‘Despicable Me 4’ Review + Verified Audience Score Thread

I will continue to update this post as the score changes.

||**Score**|**Number of Reviews**|**Average Rating**|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|**Verified Audience**|89%|100+|4.5/5|
|**All Audience**|81%|250+|4.2/5|

**Verified Audience Score History:**

* 89% (4.5/5) at 100+

[**Rotten Tomatoes:**](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/despicable_me_4) Rotten

**Critics Consensus:** Fast paced and teeming with slapstick gags, *Despicable Me 4* is as overstuffed as a piñata but full of enough candy to give audiences an enjoyable sugar rush.

||**Score**|**Number of Reviews**|**Average Rating**|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|**All Critics**|53%|78|5.50/10|
|**Top Critics**|43%|23|5.40/10|

[**Metacritic:**](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/despicable-me-4/) 50 (26 Reviews)

**Sample Reviews:**

Granted, the Despicable Me series has never taken itself very seriously, so the fourth film is hardly the obvious place to start. But it lacks a clear reason to exist (beyond the obvious financial one). – Peter Debruge, Variety

The Minions get a zany B plot that becomes one of the film’s strongest threads, and a strong voice cast keeps the film engaging and nimble. – Lovia Gyarkye, Hollywood Reporter

Too much of a good thing is becoming more of a pressing question in Despicable Me 4, a silly and breezy installment from Illumination Entertainment that passes by with about as much to remember it as a Saturday morning cartoon. **2/4** \- Jake Coyle, Associated Press

“Despicable Me 4” is a hallucinatorily imaginative yet overstuffed amalgam of unrelated elements. **2.5/4** \- Michael O’Sullivan, Washington Post

The heart of the Gru-niverse is slapstick and capers, but the balance is all off here. A disappointing script by Mike White and Ken Daurio, who co-wrote the first three entries, goes all-in on lame physical comedy. – Kyle Smith, Wall Street Journal

Despite a few chuckles, some capable voice work and plenty of splashy color, it proves a largely empty and exhausting ride. – Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times

I suppose I should not be trusted on all things Minion-related. Then again, you don’t need my opinion here. If you hate the Minions, you’ll stay home. If you hate the Minions, and you have kids, you’ll have to see their movie anyway — multiple times. **3/4** \- Odie Henderson, Boston Globe

Overall, “Despicable Me 4” has the classic slapstick humor from the minions for younger kids and some jokes for the older folks in the crowd about retirement funds, country clubs and plant-based milk alternatives. **B-** \- Madison Hammond, Detroit News

It’s all very weak sauce. **2/4** \- Soren Andersen, Seattle Times

Feels like a stack of B-plots stapled together rather than a full story. **2/5** \- Richard Whittaker, Austin Chronicle

How typical of these “Despicable” filmmakers to tug at our hearts and also remind us that the series is more about family than goons, gadgets and goofy schemes. For my money, Despicable Me 4 is the best outing of this franchise since its inception. **3/4** \- Peter Howell, Toronto Star

The sequel isn’t a masterpiece of children’s entertainment by any stretch, but it is sufficiently bizarre and thrilling enough to turn the head of any kid, parent or fully grown and childless adult around and around till the room resembles a Looney Tune. – Barry Hertz, Globe and Mail

It isn’t a masterpiece, and no one needs Despicable Me 5, but being unassumingly enjoyable isn’t easy. **3/5** \- Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

The key to success, Gru is informed, is to be “less Gru-ish”. Fortunately or not, the theme is barely developed. Neither is any other theme, unavoidably given the plethora of subplots. **2.5/5** \- Jake Wilson, The Age (Australia)

Sure it repeats everything it did the last three times, but thanks to Steve Carell’s lovable grump of a Gru and those wild and crazy Minions, the random lunacy remains hard to resist. – Peter Travers, ABC News

A tired, disjointed medley of madcap visual gags, the animated film yields roughly as many legitimate laughs as can be counted on a Minion’s three-digit hand. – Brian Lowry, CNN.com

Despicable Me 4 may not reinvent the wheel. What it does deliver is a brisk, fan-friendly romp which may be a little thin on actual plot but is stuffed to the gills with jokes. – Wendy Ide, Screen International

This time around it’s the same characters, the same gags, the same minions, the same wacky yet bland animation style, yet all with massively diminishing returns. **2/5** \- David Jenkins, Little White Lies

Kids will undoubtedly chuckle at their familiar exploits; the rest will view the film as an excuse to take a nice air-conditioned nap. – Nick Schager, The Daily Beast

On their own, all of these stories have something to recommend them, but strung together into the blandest approximation of a single feature with a cohesive narrative, Despicable Me 4 falls agonizingly short. **C** \- Kate Erbland, indieWire

There’s nothing intrinsically offensive about a film with low stakes, minimal plotting, or even comedy for the blandest sensibilities. But when a film is all of those things, one has to wonder what we’re even doing here. **D+** \- Leigh Monson, AV Club

Plays like an assemblage of note cards that have been stapled together in a rough approximation of a screenplay. – Alonso Duralde, The Film Verdict

The latest entry in the Despicable Cinematic Universe continues the saga of the once-despicable Gru with the same level of visual invention and endearing characters, with action that strikes a kid-friendly balance between exciting and silly. **B+** \- Nell Minow, Movie Mom

**SYNOPSIS:**

In the first Despicable Me movie in seven years, Gru, the world’s favorite supervillain- turned-Anti-Villain League-agent, returns for an exciting, bold new era of Minions mayhem in Illumination’s Despicable Me 4.

Following the 2022 summer blockbuster phenomenon of Illumination’s Minions: The Rise of Gru, which earned almost $1 billion worldwide, the biggest global animated franchise in history now begins a new chapter as Gru (Oscar® nominee Steve Carrell) and Lucy (Oscar® nominee Kristen Wiig) and their girls —Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier) and Agnes (Madison Polan)—welcome a new member to the Gru family, Gru Jr., who is intent on tormenting his dad.

Gru faces a new nemesis in Maxime Le Mal (Emmy winner Will Ferrell) and his femme fatale girlfriend Valentina (Emmy nominee Sofia Vergara), and the family is forced to go on the run.

**CAST:**

* Steve Carell as Gru
* Kristen Wiig as Lucy Wilde
* Will Ferrell as Maxime Le Mal
* Sofia Vergara as Valentina
* Joey King as Poppy Prescott
* Stephen Colbert as Perry Prescott
* Chloe Fineman as Patsy Prescott
* Miranda Cosgrove as Margo
* Dana Gaier as Edith
* Madison Polan as Agnes
* Steve Coogan as Silas Ramsbottom
* Pierre Coffin as the Minions

**DIRECTED BY:** Chris Renaud

**CO-DIRECTED BY:** Patrick Delage

**SCREENPLAY BY:** Mike White, Ken Daurio

**PRODUCED BY:** Chris Meledandri, Brett Hoffman

**MUSIC BY:** Heitor Pereira

**EDITED BY:** Tiffany Hillkurtz

**RUNTIME:** 95 Minutes

**RELEASE DATE:** July 3, 2024

by chanma50