Director: Brian Henson
Cast Headliners: Bill Barretta, Melissa Mccarthy , Leslie David Baker, Maya Rudolph, literal puppets
Original Release Date: August 24th, 2018
One
can't help but be intrigued by the premise and approach of The
Happytime Murders. A very hard R-rated, adult crime comedy...about
Muppets (including being directed by Brian Henson of The Henson
Company itself!) … or rather, “puppets” and “Henson
Alternative” producing to perhaps not steer families wrong into
this. This mix of an innocent exterior and an extremely dark interior
is where the most successes happen. Just as others may feel on it and
to that point don't judge a puppet by its cover.
This
world's fascinating conceit is that humanity and puppets live side by
side. Allegories to race and class lie between specialized buildings
, bigotry, and amusing things like sugar standing in for cocaine,
glitter for feces, and fluff for carnage. The latter few may also
hint at what height the brow is for most of this humor.
Yet
it's also an attempt at a hard-boiled world. Detective Phil Phillips
(Bill Barretta who like essentially all of the other puppet cast is
both maneuvered and voiced by Muppet experts..one may know him as the
legendary Swedish Chef, Rowlf the Dog, and Pepe the Prawn) finds
himself investigating a case for Sandra Jakoby (Dorien Davies) that
may go down a much deeper literal rabbit hole then he'd imagine. This
soon leads him to start again with his ex-cop partner in human
Detective Edwards (Melissa Mccarthy) which leads to many fierce words
and jokes given the bias and past.
This
movie is really, really adult. One may imagine that it was on intent
given what the audience may want since may as well be as edgy as
possible. That means most of the humor relies upon this contrast in
ways both good and bad. Expect plenty of shootouts, murder, sex (oh
so much of it..), and drugs filtered through a felt lense. The
writing and script are a mixed bag which often repeats things which
are hilarious the first time but a bit less so the second or fifth.
However the rapport of characters remains a decent if not stellar
element.
These
shine through those puppets. Phillips is as grumpy as they get
(including a token narrating track) but has his charms. Most puppet
people involved in the plot involve the old “The Happytime Gang”
sitcom stars (which may evoke memories, aside the setting , of Who
Framed Roger Rabbit? In addition to Death To Smoochy). These include
playboy Larry Shenangins (Victor Yerrid), drug-dealing Lyle (Kevin
Clash), and whatever Goofer (Drew Massey) is. All give that
trademark Henson sense of zaniness here feeling surreal in a gritty
place.
The
strong puppeteer element lies in both their acting as well as their
literal movement. Brian Henson's direction is actually quite solid
with shots intricately following characters and locations. They make
momentary action scenes a bit of riveting (When they're not silly)
and conversations feel grounded. If this was entirely a puppet murder
mystery it could have been respected even further as a use of the
medium. However, its ironic that the parts that feel most real drag
it down.
The
use of human actors is something of a tradition for these films.
Mccarthy's Edwards handles the most of this. Her work tends to be
very hit or miss with more landing in the “miss” end to this
author. However, here she is slightly “not as generic” due to the
situation around her. She is truly a mean-spirited character and this
adds to her comebacks. This is not to mention when she does dip to
her trademark mania which works in moments here. Together with
Phillips they're a decent team together. Other humans such as girly
proper secretary Bubbles (Maya Rudolph), gritty FBI Agent Campbell
(Joel Mchale), and stripper Jenny (Elizabeth Banks) don't do much
aside a joke or two (another Henson tradition..) Of possible
exception is their Lieutenant Banning (Leslie David Baker better
known as “Stanley from The Office TV series”) who has some
quality dry responses.
The
plot is not much that hasn't been done before and technically neither
is the whole movie. However it's been awhile and not exactly like
this. For one willing to handle its crudeness and amount of puppet
(And specifically still somehow, muppetness) it's a decent silly
time. 7.75 out of 10
