Credible Credits
Year: 2014
Director: James Bobin
Starring: Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Walter, Ricky Gervais, Ty Burrell, Tina Fey, all the other Muppets, and more celebrity cameos than anyone can keep track of
Tagline: Taking the World by Farce
Synopsis: While the Muppets are on a world tour, Kermit is deviously replaced by a lookalike, mastermind criminal.
Synopsis: While the Muppets are on a world tour, Kermit is deviously replaced by a lookalike, mastermind criminal.
Review
I love the Muppets. I grew up watching reruns of The Muppet Show as well as watching Muppet Babies, the short-lived Muppets Tonight, and all the various movies. It is not Christmas if I haven't watched A Muppet Christmas Carol. I even own a self-help book written by Kermit the Frog and have gone as Beaker for Halloween. The Muppets are terrific. And a few years ago when The Muppets brought the fuzzy gang back to the big screen, I rejoiced.
Needless to say, I've been looking forward to Muppets Most Wanted.
Once again though, I need to backtrack. Before I reviewed Mr. Peabody and Sherman, I first railed on the insipid short that preceded it. So it is only fitting that I should now rave about the short that preceded this film. As soon as the beloved Pixar logo appeared I got excited. The short was Monsters University: Party Central and it was terrific. It was witty and clever and full of the gags that make Pixar so awesome. The final payoff gag still puts a smile on my face remembering it. That's how you do a short.
We now return you to your feature presentation ...
The opening for Muppets Most Wanted was everything I love about the Muppets. The segment is "We're Doing a Sequel," and it gleefully pokes fun at Hollywood and its chronic sequelitis as well as the pitfalls of franchises. The catchy musical number and its lead-in were full of self-aware humor, goofy antics, celebrity cameos, and a parody reference to a classic film that probably most people in the audience had never heard of let alone seen. But for those of us in the know, it was a laugh out loud moment. Although I've never seen Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal, the iconic scene of Death playing chess with a medieval knight is a staple in film textbooks. So to have that scene briefly reenacted by Death and Swedish Chef (Bergman was Swedish) was priceless ... as was Kermit's rejection that American audiences don't watch movies with subtitles.
I wish I could say that the rest of the film lived up to that opening sequence. But while the film was fun and enjoyable throughout ... it still felt like it was a little lacking. The Muppets had nostalgia on its side and it used it for all it was worth to great success. This should have been the Muppets now getting to do what they do best. Instead it seemed like we spent more of the film with the human characters or the villain than with the Muppets. Constantine (Kermit's evil lookalike) got more showstopping musical numbers than Kermit. Nor were the musical numbers as catchy or memorable as the previous film. The exception is "We're Doing a Sequel," which truly is terrific. The "Interrogation Song" is pretty fun too, but it can't compare to "Life's a Happy Song."
But that is way too much about what the film did wrong. So while it isn't the best Muppet movie ever, it is still a fun movie full of endearing characters. Kermit is ever-lovable and ever-relatable in his exasperation. Miss Piggy is still Miss Piggy. Walter (a new character from the last film) makes a nice addition to the gang. Sam the Eagle gets a fairly good sized role for a change, and he has a terrific repartee with Ty Burrell's Interpol officer. Tina Fey is also quite fun as Nadya, a prison guard at the Russian Gulag where Kermit is falsely imprisoned. Also enjoyable are all the various cameos (a Muppet staple) from Usher as an usher to Celine Dion singing a duet with Miss Piggy to Tom Hiddleston as a prisoner in the Gulag to Stanley Tucci as a friendly Gulag guard.
Needless to say, I've been looking forward to Muppets Most Wanted.
Once again though, I need to backtrack. Before I reviewed Mr. Peabody and Sherman, I first railed on the insipid short that preceded it. So it is only fitting that I should now rave about the short that preceded this film. As soon as the beloved Pixar logo appeared I got excited. The short was Monsters University: Party Central and it was terrific. It was witty and clever and full of the gags that make Pixar so awesome. The final payoff gag still puts a smile on my face remembering it. That's how you do a short.
We now return you to your feature presentation ...
The opening for Muppets Most Wanted was everything I love about the Muppets. The segment is "We're Doing a Sequel," and it gleefully pokes fun at Hollywood and its chronic sequelitis as well as the pitfalls of franchises. The catchy musical number and its lead-in were full of self-aware humor, goofy antics, celebrity cameos, and a parody reference to a classic film that probably most people in the audience had never heard of let alone seen. But for those of us in the know, it was a laugh out loud moment. Although I've never seen Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal, the iconic scene of Death playing chess with a medieval knight is a staple in film textbooks. So to have that scene briefly reenacted by Death and Swedish Chef (Bergman was Swedish) was priceless ... as was Kermit's rejection that American audiences don't watch movies with subtitles.
I wish I could say that the rest of the film lived up to that opening sequence. But while the film was fun and enjoyable throughout ... it still felt like it was a little lacking. The Muppets had nostalgia on its side and it used it for all it was worth to great success. This should have been the Muppets now getting to do what they do best. Instead it seemed like we spent more of the film with the human characters or the villain than with the Muppets. Constantine (Kermit's evil lookalike) got more showstopping musical numbers than Kermit. Nor were the musical numbers as catchy or memorable as the previous film. The exception is "We're Doing a Sequel," which truly is terrific. The "Interrogation Song" is pretty fun too, but it can't compare to "Life's a Happy Song."
But that is way too much about what the film did wrong. So while it isn't the best Muppet movie ever, it is still a fun movie full of endearing characters. Kermit is ever-lovable and ever-relatable in his exasperation. Miss Piggy is still Miss Piggy. Walter (a new character from the last film) makes a nice addition to the gang. Sam the Eagle gets a fairly good sized role for a change, and he has a terrific repartee with Ty Burrell's Interpol officer. Tina Fey is also quite fun as Nadya, a prison guard at the Russian Gulag where Kermit is falsely imprisoned. Also enjoyable are all the various cameos (a Muppet staple) from Usher as an usher to Celine Dion singing a duet with Miss Piggy to Tom Hiddleston as a prisoner in the Gulag to Stanley Tucci as a friendly Gulag guard.
Quotable Quotes
- "Turn the lights back on. I can't see anything. You have to, like, wait until I'm out of the hallway." -- Nadya
- "And not one single person noticed I'd been replaced by an evil criminal mastermind?!" -- Kermit
- "When do I get to do the indoor running of the bulls?" -- Gonzo
- "Slow news week: Muppets make headlines!" -- Newspaper headline
ISFS
