Gru is back. And a better dad than ever!

In Despicable Me (2010), we saw how the evil mastermind, Russian-accented, and, well, despicable, Gru (voiced by Steve Carell), turned into a rather lovely guy after the three orphaned girls end up on his door step. My favorite and most memorable scene from the first one was when Agnes wants that super cute stuffed unicorn from the carnival. When Gru wins it for her, she exclaims, “HE’S SO FLUFFY I’M GONNA DIE!”

What? I have no shame. (And you know you thought that was absolutely adorable, too.)

Now in the second one, we see how Gru has become even more of a father...and overbearing towards his little daughters. He sneaks a peek at Edith’s phone, who may be texting a boy.

Well, Edith, once you get to college, you won’t have that problem anymore.

Because Gru is all good now and knows the evil workings of evil people, The Anti-Villain League can recruit him, to save humanity and the world! Muahahahaha—oh wait, he’s good now. Gru and his AVL partner, Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig), have to work together to find who stole a secret laboratory (with a GIANT magnet) containing a powerful, monster-synthesizing mutagen.

They form headquarters at a bakery in a mall, which is kind of ironic since Wiig, in Bridesmaids, played a bakery owner, too. Therefore, Wiig’s character in that movie shows her life after she had been dismissed from the AVL, and she reminisces over the work she did with Gru. Indeed. (Russian accented Gru vs Irish accented Officer Rhodes. Who’d win?)

But let’s not forget about the minions. They play a large role in the first film, mostly as the main sources of comedy, but their roles greatly increase in importance in the second film. Why, you ask? You’re going to have to watch it to find out.

If you enjoyed the first one, which I surely did, then definitely go see it. Sure, the plot may be a little too obvious and simple for us college kids, but that’s the kind of movie you need after a long week of exams and essays (and not something like Schindler’s List—great movie, though).

Audiences generally enjoyed this movie better than the first one even, though Metascore.com doesn’t agree. It has a 7.7/10 rating on IMDb.com, and it’s Certified Fresh by rottentomatoes.com.

On the Penn State Scale, I give it a 3.9-ish, being on the brink of a 4=a canceled 8 a.m class and a free book.