Minions

You probably know Minions, the spinoff of Despicable Me starring those lovably fiendish yellow henchmen, was a big hit in the summer of 2015. But did you know Minions is the first non-Disney animated movie to make more than $1 billion worldwide? (The Disney movies that have done it are Zootopia, Finding Dory, Toy Story 3, and Frozen.) That’s just one of the facts featured in the newest episode of You Think You Know Movies!

The adult version of realizing Santa Claus is not real is the revelation that pretty much everything on Earth is owned by one of a small handful of multinational conglomerates. Trace the corporate parentage of any major entertainment enterprise back far enough, and unless it travels the rocky road of independent operation, it’ll inevitably lead to one of six megastudios...

If the Oscars are like the electoral college, selecting the cream of the crop through an arcane and confusing process available only to an older, white, male elite population, then that makes the People’s Choice Awards the popular vote...

It was a great year for movies. One of the best in recent memory, in fact, with enough outstanding films to fill three or four top ten lists. But the good in any artistic medium will always be outweighed by the bad, and even as it seems like the number of potential classics grows every year, the number of certified stinkers grows as well. Exponentially; there’s enough cinematic turd burgers from the last twelve months to fill seven or eight top ten lists.

Universal was already bathing in its Furious 7 and Jurassic World money Scrooge McDuck-style before Minions opened this week. Now the studio is looking at its third truly massive hit of the year, a run that feels nearly unprecedented. Universal already released two of the biggest movies of all time within the past four months, and now it’s looking like it may have three.

Second bananas should not become first bananas — even if they enjoy eating bananas and saying “Banana!” and kind of look like bananas. That is the lesson of Minions, which takes the lovably inept sidekicks from the Despicable Me series and thrusts them into the spotlight to punishing effect. In the right context, the Minions can be amusing. But the right context is definitely not a rambling 90-minute feature.

Giving the little yellow sidekicks from the Despicable Me films was inevitable, but at least Minions looks fun. The new, full trailer for the spinoff has arrived, taking you on a journey back through time to learn the origins of these weird little creatures and following them on their endeavor to find a new villain to serve.

Temperatures are getting warmer, days are getting longer and the movies are getting bigger. Yep, summer is here and it’s brought with it one of the most jam-packed movie schedules in years. From superhero movies and post-apocalypitc adventures to rom-coms and animated family flicks, the summer of 2015 has something for everyone. In fact, it may have too much of everything for everyone. You are going to be spending a lot of time in movie theaters over the next three months. And with that, these are the 25 movies you have to have on your radar this summer. Read this list. Study it. Watch the trailers. Create a game plan. Oh, and stay hydrated. Living on popcorn is thirsty business.

A ‘Minions’ movie shouldn't work. They were undoubtedly the best part of the ‘Despicable Me’ movies, and a very large part of why those films were successful. But, could they actually support their own movie? That would be like giving Kramer his own ‘Seinfeld’ spinoff. Yet, watching this new ‘Minions’ trailer has us totally hooked. This could actually work.

The massive success of the ‘Despicable Me’ films have created a monster. Monsters, actually. Well, cute, yellow, strange little monsters that countless children (and some adults) all over the world have fallen in love with. Yeah, ‘Minions’ is going to be huge and it’s all going to be thanks to those little guys. However, the presence of a major star like Sandra Bullock can’t hurt and Universal has released the first images of her supervillain character, Scarlet Overkill.