Despicable Me 2

Directed by Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud

(PG)

**

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“If you’re looking for quality prepackaged, predigested Hollywood family fun this summer, you could do a lot worse than Despicable Me 2,” said Tirdad Derakhshani in The Philadelphia Inquirer. Sure, the jokes and visual gags will feel familiar, but at least the movie doesn’t take itself too seriously. Steve Carell returns to voice Gru, a onetime villain who had a change of heart in the last film after adopting three daughters. This time, he finds romance with a crime-fighting agent (voiced by Kristen Wiig) who recruits him to thwart a sinister bad guy (Benjamin Bratt). If anything, the film works so hard to please that “it emerges from the test kitchen slightly burned,” said Stephen Holden in The New York Times. Though this holiday hit is “consistently diverting,” it’s “also weightless and lacks a center.” But anybody who fell in love with Gru’s legion of pint-sized Minions will be glad to see that the giggling yellow torpedo creatures “nearly run off” with this sequel, said Stephanie Merry in The Washington Post. Better still, they’re due to get their own spinoff next year.