Minions & Monsters

• Director: Pierre Coffin
• Writer: Pierre Coffin, Brian Lynch
• Starring: Pierre Coffin, Trey Parker, Christoph Waltz, Jesse Eisenberg, Allison Janney, Jeff Daniels

Grade: B

Singin’ in the Rain. Barton Fink. 8 ½. Boogie Nights. Minions & Monsters. All of these celebrated titles share a love for films, filmmaking, film history, the colorful weirdos responsible for putting it all together, and the never-ending struggle to see your dreams realized on the big screen. Unfortunately, only one of those films includes a minion dressed in clown makeup and a thong wielding a chainsaw. Yes, perhaps it’s the only logical endgame for Hollywood to see the third film in a Despicable Me spin-off as a love letter to cinema but, surprisingly enough, writer-director-voice artist Pierre Coffin mostly makes it work.

Lucky Strike

• Director: Rod Lurie
• Writer: Rod Lurie, Marc Frydman
• Starring: Scott Eastwood, Colin Hanks, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Taylor John Smith, Elijah Loyd

Grade: C-

The “desert island” survival movie gets a new twist with Lucky Strike, a low-budget World War II actioner which ultimately shows that perhaps we’ve officially run out of stories to tell of our greatest generation. Yes, the film – directed by Rod Lurie, who also co-writes the screenplay with Marc Frydman – is based on true events, but the commitment to telling a historically accurate story never feels as essential as Lurie likely wants it to be. Perhaps the film would have been better served by turning up the ludicrous stakes and action set pieces, throwing caution to the wind, which Sisu successfully trafficked in recently. The body count remains quantifiable, and the hero’s quest for survival never reaches the desperation necessary to feel truly engaging, so we’re left with a by-the-numbers period drama which feels like it’s getting by on the simplicity of its elevator pitch.