While it may seem like a good idea and the right time to bring forth to the masses an R-rated Muppet movie... it might not have been. That time might have already passed. I understand the desire for it. Look at what's popular right now - sequels, prequels, comic book adaptations, Star Wars and everything tentpole related. You know what studios are unfortunately not spending money making - comedies. There's only so much Thanos related destruction we can take before we wanna just sit back and watch a dirty R-rated comedy in the vein of Ted. So, when Jim Hensen's kid decides he wants to make a film noir/detective spoof with comedy kingpin Melissa McCarthy and foul-mouthed puppets... you say yes. There's a hook... there's something familiar for viewers to latch onto... and the R-rating makes the whole thing intriguing. Unfortunately, the film forgot the most important aspect - to be funny. The Happytime Murders, I'm sorry to say, is not a good movie. It's not worthy of your time or your money. But that doesn't mean that I hated it or even that I'm angry that I wasted my time seeing it. No, I'm not angry... I'm just disappointed.
Pulling off a niche comedy like The Happytime Murders is no easy feat. You want to go for the R... then go for the hard R, baby. Go balls out. Do anything and everything that warrants an R rating. Ted did a pretty decent job with this, but the best example I can think of is Team America: World Police. They went all-out batshit hard R. There's violence and blood and guts and bodily fluids and banging marionettes and foul language and something to say. They went for it. Had it just been a bunch of puppets dropping F-bombs, the joke would've run out very quickly as it does in The Happytime Murders. That's the problem with the film - it doesn't go balls out. It still plays like someone filming one joke for YouTube that somehow accidentally spanned 90 minutes. You've got a detective movie about a killer going around and offing puppets, yet there's no real violence in the film. Genre-crossing comedies like this succeed a whole lot more when they're able and willing to cross boundaries. Hell, even the recent The Spy Who Dumped Me threw in some hilariously graphic violence because the filmmakers of that movie know that toning down the action means cheapening the experience. The last thing you want to do is have the audience notice you watering down your movie because you don't have the stones to go all the way. But that's what happens with The Happytime Murders. The lack of stones means the movie and its action sequences are bloodless and humorless and lack any tension whatsoever.
The film follows Phil Phillips, puppet and disgraced cop turned Private Detective in a world where humans and puppets live together. He's hired by another puppet Sandra, who's being blackmailed and wants to find out who's behind it. During the search, a killer has been offing members of an old TV show The Happytime Gang, including Phil's brother. Phil must now join up with his ex-partner Connie (McCarthy) in order to find out who is killing these puppets off and why. Phil and Connie have somewhat of a difficult history as their partnership didn't end on good terms and the two are at each other's throats the entire time. Rounding out the cast is Maya Rudolph as Phil's bubbly assistant Bubbles, Leslie David Baker (Stanely from The Office) as Connie's Lieutenant, and Joel McHale as a dickhead FBI Agent. What could've been a really funny cast put into a hilariously crude idea of mixing puppets with humans (think in the vein of Who Framed Roger Rabbit), turns into nothing more than a good idea with a poor execution.
The film isn't without its merits. While it may not be very funny, it's not entirely a tragedy. McCarthy is still a delight to watch. She has the ability to make even the worst movies still somewhat enjoyable. Every time she was on screen, it gave me hope for the rest of the film. Hell, I don't know why they didn't hand her over the script and ask her to do a rewrite. It would've been a hell of a lot funnier than it wound up being. Maya Rudolph is also fantastic. Though she isn't given much to do, her presence, like McCarthy, makes any rotten scene much much more palpable. Finally, a lot of the puppets were visually funny. Most of the laughs illicted from myself came from a new puppet popping up and me chuckling at its quirky design or voice. However, this also made the movie that much more disappointing. You see a hilariously designed puppet, you expect it to make you laugh in the scene. And when it doesn't (as most don't), it feels like more of a let-down.
The puppets aren't given much to do other than say filthy things in a strange voice. Sure, I'd probably laugh if I heard Fozzie Bear say "I'll suck your dick for 50 cents", but if that's all I'd get for an hour and a half, is it really worth it? And that's where going further with pushing the envelope would've helped The Happytime Murders. The most offensive scene is the one that's already in the trailer - Phillips having puppet sex with a client and climaxing white silly string all over the room. Like that's LITERALLY as far as the film goes with it's raunchiness. Compared to the sex scene in Team America, the Happytime sex scene seems like Nickelodeon fodder. There were so many opportunities for comedy with each scene feeling like its leading up to something unfathomably funny, but just cutting to the next scene or fizzling out without a laugh. When I could start anticipating the jokes before they happened, that's when I realized the movie was just lazy, thinking it's using the idea of R-rated puppets as comedy, instead of a crutch.
The movie is just a misfire. It was a good idea that was certain to bring in the crowds looking for a high concept comedy at the end of a loud summer. But, it just didn't come together. The filmmakers relied on a singular joke (puppets saying dirty things) to make an entire movie funny and it wore out its welcome by the trailer. The trailer surprised us with filthy puppets, but the movie was just a lazy extension. I didn't hate seeing it because, like I said, I love McCarthy and her presence does make the movie seem better than I'm sure it still even is. But, if everyone was hoping this would open the floodgates for more R-rated Muppet movies, I think this project is dead on arrival.
D+
No comments:
Post a Comment