★★★

Despicable Me peaked with Silas Ramsbottom. Not the Steve Coogan voiced character, per se, but the sequence of his jowly introduction. Was it Kevin, or perhaps Bob, who looked furtively to his neighbouring minion and sniggered ‘bottom’, before bursting into unbridled laughter? Either way, a gag of all time greatness was born. Nothing else in the, now fourteen-year-old, franchise has ever matched such infantile brilliance, certainly not in such a way as to justify the astounding commercial success the series has achieved. $4.6bn and counting. Film four does little to break the mould, instead opting for gentle expansion. It’s bright, breezy and a little exhausting.