Colleen Houck


“I took hold of that scourge -filled ship and crushed it between my limbs, hurtling it into the second sun, the red one that gave me strength. But I was too late." Terraformer

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  • Movie Review: Minions

    August 19, 2015


    Minions

    Colleen’s Movie Review

    I always give spoilers so consider yourself warned. =)


    Romance
    : N/A

    Special Effects: We saw this movie in 3-D. Not sure I noticed the special effects from that. 


    What I Liked:
     I love the minions. Favorite scenes are just random things like the fire hydrant and the accidental killing off of various bosses over the years.

    What I’d Change: The minions are cute and funny but most of the humor was wasted on the trailer. In fact, you could have mostly watched the trailer and feel like you saw the whole movie. The Queen of England was fun. My favorite thing is when the minions sing but this time there was too much singing but not enough reason to if that makes sense and the song choices weren’t what I would have liked. They really need a comedic foil. When the boss they’d always searched for entered the picture at the end, the movie suddenly got funnier by like 500%. They needed Gru.

    The Tagline: They had five altogether.

    1. Uh oh.
    2. Meet Stuart, Kevin & Bob
    3. Go back to where it all began.
    4. Before Gru, they had a history of bad bosses
    5. It’s going to be a blast.

    Not sure I like any of them. Like the movie, they just aren’t that funny.

    Hunky Hero: N/A

    The Villain: 

    Sandra Bullock as Scarlett Overkill was a bad choice I think. How much better would the movie have been if their villain was Ellen or maybe Melissa McCarthy? Now Herb Overkill was fairly funny.

     

    Best Line: 

    Scarlett Overkill: Do you know who this is?

    [points at a British Royal portrait]

    Kevin the Minion: Uh… la cucaracha?

     

    Best Scene: Playing in the torture chamber was fun. 

     

    Recommended for YA Fans: Sure but maybe wait for video.

     

    Compared to the Book: N/A? I’m sure there are plenty of Minion books out there but I haven’t read any.

     

    Trailer:

     


    A Kid’s Perspective

    Gingerbread making

     

     

     

     

    Aidan’s Review: (Age 11) 

    Q: What was your favorite character and why?

    A: Bob, Kevin and Stuart because they are funny!

    Q What was your least favorite character and why?

    A: The villains because they are mean and not nice at all.

    Q: What did you like about the movie?

    A: The minions act silly and it made me laugh. I laughed at the very beginning when the minions were singing.

    Q: What did you not like about the movie?

    A: The story wasn’t perfect. They could have made the story more interesting and mysterious.

    Q: What did you think about the story?

    A: It was ok. Funny, but not the best.

    Q: What parts made you laugh or cry or feel awkward?

    A: I laughed when Kevin grew super tall.

    Q: What would you say to your friend about this movie?

    A:I would tell them to go see it because it’s funny but not the best story. Mostly ok. I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.

     

     

    MadelynMadelyn’s Review (Age 13)

    Q: What was your favorite character and why?

    A: My favorite Character was Bob the minion. He was only a baby minion and very cute. I liked him because he had two bicolored eyes and made me smile.

    Q What was your least favorite character and why?

    A: My Least favorite character was Scarlet Overkill. She was a very boring villain and had a very boring purpose.

    Q: What did you like about the movie?

    A: I liked the family of thugs in the movie and Bob.

    Q: What did you not like about the movie?

    A: I didn’t like that they showed all the good jokes in the movie trailers. I felt like I already knew the jokes and it was less funny.

    Q: What did you think about the story?

    A: The story was good. I think that it was a very simple plot and it could’ve had more to it. But overall, it was cute.

    Q: What parts made you laugh or cry or feel awkward?

    A: I definitely laughed at the jokes. I especially laughed at the new jokes. I didn’t really cry, but I smiled when Bob came on. Bob was definitely the cutest and made me smile wide.

    Q: What would you say to your friend about this movie?

    A: I would tell my friend to go watch it. It definitely is cute and worth your money. You would definitely enjoy it.

    C360_2015-07-13-15-18-23-503Kaelyn’s Review (Age 5)

    Q: Who was your favorite character and why?

    A: The one with the teddy bear because he was silly. Maybe that was Bob?

    Q Who was your least favorite character and why?

    A: The big boy in the robber family. He was really tough.

    Q: What did you like about the movie?

    A: That they found a master so they could be dee doos (minions) to some bad groovy guy that saved the day and find the dee doo guy that they wanted to find.

    Q: What did you not like about the movie?

    A: I didn’t like Gru being bad as a kid. I like him in the before shows because he’s funny.

    Q: What did you think about the story?

    A: That it’s totally a little bit weird but it’s great!

    Q: What parts made you laugh or cry or feel awkward?

    A: A few parts made me awkward like when Gru just freeze them and grab the crown and when the minion played the guitar and then broke it. It was also a funny part.

    Q: What would you say to your friend about this movie?

    A: Nothing. I don’t really like saying stuff about movies to my friends very much.

    2014-02-01 22.54.02

    Brad’s Review: 

    Minions

    Since the first two Despicable Me films, I have been a big fan of the minions. Turns out, after watching their self-titled film, that I realized I actually like them better when they are with their evil master, Gru. I hadn’t realized it before, but together, the Minions and Gru are like a perfect marriage, like Laurel and Hardy, like Babe Ruth and the Yankees, like Ginger and Fred. By themselves, however, the Minions are just loveable pills and, after a while, one can tire of their cheesy-idiocy, oblivious luck, and gibberish “Minionese.” Gru provides the needed sarcasm, intelligence, and balance in their unified quest to commit evil. It’s a formula that really works and that was sorely missed until the conclusion.

    The movie starts off with the early Gru-less minions’ historic search to provide service to an Evil Boss bent on crime. But whenever they run into a potential Evil Boss, in their giddy eagerness to serve, they unwittingly cause the Boss’s early demise. Some of these scenarios are pretty funny. As their search resumes anew after each demise, they start to feel worthless and depressed. Three minions—Kevin, Bob, and Stu—set out to find the Evil Boss their entire clan can serve.

    This separation from the group is when the film starts to sag a bit. The three Minions end up at a Villain-Con where they meet super-evil Scarlett Overkill (Sandra Bullock) and earn the right to be her henchmen. Eventually, Scarlett feels betrayed when Bob inadvertently wears the crown to become the King of England. In revenge, she seeks to destroy the three minions, but is frustrated at every opportunity. Enter young Gru, who, in the end, masterfully disposes of Overkill and takes off with the crown as the three awed minions and their minion buddies hotly follow after him.

    Though I kind of smiled throughout the film, I was relieved when Gru finally showed up! Never until that minute did I appreciate Gru more. It was one of those ah-ha kind of moments, when everything really makes sense, and I sadly realized the minions, as cute as they are, really can’t carry a movie alone.

    Scarlett wasn’t as funny as I hoped. Sure, she was pure evil, which was her charm, but her lines didn’t have the necessary punch expected from her evil character.

    The frequent use of “Minionese” gibberish/language/dialect or whatever it was felt like overkill.

    In retrospect, I shouldn’t have bothered to buy a 3D ticket. Completely unnecessary.

    Overall, a fun film, but without Gru, it proved to be somewhat lackluster. 

    I give this film 5.5 out of 10 Hulk Smash Fists.


     

    2015-05-28 19.14.00

    Cindy’s Review

    WARNING: Possible spoilers…
    I loved, loved, LOVED the first Despicable Me. I have to say Minions didn’t really get too close to the bar the first Despicable Me set.
    -I knew going in that Sandra Bullock was the voice of Scarlet Overkill, but her voice wasn’t recognizable and didn’t really sound very villainess-y to my ear.
    -I enjoyed the scenarios when the minions were looking for a “Boss” with each candidate coming to a comically tragic demise inadvertently caused by the oh so helpful minions. I wish the movie had been more about these scenarios.
    -I really enjoyed the relationship between Scarlet Overkill and her husband, Herb. They were very loving toward and supportive of each other.
    -I enjoyed how Minionese seemed to borrow words from several different languages but I was never sure if I was just imagining that or if it was coincidence.
    -I enjoyed the jokes and references targeted to adults rather than kids. Especially the Beatles/Abbey Road bit.
    -I had some “sticker shock” when we arrived and bought our tickets. 3D movies are up to $15 now?! I think I would have been fine seeing this without the 3D for a slightly lower price.

    I think it all boils down to the fact that minions are funniest when they are busy tripping up their villain. But, in this movie, Kevin, Stuart & Bob spent too much time being the leads. While I DID find the movie amusing much of the time, parts of it kind of dragged. It’s cute, but not $15 cute.

     

    This entry was posted in A Guy's Perspective, Kid's Perspective, Movie Review.

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    Colleen Houck
    Colleen Houck

    New York Times Bestselling author Colleen Houck is a lifelong reader whose literary interests include action, adventure, paranormal, science fiction, and romance. When she's not busy writing, she likes to spend time chatting on the phone with one of her six siblings, watching plays, and shopping online. Colleen has lived in Arizona, Idaho, Utah, California, and North Carolina and is now permanently settled in Salem, Oregon with her husband and a huge assortment of plush tigers.