Muppets Most Wanted

Muppets Most Wanted  is the latest installment in the now rebooted Muppets franchise. As someone who never saw a Muppets movie until the 2011 reboot, I'll say that film turned me into a Muppets fan. Most Wanted makes for a nice continuation of their story. The Muppets go on a world tour with Dominic Badguy (Ricky Gervais), who plots a series of burglaries with Constantine, the world's most dangerous frog. Constantine sets Kermit as his replacement in a Siberian prison under the guard of Nadya (Tina Fey).

You may find me comparing it a lot to the previous movie, because it really set the standard for me, but here goes. Most Wanted has a very strong first act. I enjoyed the opening sequence, as it picks up literally right where the last movie left off, and it goes straight into a musical number about sequels.The first 30-40 minutes are filled with fantastic jokes for both kids and parents, but about halfway through the movie, the older audience members might start to get a little bored. The movie plays off its predictable nature and makes it fun for everyone, but it's hard to maintain the steady stream of jokes in the first half hour for the entire 106 minutes.

The Muppets should definitely consider putting more spotlight on some of its smaller characters. Kermit seems to be the primary focus, which makes sense with him being the leader and all. Walter and Fozzie have their moments, and Ms. Piggy is practically a step below Kermit. But there needs to be more involvement, because they just feel like minor characters, when they're supposed to all be equals in the same group. Gonzo's lines mostly consist of suggesting dangerous ideas, and I'm not even sure if most of the others have names.

Ty Burrell and Sam Eagle have a fun relationship to watch as CIA and Interpol agents working together, if only their best jokes weren't shown in the trailer. Nothing entertains American audiences like jokes about Europe, and nothing entertains European audiences like a stereotypical American in Europe in the form of an eagle puppet.

While I did enjoy Ricky Gervais, he just seemed uncomfortable during a lot of this film, but not enough for him to hate making it. Jason Segel and Amy Adams were a big part of what made the last movie great, and I was left with a bit of disappointment when neither made an appearance. Tina Fey, however, almost steals the show. I'm not a huge Fey fan, but her Russian accent was amusing to say the least.

As far as the musical aspect of it goes, I enjoyed the first few songs, and then it seemed like they were just having musical numbers for the sake of having musical numbers. One by Ms. Piggy really forced an appearance by Celine Dion on to the audience. By the end of it, I was a little tired out. Some were there to progress the plot, while others were there to simply extend the runtime.

The prison story arc was just okay. I expected more to happen. Plenty of things I expected to happen do, but what surprised me didn't entertain much. I found myself wanting to just move the plot along on both sides of the story, but the jokes along the way were enough to keep me interested. I find it hilarious that no matter where you get arrested in Europe, you're going to Siberia no matter what. An abundance of celebrity cameos made this part of the story work.

As much as I love ripping on movies for having massive plot holes, I can't do it to a family film like this. Muppets Most Wanted is well aware of its shortcomings, and it succeeds in covering for them with self-referential humor. It's trying to keep its younger audience's attention while still making things fun for the whole family, which is incredibly hard to do in an age where the humor is becoming increasingly crude. I'll say Muppets Most Wanted isn't necessarily as entertaining as its predecessor, but it makes for an enjoyable time.

Rating: B

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is directed by and stars Ben Stiller. Walter Mitty (Stiller) leads a dull life. He doesn't know how to fill out his eharmony profile. He has spent the last 16 years dealing with photographs for LIFE magazine. For the last issue, the executives, led by some dick (Adam Scott), want to use a photo of Sean O' Connell's (Sean Penn) that was not delivered to Mitty's department. He decides to track down the nomadic O'Connell and find the missing photo to begin enjoying his life, stop daydreaming, and impress his office crush (Kristen Wiig).

Anything you liked about the trailers for this movie were mostly in the first 30-40 minutes. Outside of the jokes that everyone has seen, not a lot of them actually land. Most of them just come off as normal conversation. I'd chalk it up to bad comedic timing.

This movie is so predictable, everyone might have thought of the ending 10 minutes in. You're never really sure until it's revealed. The ending of every scene is as predictable as a coin with two heads. 

Mitty has a bad habit of daydreaming or "zoning out". It's interesting the first time (the one from the trailer), but after a while it jiust gets annoying. A couple of them just felt cartoonish and stupid. Kristen Wiig is placed throughout the film in these dreams as a reminder for why he's taking this journey but it feels really forced.

The character of Mitty would be more relatable if instead of zoning out during every confrontation, he either stood up for himself or backed down. Doing one or the other is more interesting than something we immediately know isn't really happening.

Adam Scott has gotten used to playing a complete douchebag on screen outside of Parks & Recreation. He seems comfortable in his role, but everyone outside of Ben Stiller and Sean Penn seem to be half-assing this movie. Patton Oswalt is literally phoning it in as the eharmony IT guy.

Kristen Wiig could be replaced by any other female actress. She isn't useless, but there's nothing unique about this role of Cheryl that puts Wiig above anyone else.

Sean Penn has a small role, but it's very different from what we've seen him in before. He used to being an over-the-top temperamental character. But in here he's calm, philosophical, almost inspiring, but his small amount of screen time isn't enough to turn this movie around.

This movie has been in planning for the better part of 2 decades. It feels like Stiller had this thrown into his lap, and he decided to try and make some kind of breakthrough out of it. While the cinematography is beautiful, it felt like some tourist advertisements for Greenland and Iceland. Its editing feels pretentious. The terrific music and beautiful landscape shots may be cool, but it makes it look like the movie is trying to be inspiring, without pulling it off.

Walter has this sister (Kathryn Hahn) who seems to serve no purpose at all. She doesn't even advance the plot in a way that another character couldn't. She must be there for comic relief, but EVERYONE is there for comic relief, so she just felt completely pointless.

Because of Stiller's comedic roots, the film simply can't be taken seriously as a drama. And since it's written and marketed as a comedy, but pretends to be this coming-of-age epic, the audience will walk out feeling neutral towards the film as a whole. It's perfectly bearable, but the life of Walter Mitty isn't as secret as they'd like us to think.

Rating: C