The Happy Time murders was released last year and got slated by critics.
Initially I didn't imagine it to my type of humour at all from what I saw, so I gave it a miss.
But yesterday we sat down and went "okay, let's give this a go and if the plot's rubbish but we have fun watching it, no harm no foul"
and was it a good film?
No.
Was it a fun film?
absolutely.
Director Brian Henson (Jim Henson's son, aka the original creator of the Muppets) obviously also had a lot of fun making this, and when watching the behind the scenes clips of the puppeteering and the CG that went into it, the whole team did an incredible job constructing this world.
Many people have slammed him and said that is brings disrespect to his fathers name due to the mature nature of the film, but honestly I love the fact that kids who grew up with the Muppets now have this R rated world that they can enjoy as Adults.
However, I do agree that the the Muppets have much more of a range of facial expression to
the Happytime Murders, as this film unfortunately sees most of it's puppets with the same mute face, which doesn't carry well in terms of relatability as it makes the designs look a cheap and lifeless. This may have been budget, or this may have been a deliberate act to try and make them look even more puppet-y?
Who knows. I would have preferred some variance to really bring the characters to life and not have them just be puppets.
Now we come to the plot - The plot is your steroeotypical buddy cop type movie with an ex-cop misfit that is brought back on the case with someone who he doesn't get along with any more, and they by the end they give him his badge back etc. Pretty much the same plot to literally any other buddy cop film. For that reason, it's a bit rubbish as you can guess every twist and turn coming as, even if there's puppets involved, we've seen it all before, it's predictable.
So from a critical standpoint this film is pretty trash.
However. If you go into this film expecting an exciting plot, hilarious japes, puppets to rival the quality of the Muppets. You will not get that. This one is not for you.
But if you go into this film expecting to just have some dumb fun and some crass dirty jokes. Bingo!
That's exactly what this film is. It's not trying to win awards for best story here, it's trying to give you an immature giggle. It's not for everyone that's for sure.
But sometimes you just want to watch a couple of puppets snorting glitter and spraying whipped cream across the walls.