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It's not supposed to be nearly as hot this week as it was last week (thank Christ!), but if you still feel the need to escape the sun, there's no better way to do that than by skipping work to hide out in a dark, air-conditioned movie theater. And if you are going to skip work and see a movie, you should see something fun and goofy and not at all thought-provoking—you should see Despicable Me!

The kid's flick is about a villain named Gru (voiced by Steven Carell), who was once great but is now being outdone by a new bad guy on the block named Vector (voiced by my boyfriend Jason Segel). Gru has to figure out a way to get back in the game—Vector has more money, better weapons, and youth on his side. Gru has a bunch of great ideas, but no money to fund them. He also has stupid minions that look like little yellow Tic Tacs and are about as smart as Jessica Simpson. Gru is doomed. Groomed. Whatever. Anyway. In order to get into enemy territory, Gru decides to adopt three little girls from an adoption agency that's run by a horrible, pudgy woman, and those girls are inadvertently used to help Gru trick Vector.

All the while, the girls (who are clueless about the fact they're being used as pawns) are just stoked someone loves them and (reluctantly) reads them bedtime stories.

Of course along the way Gru's hardened heart warms up to his new daughters. In the beginning he barely batted an eyelash when their lives were threatened by his hardcore villain lifestyle—but their adorable though constant prodding to come to dance recitals and give them hugs eventually turns him into a big, kitten finger-puppet playing softy. OF COURSE. Because it's a kids movie.

It's not brilliant, but it is cute, it's charming, it's more clever than that bullshit like Bratz or whatever the fuck it's called. In fact, it was a lot like Mad's Spy vs. Spy comic except, you know, appropriate for five-year-olds.