Review: More Carell, But Fewer Ideas In 'despicable Me 3'

The adorable tot spends her waking hours wishing and hoping and dreaming, and she comes close — but in the end what she finds is a sweet little goat. [...] this third one, leaning on an endless litany of '80s pop culture references to entertain parents and a whole lot of noisy, forgettable action to please the kids, feels more like that goat. [...] the filmmakers have found a way to double their key asset's contribution by introducing Gru's heretofore unknown twin brother, Dru, also voiced by Carell of course. [...] we learn that things are going quite well on the personal front for Gru since we last left him, at the end of "Despicable Me 2," in newly found marital bliss with the formidable Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig), who's thrilled to become a mother to the three girls (or "goruls," as Gru pronounces it) that Gru adopted under nefarious pretenses in the first film. [...] the family departs for Freedonia (not an '80s reference, but a Marx Brothers one), where Dru — richer and more successful than Gru, of course — lives on a pig farm. [...] he also owns some really cool stuff, and wants Gru to teach him how to be a villain. Given that the main theme of the previous films has to do with crime and redemption, good and evil, it's not a stretch to imagine that this film, too, will present Gru with that crucial identity issue once again — is he a villain, or a good guy? Despicable Me 3," a Universal release, is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America "for action and rude humor.