Movie Review - The Happytime Murders

MegaSoulhero Basically, this is the closest we’ll get to an R rated Muppets movie. The Happytime Murders is directed by Brian Henson who is the son of Jim Henson. Apparently, this movie had been in production for 10 years. I honestly thought it sounded like a great idea to make an R rated project involving puppets. Of course, there was also Meet the Feebles and Avenue Q. Then the trailer for this was released a few months ago and I just shook my head at how bad it looked. It looked like it would be another Sausage Party where it tries very hard to be raunchy just for the sake of being raunchy. However, I was also hoping it was one of those misleading trailers that focuses on showing the bad parts to make the actual movie seem better. Well, that wasn’t the case. Yeah. This movie is an absolute mess.

This movie takes place in a world where humans and puppets coexist with each other. However, there’s someone who has been killing all the cast from a show called the Happytime Gang. So it’s up to puppet cop Phil Phillips, not to be confused with the singer Phillip Phillips, and Detective Connie Edwards to figure who it is. Does this sound familiar? It should. Because it is a straight up ripoff of Who Framed Roger Rabbit! It’s not even a parody. They’re flat out stealing the entire concept. There’s just so much unoriginality! Even the twist is kind of similar! I’ll get to that later. Unlike Roger Rabbit, the jokes here aren’t funny in the slightest! If you didn’t laugh at the trailer, chances are you won’t laugh during the movie. Remember that ejaculation joke? It’s still unfunny. That entire scene alone doesn’t even add anything at all. It goes on for a long time and it just feels very awkward. Why did that need to be there. Apparently, they needed to throw in puppet sex somewhere in the movie and that was the only place they could put it. That’s my main problem with most of the jokes. They either drag on for too long or get repeated. Repeating the same joke over and over does NOT make it any more funny! The entire movie mostly relies on one joke. Puppets cursing and doing inappropriate things. That’s basically all it is. The characters have to thrown in a curse word in nearly every sentence because they are so desperate to get that R rating. It gets annoying after a while.

They make it clear that the puppets in this movie are actual living puppets. However, they don’t explain how that’s possible. Like how do puppets get born? Do people make them and they just come alive? If so, how do they come alive? Does it work the same way as Pinocchio? How did Phillips ejaculate if he’s filled with cotton? How do they go to the bathroom? A lot of questions are left unanswered. Also, when you think about it, there’s really no reason for some of these characters to be puppets. Nothing about them makes them stand out aside from their design. At least in Roger Rabbit, the toons do a bunch of cartoonish and unrealistic things that humans wouldn’t be able to do which makes them feel unique. In this movie, the puppets basically act like humans, but they’re filled with stuffing. Melissa McCarthy stars in the movie. I really don’t like her as both an actress and as a comedian. Whatever movie she’s in usually ends up being unwatchable due to bad writing and Melissa McCarthy’s over the top performances. However, I actually thought she was the least unbearable character here. That really says a lot. Maya Rudolph was basically phoning in her performance. I don’t know why they chose her of all people for that role. It clearly wasn’t suited for her. Bill Barretta is a great puppeteer, I have nothing against him, but I just thought his performance as Phillips was a little bland. He sounded kind of bored through most of the movie. Elizabeth Banks is also in the movie. That’s all I’m gonna say since she didn’t really do much. Surprisingly, this isn’t the worst movie she’s been in.

Not only does this movie fail at a comedy, it also fails as a murder mystery. For most of the film, Phillips and Edwards are going to different places and are asking each member of the Happytime Gang about what they know about the murders. However, these scenes are rendered pointless other than just to show the characters getting killed off and Phillips getting framed for it since he just so happened to be in the presence of the murders. Oh look! Another thing they stole from Roger Rabbit! They leave no hints as to who the person killing the puppets is until we see a room in which they tell us who the killer is. There was nothing they gained from those other scenes. They felt very unneeded. The twist is extremely obvious. I knew right away who it was. When it’s revealed who it is, they make it feel like a legit twist that we’re supposed to be surprised by. However, this particular character appears in various scenes and each time that character does, it seems like they weren’t trying to hide the fact that that character was the killer because it was so painfully predictable!

The Happytime Murders is one of the worst movies I’ve seen this year! Nothing about it was good! So many unfunny jokes, tons of filler, lazy writing, bad acting, and it’s so predictable! This was a great concept, but they completely ruined it. This is the second movie this year that I’m giving this score to and hopefully it will be the last.

Score: 0/10

Comments

Movie looks terrible - iliekpiez (8/29/2018)

When I saw this movie trailer on YouTube, I just closed the tab. It looks like the Muppets on drugs. - Drawbox (8/29/2018)

That was kind of the point - judo8alex (9/23/2018)