The Happytime Murders

“Yeah! I unsew your mother, and made a jacket out of her!”

Filmology Rating: 1.75 out of 4

The Happytime Murders  is directed by Brian Henson who is the son of Jim Henson. You may recognize him as the creator of The Muppets. This film centers around ex-cop, Philip Philips, who was the first puppet cop until he screwed up big. He is called back into action when a string of murders to a number of puppets occur. It is up to Philips and his ex-partner, Melissa McCarthy, to solve the crime.

I went into this film expecting to hate it and give it a D and call it terrible. But I'll admit that a film about crazy puppets living along side humans wasn't a terrible idea. The movie is essentially a Muppet movie but done with dirty jokes and a buddy cop premise.

The film itself I did not find very funny. Most of the comedy fell flat, but I was surprised at how much I didn't hate this film. There are some clever jokes and quippy dialogue between Phillips and Melissa McCarthy. And if you're not familiar with my opinion on Melissa McCarthy, I hate her because directors normally let her improvise scenes and it turns out terrible because she isn't funny. But in this, it felt like she was forced to read from the script and it made her less annoying. She is still the worst part of the film, though. 

I would also like to bring up another terrible film called Theordore Rex, which came out in 1995. These two films have the EXACT SAME premise, but in Theodore Rex, it's a world populated with talking dinosaurs, but puppets. Literally the exact same.  In Theodore Rex, there is some terrible social commentary about dinosaurs treated as a minorities and people being racist against dinosaurs and The Happytime Murders has that same premise. 

Though, I do like the world building in this film. Like for puppets, the equivalent of cocaine is sugar. So every once and a while, a puppet is snorting sugar or dealing sugar. It's weird, but strangely a nice touch to world building in your wacky film about crazy puppets.

This film is a buddy cop movie and it is horribly generic, but the concept and the character of Philips kept me from hating the film. I guess if you're really curious, go see it. Go in with low expectations and you won't be dissapointed.

Rating: Rent It 

-Nolan