‘DESPICABLE ME 4’ RATED PG

As summer slips away, there seems to have been too few movies that are geared to a family-friendly audience.

“Inside Out 2” expertly filled the bill, and maybe there was another Disney release I don’t remember. Whatever the case, not much out there for kids.

It’s time to take a look at “Despicable Me 4,” the newest installment in a franchise that delights youngsters not only with the erstwhile criminal Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) but also the adorably mischievous yellow Minions, babbling their usual incomprehensible gibberish.

Somewhere, Gru has turned the corner from supervillain to a family man married to Lily (Kristen Wiig) with a trio of adopted daughters, Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier), and Agnes (Madison Polan).

While Gru’s relationship with his wife and the girls has never been stronger, the arrival of the newest member of the family with Gru Jr. has proved to be challenging, as the baby is determined to torment his father.

The family dynamic is upended not just with the arrival of a new baby, but Gru is now a dedicated Anti-Villain League (AVL) agent working undercover in an organization run by Silas Ramsbottom (Steve Coogan).

Work takes Gru on an assignment to a high school reunion for the purpose of arresting his former classmate and old rival Maxime Le Mal (Will Ferrell), who has turned himself into a hybrid creature like Jeff Goldblum’s in “The Fly.”

Vowing revenge for his arrest and getting locked up, his subsequent prison escape that is aided and abetted by his femme fatale girlfriend Valentina (Sofia Vergara) and a platoon of cockroaches poses peril for the AVL agent.

The palpable threat to Gru results in having his entire family being put into witness protection in an upscale suburban community where Gru feels out of place and unable to connect with snooty neighbor Perry (Stephen Colbert).

Going incognito, Gru assumes the identity of Chet Cunningham, a solar panel salesman. He’s turned into a boring, somewhat nerd to keep his family safe. Maybe Gru is not so despicable anymore, losing a part of his personality that carried him in previous chapters.

With his new identity not working out that well for him, Gru finds himself blackmailed by his aloof neighbor’s teenage daughter Poppy (Joey King), who insists on his guidance to pull off a heist worthy of entrée into the ranks of supervillains.

Humor is predictable but for the most part enjoyable. Amusingly, Gru grumbles about many different types of milk like “almond milk, soy milk, oat milk, goat milk, chocolate milk, half and half, powdered, and milk of magnesia.”

Lucy asks, “What about regular milk?” to which Gru replies, “They don’t make it anymore.” He may have left out other plant-based products like coconut or rice milk, but the absurdity of all these varieties induces at least a chuckle maybe lost on the younger viewers.

For comic relief, the small, yellow pill-shaped creatures known as the Minions are dependable for some laughs even if their schtick has become overly familiar. But kids still love them, and at a family cinematic outing that’s really all that matters.

‘WE WILL DANCE AGAIN’ ON PARAMOUNT+

Paramount+ announced the award-winning film “We Will Dance Again,” a shocking documentary about the October 7th Hamas terror attack on the international Nova Music Festival, will have a two-day theatrical run nationwide before running on its streaming platform.

The Nova Music Festival was supposed to be a celebration of life, love and music for thousands of young people but became one of the first targets when Hamas launched the deadliest terror attack in Israel’s history.

In “We Will Dance Again” more than a dozen young festival-goers tell gripping stories of how each of them managed to survive from one minute to the next. The eyewitness accounts are weaved together with footage they filmed themselves and footage recovered from cameras worn by Hamas.

The film will open in Los Angeles for a week-long Oscar qualifying run beginning on August 23rd, ahead of the advanced event screenings on Friday, August 29th and Sunday, September 1st in select theaters across the country.

The president of the studio releasing the film notes that the “human cost of the Hamas attack in Israel and the war that followed in Gaza has been catastrophic for both Israelis and Palestinians,” and it is a “painful story of unfathomable tragedy, but also of bravery, sacrifice, and heroism.”

Aside from the documentary, the traveling “Nova Exhibition” is coming to Los Angeles, after first a 10-week run in Tel Aviv, followed by two months on display in New York City.

The exhibit features items salvaged from the festival grounds, including scorched cars, bullet-riddled bathroom stalls, and personal belongings such as tents and lawn chairs left behind.

Visitors will be invited to join a plea for the safe return of the hostages who are still held in captivity by Hamas terrorists. Nova survivors of the brutal attack will be attending as witnesses to the tragedy they experienced on that day.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.