Muppets Most Wanted

Some of us never grow up! There are some adults in this world that still collect toys, some play kickball, some join adult hide and go seek leagues, and others are stuck in the days of when Kelly LeBrock and Chaka Khan were hot! I won't say which of these categories I fall in but lets just say I spent my entire lunch watching Weird Science and wishing I had a big black lady baking me dessert while singing "I feel for you! I think I loooove you!" So it should come as no surprise that the return of the Muppets made over 100 million dollars worldwide and that they decided to not only make a sequel to it but also decided to show it in theaters where you can drink beer. The last part of that I am certainly not complaining about but they should know their audience just a bit better when showing the previews. Just because I am seeing The Muppets doesn't mean I want to see every other children's flick that's coming out this year. I have no desire to see Rio 8 with Bruno freaking Mars and Kristen Chenoweth! And why feel the need to pay Bruno 1 million dollars to do a voice in this cartoon? Kids are going to annoy their parents into taking them to this catastrophe anyway, just save the money on Bruno and hand out cyanide popsicles for the adults as they walk into the theater, this way they don't die a slow death.

Anyway, I was channeling the two old men from The Muppets with that rant, so sorry about that. This movie picks up right from where it's predecessor left off and you immediately get the old men complaining; which of course had me cheering! They along with Animal are my favorite characters and thankfully this movie features just enough of the both of them. The crew is at a loss in regard to what their next move should be, that is until the shady "agent" Dominic Badguy (Ricky Gervais) comes into the picture. He lies and tells them that his name is French and pronounced "bad'g ee" to deflect from the obvious fact that he is evil and using them as part of a secret plan to steal the Crown Jewels. He is in cahoots with the recently escaped and world's most dangerous criminal Constantine, or as I like to call him, Evil Kermit. And through some awesome trickery, they convince the German police that Kermit is in fact Constantine and have him arrested and sent off to a Russian prison which is run by Tina Fey. So off they go, on a world tour featuring Evil Kermit and the hoodwinked Muppet clan as Interpol (TyBurrell) along with Sam Eagle try to figure out why there are random burglaries at every one of their stops.

This movie keeps in the spirit of The Muppets you remember from the past; a ton of crazy characters each with their own agendas that Kermit has to try and manage on his own. It's full of awesome puns and random celebrity appearances as well. Speaking of, Gervais seemed to be simply collecting a check with his performance. At one point during one of his song and dance numbers, he looked directly into the camera as if to say "You guys owe me an extra 500k for this". He could have at least put forth an effort or two to try and crack a smile. Maybe he had one too many pints before each take. Fey along with Burrell however seemed to enjoy themselves. Although I do have to say I was expecting just a bit more weirdness from Fey; maybe she felt the need to tone it down since it's a pg movie. But couldn't they have at least given her a cross dressing boyfriend or something?

Maybe I'm just getting old but some of the celebrity appearances I either didn't recognize or I simply couldn't understand why it was such a big deal that they were in the movie in the first place. In the end it didn't matter however as the movie had me laughing the entire time. But with that said, the movie does run a little long. I don't have children but I can imagine them and their short attention spans getting tired around the 90 minute mark. Thankfully I had a cute drunk girl sitting next to me to help keep my attention with her nice rack and her awesome Animal t-shirt that she wore to cover it! Bret from Flight of the Conchords once again wrote the songs for this movie, so if you like him and that show's humor, you should like this movie as well.

I will rate this movie as FRESH and I hope that you don't get the old lady in the theater that laughs way to hard at some of the jokes like I did.