Minions: The Rise of Gru (PG)
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Caution: spoilers.

This is the sequel to "Minions", and a prequel to the "Despicable Me" movies. It's set in 1976, when Gru is 11 years old. The minions are now working for him, and helped make a lair in his basement. He idolizes a group of villains called the Vicious 6, led by the aging Wild Knuckles (Alan Arkin). The group also includes Belle Bottom (Taraji P. Henson), Jean-Clawed (Jean-Claude Van Damme), Stronghold (Danny Trejo), Nun-chuck (Lucy Lawless), and Svengeance (Dolph Lundgren). At the start of the movie, Wild Knuckles steals a pendant called the Zodiac Stone (which will give its holder certain powers on Chinese New Year) from a hidden temple or whatever. But then the other members of his team take the stone from him and leave him for dead.

One day, Gru receives an invitation to an interview for a position with the Vicious 6. However, once he gets there, they reject him. Though he does get a gadget invented by Dr. Nefario, whom he meets for the first time. While the Vicious 6 (or 5, actually) are distracted, Gru steals the stone, and they chase him, but he escapes. But during the chase, he leaves the stone with one of his minions, Otto, telling him to bring it back to the lair. When Otto returns to the lair, he doesn't have the stone, because he had traded it to some kid for a pet rock. So Gru fires the minions, and goes to look for the stone. But he gets kidnapped by goons in a van. It turns out that they work for Wild Knuckles, who hadn't died, after all. He forces Gru to call home, and when a minion answers the phone, WK demands they bring him the stone. So the minions go looking for it. It turns out the kid Otto had given it to gave it to his uncle, who takes off on a motorcycle. Otto chases him on a Big Wheel tricycle. Meanwhile three other minions, Kevin, Stuart, and Bob, go to San Francisco, where WK lives. They try to sneak into his house to rescue Gru, but get chased away by his goons. They are rescued by an acupuncturist named Chow (Michelle Yeoh), who turns out to be a Kung Fu master. The minions then beg her to train them.

Otto eventually catches up with the Biker (RZA), who befriends him, gives him the stone, and takes him the rest of the way to San Francisco. Meanwhile, Gru manages to get WK to become his mentor. They do a bank heist together, only to return home and find that the Vicious 6 had destroyed his house, looking for the stone. WK decides to give up on villainy, and sends Gru away. Otto and Gru find each other in Chinatown, as a Chinese New Year celebration is going on. But the Vicious 6 show up to steal back the stone. They end up being fought by WK and the minions, with their newly developed Kung Fu skills. After they save Gru, he rehires them. And... believe it or not, there's a bunch of details I'm leaving out. I don't want to reveal how it all ends, but there's a mid-credits scene in which Gru hires Dr. Nefario to make more gadgets for him.

Anyway, I found the whole movie pretty funny, and I liked the story, and all the action, and the new characters as well as the old ones. I just couldn't find anything not to like about the movie. It's definitely better than the first "Minions" movie, and possibly as good as the first "Despicable Me". (I gave this the same rating as that one, though it's possible I'd raise the level of the first one if I ever re-watch it. And I did consider rating this one a quarter-smiley lower than the four smileys I ultimately gave it.)

The home video release includes a couple of short films among the bonus features: "Minions & Monsters" and "Post Modern Minion".