Muppets Most Wanted Review - NP Approved

Muppets Most Wanted (2014)

Cast: Ricky Gervais, Ty Burrell, Tina Fey
Director: James Bobin
Country: USA
Genre: Adventure | Comedy | Crime | Family | Musical
Official Site: Here

Editor’s Notes: Muppets Most Wanted opens wide release today, March 21st.

It’s a road movie. It’s a crime-caper. It’s a musical comedy. It’s a prison break comedy (no drama allowed). It’s Muppets Most Wanted, the second entry in the newly rebooted, Jim Henson-created, Disney-owned Muppets franchise that once, not that long ago (as in 2010), seemed like its days of drawing family-friendly moviegoers to multiplexes were well behind it. But 2011 changed everything – well, at least for the time being. With multi-hyphenate Jason Segal co-starring and co-writing (with Nicholas Stoller), Amy Adams as his love interest, and an irresistibly catchy Oscar-winning song written by Bret “Flight of the Conchords” McKenzie, the return of the Muppets to the big screen wasn’t just for nostalgia buffs. It was a fresh, invigorating – not to mention reinvigorating – return to what the Muppets do best: Entertain audiences with a clever mix of pun-filled skits, self-aware songs, and classic comedy shtick. What wasn’t there to love about The Muppets? Short answer: Not much.

 It’s a road movie. It’s a crime-caper. It’s a musical comedy. It’s a prison break comedy (no drama allowed). 

Muppets Most Wanted opens seconds after the end of its predecessor. Stand-ins for the much-missed Jason Segal and Amy Adams wave to their adoring crowd (of extras) before the Kermit-led Muppets break into a self-referential song about our love/hate relationship with sequels. The lyrics playfully nod in the direction of inferior sequels, possibly as a preemptive gesture for the small subset of moviegoers who, 105 minutes later, exit their local multiplex not with joy in their hearts, but with its opposite (whatever that is in the context of the Muppets). Whatever the reason, it’s another quotable song, filled with just the right mix of energy and enthusiasm from the gathered crowd of Muppets. Recognizing that sometimes Happily Ever After really isn’t a Happily Ever After, the Muppets collectively wonder, “What’s next?” “Where do we go from here?” Enter the Muppets Most Wanted’s No. 2 villain, Dominic Badguy (Ricky Gervais).

 Not every joke hits, of course. Most do. A few don’t. A running gag featuring Sam the Eagle, the epitome of American masculinity, and Jean Pierre Napoleon (Ty Burrell), a French Interpol agent with a motivation problem grows increasingly tiresome and tedious.

Badguy (he’s quick to point out it’s pronounced “Bad-Gee”) effortlessly convinces the now directionless Muppets that what they really need and want is a European tour, starting with that center of continental comedy, Berlin. Badguy, of course, is an actual bad guy. He’s in the employ of one Constantin, the “World’s Most Dangerous Frog.” Kermit’s doppelganger – save for a black mole over his lip – Constantin isn’t interested in amassing an ill-gotten fortune or even power. He just wants to become the most famous criminal of all time, not just the most dangerous (and famous) frog of all time. To get to their ultimate target, the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London, Constantin pulls a switcheroo, taking Kermit’s place with the Muppets while Kermit ends up in a desolate Russian Gulag run by a show tunes- and musical-obsessed warden (and secret Kermit fan), Nadya (Tina Fey).

The Muppets’ European tour provides a framework for Constantin’s various museum-related capers and just as importantly, the ongoing, slow-motion implosion of the Muppets. As with everything Muppets related, gentle lessons are there to be had. In this case, the Muppets – seemingly eager to break with Kermit’s benign rule – learn lessons in trust, honestly, friendship, and above, preparation. With Kermit at the Gulag and Constantin rarely around, the Muppets let their whims guide their often badly judged decisions. For his part, Kermit takes to the Gulag’s ecosystem, eventually becoming Nadya’s right-hand frog, at least where an upcoming musical is concerned. All the while, oddball cameos, the cornball jokes, the visual gags, the pop-culture references – some deliberately stale, including Miss Piggy doing the Macarena and the boys at the Gulag performing a number from A Chorus Line – never stop, a credit to Stoller and co-writer/director James Bobin (The Muppets, “Flight of the Conchords”). They know what works in the Muppet universe and write and direct accordingly.

Not every joke hits, of course. Most do. A few don’t. A running gag featuring Sam the Eagle, the epitome of American masculinity, and Jean Pierre Napoleon (Ty Burrell), a French Interpol agent with a motivation problem (an obvious dig at French/European work practices), chasing after Constantin and Badguy grows increasingly tiresome and tedious. Sometimes it’s best to quit while you’re behind, but there’s no quit in Stoller and Bobin. It’s a minor blip, a forgivable offense (if it’s an offense at all), especially in the context of a Muppets adventure that delivers on practically every promise implicitly made to moviegoers: You’ll leave Muppets Most Wanted humming a tune (or three) with an optimistic spring in your step and a difficult-to-overcome desire to pull out your dusty VHS tapes or slightly more current media and revisit The Muppets Show – not to mention their previous big-screen adventures – all over again.

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Mel Valentin

Staff Film Critic

Mel Valentin hails from the great state of New Jersey. After attending New York University as an undergrad (politics and economics double major, religious studies minor) and grad school (law), he relocated from the East Coast to San Francisco, California, where he's been ever since. Since Mel began writing about film nine years ago, he's written more than 1,600 reviews and articles. He's a member of the San Francisco Film Critics Circle and the Online Film Critics Society.

Latest posts by Mel Valentin (see all)

• Muppets Most Wanted Review - NP Approved - March 21, 2014
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