that is if my 18 year old was 5 again.
The Minions attached themselves to evil “bosses” throughout history, but in every case they end up inadvertantly destroying their evil boss. That to me says that they have a purpose that they themselves are not aware of, and that is as society’s “white blood cells” attaching themselves to evil and destroying it.
Lol.your comment about them being white blood cells was great. I actually just got back from seeing minions as well. I didn’t really enjoy it as much as I thiught I would. Too much talking by the evil doer.
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