How do you feel about the scene where the minions come across what appears to be a posse chasing an outlaw and they join in the chase to help the outlaw. We subsequently find out it was a scene from a movie they interrupted. We even get to watch the footage of the chase.
But there were no film crews visible at any point during the scene.
You mean, did I think that scene was plausibly realistic? No. No, I did not. 
Did you feel it weakened the movie?
Nah. I feel that Minions and Monsters requires the viewer’s disbelief to be suspended from the cognitive equivalent of an A-frame ring derrick. Plausible realism was never on the menu in the first place.
(If I were going to be artsy-fartsy about it I might speculate that the viewer in that scene is supposed to be experiencing it within the Minions’ perceptual universe or something, and they simply don’t notice the camera crews as a significant part of the situation because they don’t understand what they’re doing, and not till the end of the scene do the Minions really become “camera-conscious” upon meeting the director Max. Or something.)
When the premise of a movie is “there exist yellow pill-shaped people”, I’m not sure criticism for anything ahistorical is sensical.
I mean, I think it should be possible to do coherent alternate history with the one additional ahistorical factor being the existence of yellow pill-shaped people whose language is a mixture of cod-Spanish and names of Italian dishes.
But yeah, I don’t think that that particular fictional framework is what the Minions franchise is actually going for. It’s more a mix of Looney Tunes, Blackadder and the Collective Id. Or something.
I watched this movie on Netflix this morning. Very low-key, but I found it fascinating and touching.
The problem isn’t being ahistorical. The problem is lazy story telling. And that’s never acceptable, even in an animated movie for children. You spend eighty-five million dollars to make a movie; make it right.
I saw the original and really quite enjoyed it (it was one of those films who’s bland name made me forget about it, but the description reminded me about it). Is the directors cut really worth seeking out? I might want to watch it again anyway.
This rant sounded like a Harry Enfield sketch.
What does being ahistorical have to do with lazy storytelling?
Also, I don’t think Minions movies are for children. Their target demographic seems to be all age groups.
The first Oscars weren’t held until 1929 and Citizen Kane opened in 1941. Minions isn’t trying to be a factual historically accurate retelling of the birth of sound films. It’s a mash up of silent film era/early sound/Classic Hollywood history and it’s pretty obvious the creators know this and isn’t just an error.
Yeah. You can with some justification accuse Minions and Monsters of being too incoherent, or going for mashup rather than structure, or seesawing between absurdism and slapstick, or overdoing the homage scenes, or whatever cinematic imbalance in the oeuvre happens to be bugging you.
But I don’t think it lands successfully to call the filmmaking lazy. They weren’t jumbling up all the chronological bits and pieces because they couldn’t be bothered to figure out which piece belonged where, or were hoping that audiences just wouldn’t know the difference. They wanted that zany clashing patchwork of all the mismatched pieces, because they thought it would be funnier that way. And tbh, I thought so too.
IOW, if you are obsessing about the presence of dinosaurs and not Rachel Welch in a fur bikini, you are watching it wrong.
Enola Holmes 3 is on Netflix. It’s just as fun and adventurous and well acted as the first two. Millie Bobby Brown is sprightly and dynamic, as usual. I appreciate that Henry Cavill returns for these movies despite not being the lead. He clearly enjoys the role.
Started watching that, then had to stop to do stuff. When we went back onto Netflix it was gone. Weird.
Re: The Dig. Just watched it myself. A solid film, but could have done without the love triangle. The titular dig and its actual historical events were interesting enough to sustain the film for me. I am a sucker for technical details.
The love triangle was just a tiresome, cliched distraction.
Yes, I agree. It was also pure fiction. Peggy and Stuart Piggott didn’t divorce until 1956, but she was still of key importance in the archeological excavation and had to be included somehow. The writer(s) evidently felt her actual contributions weren’t as interesting as an “I’m leaving you because you’re gay” situation. A sign of our times, I suppose,
Aside from the dig itself and the results it produced, I was intrigued by it all happening on the eve of the Second World War. I enjoy period pieces like this.
I need to get round to watching that. It is set (well, actually happened) a mile or two from my office.
Jackass: Best and Last
Recommended for the most part.
Jackass Forever is one of my all-time favorite comedies. I say it, but man, that 4th one was so insane, I laugh just thinking at all about it.
This is the 5th and final one…sort of. Half of the footage in this movie is from previous movies or TV segments. It’s clear that they got together to do a full movie, but realized they didn’t have enough footage, so they made it a “best of” combined with new footage.
The new footage is all great stuff. Very funny. I mean, so is all the previous-clips, but I wouldn’t really recommend anyone go to the theater for this.
I hope this isn’t really the last Jackass movie. Maybe they can move forward without Johnny Knoxville, who can’t do any really physical stunts anymore(he suffered a major head injury in Jackass 4).
Still, lots of fun new footage. Stream this one when you get a chance. It’s not lazy despite being half old stuff. All the new stuff is terrific. There is only 45 minutes of it, unfortunately.