'Despicable Me 4' is absolutely OK, and that's OK too

Gru (voice of Steve Carrell) is forced to go into hiding with his family (voices of Kirsten Wiig, Miranda Cosgrove and Madison Polan) when the supervillain Maxime (voice of Will Ferell) and his girlfriend Valentina (Sofia Vergara) threatens him and his family. While in hiding, Gru tries to fit in with his new neighbours (voices of Stephen Colbert and Chloe Fineman) while four of the minions are selected for an experimental trial that will turn them into superheroes...

Let's be honest for a moment. Odds are that you're reading this review of 'Despicable Me 4' to try and get a sense of whether this movie is going to be scary or upsetting for your little ones, or if there's something that might give you pause for not seeing it.

The short answer is no, not really.

Are your kids creeped out by cockroaches in a very real and specific way? Who isn't, says you. Sure, cockroaches are generally undesirable but if they weird your little one out, that's probably enough reason to skip this one. Instead, you're probably better off to wait for the inevitable Mega-Minions spin-off that this thing tees up with about as much subtlety as a fart in a bath-tub and with the same manner of broad humour. It's fine, you'll chuckle despite yourself, and the kids will probably fall off the chair laughing.

'Despicable Me 4' is absolutely fine. It cannot be overstated how OK this is. It's completely passable stuff. There's a constant hum of humour rippling through it, and if nothing else, it doesn't try specifically to appeal to parents in the way that Pixar and Disney so often does. No, if nothing else, 'Despicable Me 4' understands that there's little in the way of appeasing adults, so it serves the main intended audience admirably. There's Minion humour throughout, including one such who gets stuck in a vending machine for most of the movie, the aforementioned Mega-Minions, and an aspiring supervillain in Joey King's character that's most likely going to star in the probable spin-off.

If, however, you're actually watching this without checking your phone or nodding off for about twenty minutes, what becomes clear is that 'Despicable Me 4' is very much the central idea running on fumes but it's still getting there. Steve Carrell's supervillain is now a neutered suburban father who no longer dreams of stealing the moon. The voice actors are playing it broadly as they can, but you can tell they're merely sticking to the script than using any of their comedic abilities. Why all this? Merely because 'Despicable Me 4' isn't trying for anything difficult. It's going for OK. It's going for passable. It's going for the broadest reach with the most accessible kind of humour - and that's all fine because it lands on it with ease.