The Happytime Murders Review
R: Strong crude and sexual content and language throughout, and some drug materialStx films, H.Brothers, Black Bear Pictures, Henson Alternative, On the Day Productions1 hr and 31 MinutesDir: Brian Henson | Writers: Todd BergerCast: Melissa McCarthy, Maya Rudolph, Joel McHale, Elizabeth Banks, Jimmy O. Yang, Leslie David BakerPuppeteers: Bill Barretta, Kevin Clash, Dorien Davies, Alice Dinnean, Drew MasseyI remember hearing about “The Happytime Murders” for as long as James Cameron has been procrastinating about “Avatar 2”. This damn movie has been in development for ten years and was treated like the middle child by various studios. It went through so many recastings, rewrites, and most of all, it went through development hell as the Jim Henson Company tried so hard to get this off the ground by any studio that wanted to commit. After 10 long years we finally have “The Happytime Murders”, an R-rated buddy comedy by Brian Henson who is definitely making his daddy proud by making puppets so damn nasty.
When the puppet cast of an '80s children's TV show begin to get murdered one by one, a disgraced LAPD detective-turned-private eye puppet takes on the case.THE GOODWith “The Happytime Murders” director Brian Henson proves that the Hensons are the best at what they do: making puppets. The production behind the film is impressive as far as puppet movies go. It is clear that most of the film is done through practical effects and the puppeteers definitely bring their A-game. Most of the shots will show you the puppet in full stances and you don’t get that from most movies like this. Audiences’ minds were blown when they saw Kermit riding a bike in “The Muppet Movie”, but here you have an entire society of puppets; it honestly makes the recent Muppet movies look like shit. Seriously, stay for the credits where they reveal how this movie was filmed and you’ll leave impressed, even if the movie doesn’t do anything for you.
The veteran/expert puppeteers involved in this film ensured that there would be great character designs. You have Bill Barretta (best known as Pepe the Prawn, Rowlf the Dog, and Swedish Chef) from the Muppets as the lead detective Phil Phillips, and his performance carries the movie. Though Phil is written just like your average jaded P.I. with a past that haunts him, he has enough charm and tragedy that makes him a likeable character you resonate with. Then, you have other known puppeteers such as Drew Massey, Dorien Davies, and Kevin Clash (best known for the O.G Elmo before it was revealed that he had a thing for underage boys).“Life of the Party” is still fresh in my mind, so having Melissa McCarthy be the main lead of this movie made me hesitant, but she ended up surprising me. While playing (yet again) the aggressive, and sometimes reckless, cop, McCarthy is nicely pulled back. She still does some her schtick, but what makes it funny is that most of the jokes are insults aimed at a puppet. Her chemistry with Baretta is the force of the narrative. There is such a well-developed story between the two that when the film shifts from being transgressive (in the same vein as “Zootopia” and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”) to a full on buddy comedy, it still works. I never thought there would be a day in film history where I’d say, “Melissa McCarthy has better chemistry with a puppet than she did with Sandra Bullock,” but… Melissa McCarthy has better chemistry with a puppet than she did with Sandra Bullock. Her character isn’t grating, her jokes often hit, and she has a certain charm. Shit, McCarthy and Falcone are producers on this and the film features a cameo by Ben Falcone that is actually hilarious.
There are some creative aspects of “The Happytime Murders” to appreciate, primarily the functionality of the world that is built here. Sugary candy and syrup are drugs to the puppets. When they ejaculate, they cum silly string. It may seem like very cheap humor, but it’s clever seeing the effort put into making these puppets have their own systems that’s both similar, yet different, to humans, especially since they coexist in our world. Let's think of all the fucked up settings we can place a puppet in and write scenes around them. You have scenes set in a porno shop and a crackhouse to name a few. Some of the humor comes from the places they have characters end up at. There are a few shock value visual gags that hit hard. Here, puppets are treated like second-class citizens. You feel bad for these puppets, for right when the film opens humans are abusing puppets and treating them like shit. It’s almost similar to “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” where toons are treated like second-class citizens, but instead of it focusing on a jaded human detective, the film is centered through the second-class detective point of view.This has been a great year for genre movies breaking the mold for their themes, which is also the driving force of narratives such as “Black Panther” and “Crazy Rich Asians”. For the first 20 minutes, this movie felt as progressive as said films. And then somewhere… somehow… the movie presses the “fuck it” button and falls victim to the studio’s demand to abide by the raunchy comedy code of conduct.THE BADSometimes when you hear about a movie entering development hell, you see the end product reflect the issues. In “The Happytime Murders”, it’s the writing. So, funny story: when the project was picked up by STX, the initial script by Todd Berger was revised by three uncredited people to meet with the studio’s demands to make it more of a raunchy, R-rated comedy than a crime/mystery involving puppets. AND IT SHOWS! The film is heavily marketed as a raunchy comedy, but for the most part it’s a crime noir that turns into a buddy cop film. When the film is stripped of the comedy, it’s a good crime/mystery story, but since the comedy is present and crass, it drags the narrative down.
There are two types of comedies I can’t stand: films that are fully ad libbed or films that aim for nothing but shock value. THIS HAS BOTH, but mostly relies on the latter. One of the earlier scenes takes place in a sex shop where they pull out all the stops for the sake of shock value and it’s not really funny. Only two jokes hit, but the rest are unfunny and juvenile. The comedy works whenever Edwards and Phillips bicker, but then it delves into improv comedy where McCarthy and Baretta are ad libbing. Most of the comedy relies on puppets swearing with the intention of going, “Haha isn’t it funny that a puppet said ‘fuck’ and is making sexual innuendos?” Yeah, it is at first, but when you beat it to the ground, you’re just coming off as childish and diminishing the integrity your premise has.You can tell they wanted to make a serious and dark noir that features puppets. Just look at the concept art of the film. It clearly sets the tone the Henson Company was aiming for, but because too many cooks were in the kitchen when STX picked it up you can see the dropoff of all the clever ideas the film had as it decides to take the lazy route. After that 20 minute mark, the second-class citizen theme goes:
It just disappears.It has this heavy theme about social injustice and discrimination that is present in the first act, but as it gets to the second, it’s totally abandoned for the sake of being just another buddy cop comedy. I give it this though: it’s far superior than nearly every buddy movie that came out in 2017 such as “CHiPs”, “Bright”, and “Baywatch”, but it still has the same issues all those films had, which is making the humor as rude and crude as it can get. So, when the story kicks back in, the tone is thrown way off and some scenes intended for tension are taken as jokes by the audience. I don’t know if I was sitting in an audience of dumbasses, but whenever a puppet is gruesomely murdered, they all end up laughing while you know it’s supposed to be terrifying. There is only one death that is intentionally played for laughs that is funny, but other ones are really fluffing graphic.
There is no consistency with the tone, the theme, or even the performances. Maya Rudolph plays Phil’s secretary and the entire time she’s doing a Jennifer Tilly impersonation where she has an oddly high-pitched voice. Then, when she gets comfortable later on, she goes in and out of her normal voice. One scene she sounds like Maya Rudolph, the next scene she’s in the high-pitched voice, and then in another scene she’s doing a New York accent.Back in my “Gotti” review, I discussed how the usage of Pitbull songs ruins the aura of the movie since it was set during late the 20th century, a time when his music was nonexistent. That same issue is present here. This movie’s music choices are on some sort of Spotify shuffle where upbeat songs would play over rather depressing scenes. For example, why is Karen O’s “Go” playing over a scene where Phillips and Edwards have a heart to heart? But that’s not all! Some of the music choices add to the detriment of the film’s tone as well as part of the story.The movie is centered around the murders of this cast of this popular show that took place in the 80s called the “The Happytime Gang”. The movie doesn’t tell you that, so you have no idea when this series took place. So, early on, a character plays a home video of a wrap party that took place in the 80s. During the home video they play the 2011 LMFAO song “Sexy and I Know it”. Because of this minor detail not being taken care of by the editor and the film not even mentioning when “The Happytime Gang” took place on television other than “20 years ago”, the big reveal of the mystery ends up being confusing.LAST STATEMENTWhile it’s production is impressive and benefits from McCarthy and Baretta’s dynamic, “The Happytime Murders” squanders it’s enticing premise for run-of-the-mill, cheap, raunchy humor aiming for shock value resulting in another case of wasted potential.Rating: 2.5/5 | 56%uper Scene: Edwards vs. Puppet thugs
