The Happytime Murders (2018) Movie Review

THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS (2018) MOVIE REVIEW

When I first heard about the concept for this film, it was hard for me not to be excited. An idea like this simply screams money. Despite this however, the film is not having a good time at the box office currently raking in $10 million domestically, $30 million short of its $40 million dollar budget. Even with Melissa McCarthy signing on board in order to get some main stream credit, ironically it seems that her inclusion is one of the reasons that Happytime Murders is bombing both financially and critically. 

In a world where humans and puppets co-exist, the cast of an old 80's sitcom begin to be murdered one by one. Former cop turned private eye puppet is now forced to work together with detective Connie Edwards (Melissa McCarthy) as they try and solve this mass-murder mystery. As stated before, the concept for this film was incredibly intriguing to me and for the most part handles the story well enough, at the beginning at least. The movie starts off really strong and gave me great promise for the remainder of the runtime. Unfortunately this was not meant to be. After the 30 minute mark you quickly realise what type of movie you're in for. Repetitive humour and frankly just a boring road to the film's underwhelming crescendo. Despite these negatives, the movie does have one glaring positive. Throughout we see that, not so subtlety, that puppets are perceived as a lower class of citizen which on paper should be handled well but unfortunately feels incredibly forced and just boring. And in the end, thats what the film is. Boring. 

In terms of the humour, the film goes implements the lowest common denominator as this puppetry production relies on the use of drug and sexual humour non-stop. Good humour can balance this type of humour well and still prove to be an enjoyable experience. But when the movie expects gross out humour to work for every single joke at every single second, it becomes repetitive. And quite frankly, the movie feels ironic when it becomes as lifeless as the puppets they are trying to bring to life. 

Despite all these negatives though, I must give credit where credit is due. When you have director Brian Henson, the mind behind multiple Muppets movies, the puppetry is sure to be excellent. And for the most part, the puppets truly do feel alive and blend in perfectly in this prejudice driven puppet show. But when it comes down to it, is the movie funny? And for my money, it just wasn't. Despite the fact that it started off strong, the humour just got too repetitive for my liking and too predictable of a plot to be taken seriously as a noire murder mystery. If you are a true fan of Muppet style movies or even a fan of Melissa McCarthy, you may find some satisfaction in a movie like this. For me, it was a comedic rollercoaster. Starting off promising and on a high, but soon went down and down until it came to a complete stop.

OVERALL

3 / 10