Review of The Happytime Murders (2018) by Mysticartisan — 27 Aug 2018

I loved this film and I rarely comment on this site but I felt the need to, as I think the film has been unfairly reviewed. To me I haven’t laughed for alongtime at many new films most of the way through in the last 5-10 years, it’s very subtle, twisted and beyond the obvious humour is very poignant.

With its adult stars(it maybe twisted but is not porn) I usually cannot stand Melissa McCarthy and her other SNL alumni (was not a fan of Bridemaids and so forth) but she suited this down to the ground juxtapose to the other 2D characters.

Maya Rudolph’s character Bubbles was fun and represented the muppets in a human form of being kind, happy go lucky which was so different to her boss Phil Phillips who I saw as equally dejected, depressed, depraved, dark and twisted in humour too but with pride.

It is lazy to compare it to Ted or Team America-they are totally different and in some cases too extreme Sauage Party went wayward and which can be an issue with South Park and Family Guy episodes and to be honest Ted 2 sucked and should not have been made (not Seth Mcfarlane’s finest hour, though The Orville series amended that).

Happytime Murders toes the line correctly and I congratulate Brian Henson on this as he must struggle being in his Dads shadow and perhaps he has wanted to do a film like this for a long time but been advised against it.

After the film I would like this to be a great tv series or a similar idea for Netflix which I would happily watch. Now sorry to bust the moaning critics bubble but I grew up with the muppets during the 80s and seen all the films including the known ones in the 90s but the newer ones in the last few years were lame and the last series was trying to be like the office which was boring.

This film is an adult film quite clearly that uses Muppet like characters-similar to the humour in Avenue Q and is not for kids and it could be seen as a less raucous Ralph Bakshi film in parts. The film develops well and you can see it being obvious in places but that’s part of the joke, it’s tongue in cheek, irony and get this it’s a comedy not a deep film and for an hour and half it will are you smile.

I think in the U.K. it will fare better as British people have a darker sense of humour and get the nuances of noir. If you want something deep then go watch a French arty film about a painter/ballerina or some socio-political film you can analyse with your yuppie/artsy friends.

However if you are intrigued to go see this, please do and escape the mundane existence of most movies which are so CGI heavy or lacking in plot.