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The Happytime Murders wastes its intriguingly transgressive premise on a witless comedy that blindly pushes buttons instead of attempting to tell an entertaining story. Read critic reviews
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Movie Info
Detective Phil Philips is a down-on-his-luck puppet who used to work for the Los Angeles Police Department. When two puppets from an old TV show wind up dead, Phil suspects something is afoot and rejoins the LAPD as a consultant. Reunited with Connie Edwards, his former human partner, the bickering duo soon find themselves in a race against time to protect other former cast members before the killer strikes again.
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Rating: R (Some Drug Material|Language Throughout|Strong Crude & Sexual Content)
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Genre: Comedy, Mystery & thriller
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Original Language: English
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Director: Brian Henson
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Producer: Brian Henson, Jeffrey Hayes, Melissa McCarthy, Ben Falcone
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Writer: Todd Berger
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Release Date (Theaters): wide
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Release Date (Streaming):
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Box Office (Gross USA): $20.7M
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Runtime:
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Distributor: STX Films
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Production Co: On the Day, Henson Alternative
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Sound Mix: SDDS, DTS, Dolby Atmos
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Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)
Cast & Crew
News & Interviews for The Happytime Murders
Critic Reviews for The Happytime Murders
Audience Reviews for The Happytime Murders
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I honestly don't think I've ever loved a Melissa McCarthy led comedy, but I did dare to dream when it came to an R-rated Muppets movie. But when The Happytime Murders came to tread on my dreams, it did not tread softly.
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From Brian Henson comes the raunchy, hard-R comedy The Happytime Murders. Set in a world where humans and puppets live together, grizzled ex-cop turned private detective Phil Philips is forced to team-up with a human cop who used to be his partner when he investigates the murders of several puppets who starred in a family sitcom together. Featuring Melissa McCarthy, Elizabeth Banks, and Maya Rudolph, the cast isn't too bad. The problem is that the script is poorly written and beats to death its one-note joke: afterhours, puppets are dirty sex fiends. Some of the jokes work and the puppetry is incredibly good, but the plot is really thin and the vulgarity is just out of control. A crazy mess, The Happytime Murders goes way over the top, ruining whatever satire the film was going for.
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Remember when puppets having sex was funny in Team America - World Police? Not a lot of mileage left on that joke, unfortunately. What could be funnier than puppets cursing and screwing? How about puppets being a constant stand-in for marginalized people? Brian Henson seems to not only have extreme contempt for his father and his legacy but for any possible audience members as well. Add in a Rick-roll for bad measure, and we have this year's Sausage Party. Aside from the stupid novelty of premise and offensive subtext, it's miserable too, so that's nice.
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I liked Sausage Party. I feel like I should say that up front because I don't want to seem like I'm easily offended or that I can't take a dirty joke when I say that The Happytime Murders is a pile of shit. Also, while I haven't seen Peter Jackson's 1989 comedy/musical/parody Meet the Feebles which in and of itself seems to have been exactly what The Happytime Murders purports to be, I have seen Team America: World Police and after now having seen Brian Henson's (son of Jim and a director in his own right having made The Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island) twist on what it might be like if the puppets he grew up with grew up with him I feel rather confident in saying that I don't need another example of how funny it can be when bedrocks of childhood suddenly come to possess the most adult of behaviors with the crudest of takes on those behaviors. I say this because 1) Team America accomplished as much in balancing tone, humor, substance, and conveying it all through these objects not typically intended to be taken seriously with the sly genius of it hidden in the fact it actually had something to say and 2) because The Happytime Murders is rarely if ever actually funny. And I mean that not in the way that there are a few chuckles to be had here and there throughout the slim ninety-minute runtime, but rather that I didn't laugh once the entire time. The most pleasure to come out of sitting through this one-note joke of a "movie" is the small, sporadic flourishes of creativity that comes in adapting these puppets who know they're puppets into the real world and the humorous ways in which Henson, his team, and screenwriter Todd Berger integrate them. That said, there are maybe two moments in which the creativity of such integrations are funny enough to garner a smirk, but beyond this The Happytime Murders functions as an uninteresting whodunit that doesn't attempt to add weight to its narrative or not-so-subtle metaphor dealing in prejudice and discrimination as it hangs its hat solely on the joke of kid toys being dirty-except as it's executed here-it isn't a funny joke. read the whole review at www.reviewsfromabed.com
philip p Super Reviewer
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