“Despicable Me 4” – Age rating PG

As summer draws to a close, there seem to have been a shortage of films aimed at family-friendly audiences.

Inside Out 2 was perfect for me, and maybe there was another Disney release that I don’t remember. Anyway, there isn’t much for kids.

It’s time to take a look at Despicable Me 4, the latest in a franchise that has delighted young people not only with former criminal Gru (voice: Steve Carell), but also with the adorably mischievous yellow Minions, who, as usual, babble incomprehensible gibberish.

Somewhere along the way, Gru has made the transition from supervillain to family man, married to Lily (Kristen Wiig) and with three adopted daughters: Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier) and Agnes (Madison Polan).

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

Not only is the family dynamic turned upside down by the arrival of a new baby, but Gru is now a dedicated Anti-Villain League (AVL) agent, working undercover for an organization led by Silas Ramsbottom (Steve Coogan).

Work takes Gru to a class reunion where he is supposed to arrest his former classmate and old rival Maxime Le Mal (Will Ferrell), who has turned into a hybrid creature like Jeff Goldblum in “The Fly”.

He vows revenge for his arrest and imprisonment, but his subsequent prison break, in which he is assisted by his girlfriend, a femme fatale, Valentina (Sofia Vergara) and a platoon of cockroaches, poses great danger for the AVL agent.

The palpable threat to Gru leads to his entire family being placed in a witness protection program in an affluent suburban area, where Gru feels out of place and unable to establish contact with his snooty neighbor Perry (Stephen Colbert).

Gru goes incognito and assumes the identity of Chet Cunningham, a solar panel salesman. He has turned himself into a boring, somewhat nerdy person to protect his family. Perhaps Gru is no longer so despicable, having lost a part of his personality that carried him in the previous chapters.

With his new identity not working out so well for him, Gru suddenly finds himself blackmailed by Poppy (Joey King), the teenage daughter of his aloof neighbor, who insists on his guidance in pulling off a heist that will earn her entry into the ranks of the supervillains.

The humor is predictable but mostly entertaining. Amusingly, Gru complains about many different types of milk, such as “almond milk, soy milk, oat milk, goat milk, chocolate milk, half-and-half, powdered milk, and milk of magnesia.”

Lucy asks, “What about regular milk?” to which Gru replies, “That doesn’t exist anymore.” He may have left out other plant-based products like coconut or rice milk, but the absurdity of all of these varieties at least elicits a giggle that may be lost on younger viewers.

When it comes to comedy, the little yellow pill-shaped creatures known as Minions always get a laugh, even if their slapstick is now all too familiar. But kids still love them, and on a family movie trip, that’s really all that matters.

“We Will Dance Again” on Paramount+

Paramount+ announced that the award-winning film “We Will Dance Again,” a shocking documentary about the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on the Nova International Music Festival, will play in theaters nationwide for two days before being shown 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 it became one of the first targets when Hamas carried out the deadliest terrorist attack in Israel’s history.

In “We Will Dance Again,” more than a dozen young festival-goers tell gripping stories about how they managed to survive from one minute to the next. The eyewitness accounts are interwoven with self-filmed material and footage from cameras carried by Hamas.

The film will have a week-long Oscar opening in Los Angeles beginning August 23 before opening in select theaters across the country on Friday, August 29 and Sunday, September 1.

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

In addition to the documentary, the traveling exhibition “Nova Exhibition” is coming to Los Angeles after spending ten weeks in Tel Aviv and then two months in New York City.

The exhibition features items recovered from the festival site, including burnt-out cars, bullet-riddled toilet cubicles and personal items such as abandoned tents and garden chairs.

Visitors will be invited to join an appeal for the safe return of hostages still held by Hamas terrorists. Nova survivors of the brutal attack will be present as witnesses to the tragedy they experienced that day.

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