Without my nieces, it was hard to muster up the desire to see Despicable Me 4.  The only motivating factor is my desire to keep bringing you at least one new release per week, schedule permitting.  My nieces are out of town for Independence Day, meaning I was on my own.  I am not sure their presence would have made a huge difference to this review.  Perhaps I would have gotten a little more context from them?  For example, I do not understand the titles.  I pride myself on not following classic Catholic stereotypes that say that we tend to see the world as a strict dichotomy between good-and-evil.  God is so much bigger than our tiny brains can imagine, and commensurately way more complicated.  More specifically, I have not seen any of the first three installments in this franchise.  As I understand it, though, series stalwart Felonious Gru (voiced by Steve Carell), known more commonly known by his surname, is supposed to be some kind of supervillain.  Maybe the title better described his behavior in the earlier movies, but, with apologies, I just do not see it in this one.  Hence, what is the point of most of the antics we see in this movie?  Matthew 5:37 reminds us to let your “yes” mean yes, and your “no” mean no.  While I applaud Gru for choosing the hero’s path, I wonder why they bother to keep using these words to briefly intimate the intent of the movie, you know, like a “title?”  Yet, maybe I am wrong?  Read on and feel free to comment below as to how incorrect is my thinking.

The first shot in Despicable Me 4 is of Gru on his way to a reunion at the Lycée Pas Bon.  This roughly translates as the “No Good School” for you non-Francophiles.  However, he is not attending to catch up with old friends, or maybe do some charitable work as would be a Christian thing to do.  Instead, he is there at the behest of Anti-Villain League (AVL) to arrest Maxime Le Mal (voiced by Will Ferrell).  Forgive me, but how “despicable” is it for a person to be working for an organization that goes after bad guys?  Anyway, Gru and Maxime were classmates, but Maxime harbors a grudge against Gru for their ninth-grade talent show.  Maxime was going to perform a rendition of the Culture Club’s “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?” only to have Gru do it first.  I do not know what kind of kids you encounter in your life, but the ones I see are always singing Boy George. . . .  Anyway, this fuels the tension of the moment as Maxime is given an award by the aging principal, Übelschlecht (voiced by Chris Renaud).  Though Gru is momentarily slighted, he appears to have the last laugh as he and other AVL agents are able to bring Maxime into custody.  It is not easy, however, as Maxime is able to turn himself into a human sized cockroach, though retaining his normal head.  From there, we shift to Gru’s domestic life.  He seems to have the kind of family any Catholic could appreciate, even with its literal cartoonish eccentricities.  What a monster, right?!  There is some struggle with Gru in getting Gru Jr., the son he has with his wife, Lucy Wilde (voiced by Kristen Wiig), to like dad.  There are three other children that Gru adopted in a previous movie, which, again, is just so despicable of him.  Interrupting this picture of suburban bliss(ish) is Silas Ramsbottom (voiced by Steve Coogan), the un-retired AVL director.  What has brought him back to the office is Maxime’s escape from maximum security prison, threatening on camera to get revenge against Gru and his family.  AVL thus intervenes, taking Gru’s, er, group to a safehouse in the supposedly safe and affluent, far-off town of Mayflower where nobody will recognize them.  The children are not thrilled by the prospect of relocating, but Gru and Lucy make the best of it, leaning into their aliases and trying to encourage the young ones to do the same.  For Gru, in typical despicable fashion, he attempts to blend in by being friendly with the Prescotts, their new neighbors.  The dad, Perry Prescott (voiced by Stephen Colbert), is the first one Gru meets, but Perry will not be the last.  This is because Gru has been recognized by the Prescott’s daughter and only child, Poppy Prescott (voiced by Joey King).  She is an aspiring villainess, and wants to plan a heist with him.  If he does not comply, she threatens to broadcast his whereabouts.  This, obviously, would not be good, particularly because Maxime has publicly threatened to kidnap Gru Jr.  Wait, who is the despicable one?  Eventually, Gru gives into the scheme . . . to steal the Lycée Pas Bon’s mascot and Übelschlecht’s pet honey badger.  At least I can say it is a Franciscan act since the animal seems to have been abused?  Unfortunately, the animal has a tracking device, which first leads Übelschlecht to the AVL safehouse.  In the midst of battling an octogenarian in a transformable wheelchair, Gru Jr. wanders off at the precise moment Maxime arrives.  With the help of Poppy, the girl who desires nothing but villainy, Gru boards Maxime’s flying cockroach-mobile as it wildly careens through the air.  It eventually crashes, but in the aftermath there is enough time for Maxime to turn Gru Jr. into a mini-cockroach and against his dad.  I will go into more detail about this sequence in a moment because it is the one useful part of the film.  The long and short of it is that Gru eventually triumphs once more with help from the AVL.  We end with Gru visiting the other bad guys this supposed villain has helped lock up, and along with Maxime, leading them all in singing “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears.

If you made it through my description of Despicable Me 4, then, first of all, thank you!  Secondly, you may have noticed that I left out one major aspect of the proceedings, and that is Gru’s little, yellow, humanoid assistants known as Minions (voiced by Pierre Coffin).  I did not discuss them as they bear next to no impact on the plot.  However, I would like to make a broad Catholic statement about these creatures, which I hope will explain why they were not included in my synopsis.  One of the problems with modern popular culture is that it is becoming increasingly difficult for anyone to focus on any one thing.  There always seems to be that proverbial shiny thing distracting us from whatever direction we desire to take our lives.  There is a strong correlation between this phenomenon and dropping church attendance.  Like the song mentioned a moment ago, everyone wants to follow whatever it is their attention lands on from day-to-day instead of going to Mass.  That then becomes their world.  The Minions are a cartoon embodiment of my point.  They are in the background of most shots doing something crazy, or they occupy a couple of scenes by themselves doing more craziness. Further, they are indicative of how problematic it is to continue to think of Gru in light of the eponymous term.  What kind of evil person has “minions” that laugh at farts and shove each other into vending machines?  I get that these movies are aimed at children, and this explains a lot of what takes place in them about which I am currently complaining.  Nonetheless, they are unwittingly contributing to a bigger problem.

Despite wishing for Despicable Me 4 to be over before it began, partially because of the issues described in the last paragraph, there is that one sequence touched on at the end of the film that needs to be praised.  Maxime and Gru Jr. in bug form are glaring down at Gru as the so-called title character dangles by one hand from a beam protruding from the side of a skyscraper.  Maxime is stepping on Gru’s fingers to make the latter fall to his death.  As this is happening, Gru looks up at his son and says that it is okay, dad loves him no matter what.  This has the effect of countering whatever brainwashing seems to have come with Gru Jr.’s transformation, turning the infant back to his father’s side and saving the day.  Hold up, thinks I in this instance, if this is not a powerful facsimile of God’s love for us.  What is the greatest symbol we have for this in real life?  That would be Jesus’ Passion.  As He bore false accusations, torture, beatings, and not to mention carrying the Cross only to be nailed to it and die, He endured it all for us.  In the film, Gru (I think) is accepting the fact that he is about to die.  At the same time, he is telling his son that he forgives the child for any role in it.  There is no higher form of love than this as John 15:13 will tell you.  Its effect on Gru Jr. is immediate, and the kind that God hopes it will have on You if you accept Him into your heart.  Doing so, again as we see in the movie, can literally save lives.

But enough of any real emotions in Despicable Me 4, let us get back to Minions inflicting pain on one another for laughs.  I should offer my apologies.  I did not enjoy this because the humor is lost on a curmudgeon like me.  At the same time, that one sparkling moment excepted, there is some material that I am not sure is good for kids, either.  I would skip this nonsense.