The Muppets have been a joyful gang that enticed audiences around the world. Jim Henson and his company have created such memorable characters that touched us all from Kermit the Frog to Miss Piggy to Animal, etc. And, there have been many memories surrounding songs, skits and even movies like the first Muppet Movie and the 2011 reboot of The Muppets, which of the latter was surprisingly enjoyable. Its sequel was not as well-received. So, director Brian Henson and screenwriter Todd Berger had conceived an idea to make a cop comedy with humans and puppets. It is sort of Zootopia and Bright except it is not mammals and predators or humans and aliens, it is humans and puppets. I can see this movie being hated by people but it is aimed at audiences who are wanting a good time and to be honest, I had a good time with some of the comedy even though not all the laughs work. Maybe, because the puppets were labeled as ideas of spewing off raunchy and vulgar dialogue instead incorporating them to a better and well laid out cop comedy.
In Los Angeles, humans co-exist with puppets, who are marginalized by society. A former muppet cop named Phil Phillips (Bill Barretta) is a private investigator at a small office with Bubbles (Maya Rudolph) as a secretary. Sandra White (Dorien Davies), a female puppet, has come to ask Phil for help because of a threat and someone has sent her a note. Phil notices a familiarity in the note so he takes the case. Phil goes to a puppet porn shop and asks the shop owner about the magazine they sell there, and the font of that magazine matches the font from the note.
As the authorities are citing the "cotton-bloody" shootout as a crime scene, Phil notices his former partner, Detective Connie Edwards (Melissa McCarthy), as the two had become distant after Phil was kicked off the force. Phil later has lunch with his brother, Larry (Victor Yerrid), a former actor who starred in the "The Happytime Gang", along with a puppet friend, Mr. Bumblypants who was killed in the puppet porn shop. Larry gets killed later and police arrive the following morning where Phil makes the horrifying discovery. He tells Lt. Banning (Leslie David Baker) that Larry's Death is connected to the murders from the porn shop, so the killer may be targeting members of the "Happytime Gang". Phil and Edwards reluctantly team up to investigate.
I must apologize that this is farcical, one-note humor that is scattered but I have to be honest, I chuckled more than I laughed out loudly because of the ridiculousness put upon this old-fashioned concept. This movie is filled with crass, sexist, disgusting, raunchy humor only with puppets and what else did you expect? The quality of its screenplay is decent enough to fill in a short run-time and I am appreciative of that. But, I have to admit even though I chuckled throughout the movie, the raunchy material felt episodic than connected like random muppet skits you see on Sesame Street so you can learn about certain things. Some scenes of humor are more entertaining than others.
But, the main problem was that all of the muppets were neither interesting nor conceived well. All of the female puppets were either sex-crazed or prostitutes. Phil Phillips was a one-note character that is taken from cliched down-on-luck detectives from other movies. It seemed almost like a cartoon version of Ryan Gosling's character in the underrated The Nice Guys from a few years ago. I wished that the movie were starring Melissa McCarthy and Maya Rudolph and maybe team up as detectives because that would have been a fantastic comedy. The few scenes together were great and gave me a shot of energy into my experience.
The bottom line is that because critics are proclaiming this as the worst movie of the year, I do not think it is all that bad but I certainly cannot recommend you all to go see it in the theaters. If you want low-brow, vulgar humor at your expense, I would wait for it to be on streaming or rent it from Redbox or Amazon or any digital platform. But, the movie did not delve into any exploration of societal changes regarding humans and puppets instead they retreated into R-rated sex jokes and making them curse a lot. To be honest, I think this would have worked on Netflix as a fun comedy. But for now, director Brian Henson disappointed me because he did not make great use of the concept, the puppet characters, the story or the cast quite well. They were all pinpointed as good ideas that did not fully coalesce into a motion picture.
**
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