Hope its over

The George Zimmerman trial has concluded.  The not guilty verdict is in.  If you have no clue what I'm talking about then I look forward to hearing your tales of life under a rock.  I'm so glad its over.  I don't care about the verdict.  I'm just hoping this blows over without riots or any more violence and hopefully the dimwits shouting how "the system" is racist, and there's no justice will eventually settle down.

This whole thing breaks down to two guys who made a bunch of bad choices.  Unfortunately one of them ended up dead.  Tons of public outrage.  Obama spouting bullshit about "if I had a son, he's probably look like Treyvon Martin."  All this pressure to put Zimmerman away.  Ridiculous amounts of news coverage.

The prosecuting attornies should have gone for a manslaughter charge, but think about how that would have played out.  "How can they not go for a murder charge!" would be the battle cry from all the people who had already made up their minds about what happened despite not having seen all the evidence.  This of course has much to do with media spewing forth every little factoid (regardless of accuracy) and opinion that someone has to offer.

This was such a circus.  A big stupid circus.  The media hyped it up for ratings.  People got their outrage on and fed the media beast.  It spiraled out of control.  Everyone who disagreed with someone else was somehow a racist, and then there were the actual full on bigots that popped up to either call for the lynching of Zimmerman or say disgusting things about a dead teenager.  If everyone had just shut their yeps and let this play out and let the police, and investigators, and the attornies do their jobs then Zimmerman would probably be in jail over a manslaughter charge.

Keep that in mind.

Movie Review: Despicable Me 2

Yes, answering all the questions left unanswered by the original DESPICABLE ME, here comes the sequel. Actually, there were no real questions left unanswered by the first film.  Pretty much a nice little self contained little piece.  The first movie was cute.  I got some good laughs at places.  Left it feeling good.  There was really only one thing that really demanded another movie be made.

Minions.

I love me some Minions.  If the movie powers that be decided that they were going to make a movie that was nothing but two hours of Minions doing Minion-type thingies, I'd go.  I doubt I'd be alone either.

However, this isn't MINIONS THE MOVIE, its DESPICABLE ME 2, and Gru is back!  When last we left him, he was going to hang up the whole super villain things and dedicate himself to being a father to Margo, Edith, and Agnes.  That's exactly what he did too.  This isn't about Gru adjusting to being a good dad.  He rocks at being a dad.  Sure he's got plenty of help with all his little, yellow henchmen, but he's completely engaged with these kids.  The interactions with them are deligthful and completely believable.

But there's trouble afoot, and Gru is called upon to use his expertise to stop a mysterious villain before things go horrible.  To top it off he's partnered with a delightfully eager and adorably awkward partner, Lucy.  Yep, we have to see if Gru can save the world and find love while doing it.  

Let's break this down.  This movie is a lot of fun.  I enjoyed it more than the original.  Technically sound on all points with animation quality, voice acting and everything.  The story was light and fun, with just enough heart and plenty of adventure.  Took the kids, and they had a blast.  It managed to keep adults entertained without getting to heavy on the "adult" humor.

Like I said before, I love Minions.  They really were the breakout stars from the first film, and there was plenty of Minion hyjinks to be enjoyed here.  However, this movie smartly gave us more Minion-y goodness, but also balanced that very well with the overall story.  It could have easily turned into something that was Minion topheavy and just had the story there to get us from one goofy Minion bit to the next.  It didn't.  This flick really delivered.

Now, for anyone wondering if this movie suffers from "Trailer fail" (In which all the really good parts are shown in the trailer and the rest of the movie is lame), it absolutely doesn't.  Go see it.  Find a kid and take them.