The Happytime Murders

The Happytime Murders is a film that, perhaps shamefully, I've been looking forward to. 

I desperately wanted it to be as brilliant as the concept it introduces is. 

R-rated puppetry with Muppets-esque characters from Brian Henson himself? The potential was there. I was hoping that the result would have been something as gut-bustingly hilarious as Sausage Party was a couple years back.

Then early reviews started to roll in and indicated not only was The Happytime Murders going to be a disappointment, but it wold likely be one of the worst films of the year. 

My expectations swung wildly the other direction -- as much as I try, reviews that bad do influence my expectations -- so I ended up leaving my theater somewhere in the middle. I was disappointed from those initial "sleeper hit" expectations/predictions I had. Equally, I was also pleasantly surprised that the film wasn't nearly as bad as some of the reviews I read would indicate and, warts aside, The Happytime Murders is a fantastic concept executed in completely average fashion. 

Immediately, it seems like The Happytime Murders needed some additional talent behind the scenes. All of the puppetry is done in typical Muppets style (meaning that it looks goofy and wonky, but endearing) and the live actors, Melissa McCarthy included, are funny when they need to be. But where Seth Rogen and Co. made Sausage Party a riot, or something akin to the smart, self-deprecating humor from Miller & Lord, Happytime Murders doesn't have much humor going for it other than a few great gags that are funny simply because they involve puppets. Don't get me wrong, there is something hilarious about a vicious puppet murder by puppies, or puppets...ahem...silly-string climaxing all over the place. It's in those moments that the "easy" points are earned for The Happytime Murders while anything more complex outside of cursing insults and raunchy behaviors is outright ignored. To put it in simplest terms, The Happytime Murders always goes for the low-hanging fruit. It often works in its favor, but it starts to show that the 91 minute film doesn't have much other humor to offer than these segments and its there where the biggest cracks start to show. With some of the aforementioned talent, that wouldn't have happened.

"Quit whorin yaself out for money!"

This still is exactly what you think it is

Outside of average humor that sometimes veers on the side of comedy gold, the story of The Happytime Murders is interesting, while not being anything special. I found myself intrigued to see who exactly the "murderer" was, but I also can't claim I was glued to my seat with what is essentially a future "background noise" movie on TV. And that's where Happytime Murders also seems too phoned in is basically any technical component that makes it feel like it was made for a Saturday afternoon, heavily-edited TV-rerun where you're napping or folding laundry during it. If that doesn't sound like a ringing endorsement it's because it certainly isn't and it lends itself to the point earlier that I made about the film needing more behind-the-camera talent. It's funny because several times throughout the film I couldn't help but think what this would have looked like on Netflix. Not as a film either. Part of me believes that if you really put some effort into the characters and their backstories -- particularly the Muppets -- and had a strong showrunner, this would have made for an excellent, and very funny Netflix series. Sadly, that all resorts back to the lack of effort/talent behind the scenes that aims for all the easy wins without thinking of the fun complexities the humor could have had. 

"You're lookin a little...blue...partner."

The Happytime Murders isn't a film that you have to rush out to see in theaters. I get that it's been a busy year for the casual movie-goer and if you're wallet-conscious like I am, I'm not sure this one is worth much past a matinee. But it's also not the worst time I had at the movies this year and I did get some hearty laughs from the puppet shenanigans. I just wish it would have had a little more brains behind the easy laughs and we could have been looking at one of the funniest films of the year. 

Alas...

CONS

• Quickly loses steam when it comes to jokes. Puppets doing R-rated things is funny, but then you run out of ideas
• Seems made for TV-afternoon viewing. Which also means that most of the effort on this one was phoned in
• A lot of "easy" laughs and not much else
• Forgettable, despite the awesome concept

PROS

• Human actors do fine, though I'm sure they were begging for better material
• Several great laughs to be had. A handful of scenes had my theater rolling
• I enjoyed the mystery plot, despite how cliche and recycled it may have been
• Short and sweet
• Opens the door for someone (writer, director, both, etc.) to come in and hit a home run with this idea

Rath's Review Score | 6.5/10