{"id":5882,"date":"2018-08-23T08:05:55","date_gmt":"2018-08-23T15:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=5882"},"modified":"2018-08-23T08:05:55","modified_gmt":"2018-08-23T15:05:55","slug":"review-the-happytime-murders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=5882","title":{"rendered":"Review: THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unsophisticated and crude without purpose, \u201cThe Happytime Murders\u201d is a massive failure on many levels.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"\"\"When the actors from a popular children\u2019s muppet-like television show start getting bumped off, disgraced former LAPD detective Phil Philips (voiced by Bill Barretta) and his ex-partner detective Connie Edwards (Melissa McCarthy) are forced back together to solve the crimes. This leads the adversarial twosome into the soft underbelly of the puppet world, a place nothing like the wholesomeness that we\u2019ve come to know and love. In time, there will be more murders and Phil and Connie will have to deal with past demons while confronting new ones.<\/p>\n

The idea of an \u201cR\u201d rated muppet movie should have worked. It would take us into the world outside the cutesy one of which we are all well acquainted. Let the muppets use foul language. Let them copulate. The very thought of it is instantly funny. But figuring out the story to tell in that universe was critical to making this high (or low) concept successful.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

To craft the right story, director Brian Henson, son of the late puppeteer Jim Henson, the visionary responsible for the muppet franchise, employed the writing talents of Todd Berger. The screenplay written by Berger is based on a story he wrote with Dee Austin Robertson. Neither Robertson nor Berger appear to have a prior, significant, creative connection to the muppet universe. And the characters in this film are not credited to anyone who have worked with muppets before. \u201cThe Happytime Murders\u201d is its own separate island but makes use of puppets that would, at least, visually be at home in a muppet caper.<\/p>\n

This foreign relationship with the beloved puppet world is clearly the first mistake made by Brian Henson. Sure, there would have been no realistic possibility of Kermit getting it on with Miss Piggy, but the detective yarn told in \u201cHappytime\u201d demonstrates little understanding of why the muppet movies worked in the first place. We get no musical numbers and few clever moments. It\u2019s all broad vulgarity that\u2019s not sexy and rarely funny.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Written as if a 14-year-old was told about detective stories and thought that dirty jokes coming out of puppets would alone hold audience attention, \u201cThe Happytime Murders\u201d is scattershot, at best. The surprising thing is that most anything in the actual muppet canon is more mature than anything in this movie. Sure, there\u2019s graphic muppet sex and cursing, but such uncouth material can\u2019t cover a lack of understanding of how to reflect authentic relationships on screen. The magic of the muppet movies is that the best examples convince the viewer that the puppets are alive and we end of feeling something for them.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In \u201cHappytime,\u201d the script is in a rush to get to gross-out shocking moments instead of character development or world-building. The structure has no shape to it. There are flashbacks that arrive with little coherence, and there\u2019s reliance on cardboard characters who fall for a tired series of jokes (made famous in far better movies\u2014\u201cWayne\u2019s World\u201d comes to mind). And the best bits were spoiled by the trailers, particularly the red-band ones. Frankly, there\u2019s nothing beyond the trailers worth seeing.<\/p>\n

A good idea wasted on the wrong story, \u201cThe Happytime Murders\u201d is an experiment that should have remained in the laboratory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lack of sophistication hampers vulgar puppet tale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[693,694,695,696,354,50,697,698,699],"class_list":["post-5882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-bill-barretta","tag-brian-henson","tag-dee-austin-robertson","tag-happytime-murders","tag-melissa-mccarthy","tag-movie-review","tag-muppet","tag-puppet","tag-todd-berger","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5882\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}