This weekend sees the release of The Happytime Murders, a buddy cop movie where one half of the duo is a puppet. It was clear from the early trailers that this was going to be a very adult comedy even though half the characters looked like they came off Sesame Street, which was certainly a unique setup, however, when it comes to the execution, most critics seem to feel the new movie leaves something to be desired. The first reviews for the new Jim Henson Company movie are in, and the majority are not kind. However, our own Mike Reyes gave the movie four stars and felt that fans of the classic work of Jim Henson will enjoy both the way the film embraces its legacy and the way it uses that for unexpected comedic purposes.
The Happytime Murders is a fluffing hysterical comedy that plays to nostalgia, only to subvert it in the name of humor.
There are several other reviews that give The Happytime Murders a positive spin. The Hollywood Reporter, while being sure to point out that the humor is very adult, says that the fairly brief movie packs enough laughs into that runtime to get the audience through.
It's more than funny enough, packing lots of genuine, if frequently tasteless, laughs into its relatively brief running time.
However, most reviews are not quite as kind as these. The film currently sits at an abysmal 24% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Many reviews read similarly to the one posted by RogerEbert.com, which feels that the film's one big idea, that the puppets are vulgar, just isn't enough to carry the film.
The Happytime Murders isn't so much interested in immersing you in a comedic world so much as it is in having its puppets do the most outrageous things you've never seen or heard puppets do in a movie.
Of course, The Happytime Murders laser focus on being filthy could have been ok if the rest of the movie was much of anything to get interested in. Unfortunately, according to The New York Post, among others, that's simply not the case.
A cliché-ridden, laughless bore that wastes lead actress Melissa McCarthy's prodigious comic talents and beats well-trod territory with a mallet.
In the final analysis, it seems fairly clear that if you're a big enough fan of vulgar humor, or the idea that most of it comes from Muppet-style puppetry, then you'll probably find enough laughs in The Happytime Murders to sustain you. If, however, you're looking for much more than that, you may not find it here.
