1 The Mickey Mindset: Chase Beecher Reviews...Muppets Most Wanted!

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Chase Beecher Reviews...Muppets Most Wanted!

This article includes minor spoilers. 

Chase Beecher- They've got another go to show. They've ordered a sequel. The studio thinks they're a viable franchise. Yes, friends, this is how the Muppets open their movie. Well, this movie. Yes, the Muppets.... again. No, that's not the name of the film.
 
"Muppets Most Wanted" is the film's title. You will want to see it. Not only is it a funny madcap caper following the Muppets on a worldwide tour of "The Muppet Show" it's a tale of a pig and a frog,and another frog.

Our beloved Kermit is frognapped and replaced by the world's number one frog and criminal, Constantine. He is a dead ringer for Kermit. Almost. He has a mole on his upper lip that he paints green and has a terrible 80's movie Russian movie villain accent. Constantine is brilliantly performed by Matt Vogel, who is the MVP of this film. Of course, The Muppets have not noticed Kermit has been replaced, all except Animal. ( no one believes or understands him.)

Kermit ends up in a Russian gulag ran by the ruthless Nadia (Tina Fey-- who can sing!) and filled with cameos. (Seriously, don't blink during this film. You will miss a big star with a one liner cameo.)

As the film paces on (at a breakneck speed) more and more crimes are being committed at the same time and place The Muppets are performing. (Berlin, Dublin, Spain) Ricky Gervais, who plays Constantine's number two, and the evil little frog are committing and stealing things galore. Gervais is hilarious as a tour manager for our fuzzy group, who secretly is trying to frame them for all this mischief. 

Ty Burrell as an Interpol agent, and Sam (the American) Eagle as a CIA agent, join forces and bump heads the entire film to find out "who did it." Burrell is great as an Inspector Clouseau-type. Sam is great as a bird.

In the mean time, Piggy gets one of her biggest dreams to come true: to sing a ballad with Celine Dion. (Which I'm sure we will hear at the Oscars next year.) Rizzo and Robin walk away with the biggest laughs in the film. (People applauded at my screening after hearing his line.)  More classic Muppet gags are found and callbacks to their other movies are had too. 

The film's climax takes place in London and is suspenseful. It's the most action I've ever seen in a Muppet movie. (Kermit dangling from a helicopter?! A wedding?! Fozzie poses as a bearskin rug?!) The film ends happily and everyone is together again.  Again. 

This film is the funniest Muppet film I have seen to date. 2011's " The Muppets" was funny and full of nostalgia to remind people of these characters while introducing them to new fans. Now that we have that out of the way, let's cut the Muppets loose and let them do what they do best: put on a show. The rip roaring, laugh out load fest is just under 2 hours, but it flies by. 


Director James Bobin knows exactly how to treat these characters as does screenwriter Nicholas Stoller. I consider "The Great Muppet Caper" to be "the crown jewel" of Muppet films. This comes very close. This film has Jim Henson's texture and feel all over it. I wouldn't be surprised to learn he came back and made it himself.

If you're having doubts about seeing this consider this: I was seated next to another blogger complaining that Muppets were too "cute" and "not very funny" and he didn't want to be there. By the film's second act he was laughing so hard he was crying and snorting. That was not "cute."

I give it 4 1/2 out of 5 stars. Now, hurry up. Go see it. They've made a sequel. 


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