Minions and Monsters (2026) - 7/10

Another Minions movie. I’m not sure I’ve watched any of them after their first screen appearance in Despicable Me, but they now feel at such a pop culture saturation point, I feel like the little yellow fellows have become ever present wallpaper. It’d be easy to be quite sick of them and dismiss this latest offering, but I hear this is rather good… and let’s face it, they’re funny and we could all use a good laugh. But what do we know about the Minions? Well very little apparently, but fear not, this tells their bizarre origin story in full. We know of their gung-ho desire to serve the ultimate evil boss… and their hysterical inability to do so, but did you know they helped the genesis of Hollywood? There’s always a few Minions that stand out from their crowd and this is how we meet James, who’s a little too… creative and Henry, who finds James’ stories hilarious. Less interested in world domination, they’re perfect for Hollywood as they stumble and crash into town… if only they could speak English. Thwarted by this minor set-back, James, Henry and their mate Ed, decide if the Hollywood machine won’t back them, they’ll go alone, conjure some monsters and bring James’ vision to life… but have they bitten off more than they can chew? It’s utterly nuts, 90 minutes of cine-literate slap-stick mayhem, with nods to everything from The Day The Earth Stood Still and Jaws, to The Blob and Inner Space. It’s a rip roaring rollercoaster, an explosion of wonderfully insane ideas, where the nonsensical dialogue is as spectacularly inventive as the animation. You’ll smile, chuckle, cry tears of joy, be slightly irritated by the Gummi character and marvel at just how much joy is packed on screen. Blink and you’ll miss something brilliant.

7/10