Film The Muppets/The Muppets Most Wanted

[mr_woo]

I hate musicals, there's only one or two that I like, but I love the muppets and I loved this film. It's just so lovely and feel good but thankfully without overstepping that line of 'saccharine sweetness'. Honestly I thought near the start it was going to but it got that line just right. My favourite character was Chris Coopers bear sidekick. He was just incredibly dry but he creased me right up.

I have to ask though, where the hell was Rizzo The Rat ? Him and Gonzo are usually hilarious together but he was nowhere to be seen

[SMD]

Rizzo had a cameo washing the floor.

[Headache]

Just come back from seeing this some friends and I've already got the soundtrack playing off Spotify to keep the feeling I left the cinema with running through my veins. I loved it, laughing out loud in a half empty cinema at every silly little joke and cameo. Animal stole the show for me but then he's always been a favourite of mine. The only unsatisfying feeling I had watching the film was when they come out singing the theme song and knowing that there isn't a new Muppets TV show for me to watch outside of this film. It needs to happen.

[Dame Orbette]

Amazing. Amazing amazing amazing amazing. :wub:

[Headache]

The Muppets sound track available as a playlist on Spotify. I've listened to it a couple of times already

http://open.spotify.com/user/bureki/playlist/3YO35OgW3tDux5S4KewLpQ

[Dame Orbette]

The Muppets sound track available as a playlist on Spotify. I've listened to it a couple of times already

http://open.spotify....W3tDux5S4KewLpQ

:omg:

That'll be me doing nothing but twirling around the office for the rest of the day then.

edit: you know when you're listening to The Muppets OST at work and you forgot that Forget You by Cee Lo Green was sung by chickens and then it comes on and you spit tea all over your computer. Yup.

[Looper]

I haven't laughed as hard in the cinema at something in a long time as I did to that musical sequence with the barbershop and the chickens. Loved it.

I fancy Amy Adams too something rotten and I feel guilty about it for some reason. She's so wholesome.

[Daley]

The fart shoes and Forget You by the chickens were proper actual laugh out loud moments for me.

[Art Vandelay]

The bit that made me laugh the most was the 'someone to paint/someone to pose' line of the song with them life drawing in the front room.

[Dame Orbette]

I was a bit tipsy when I went in so I laughed at a LOT of the film, but the chickens killed me.

[jon_cybernet]

My mate Oli nearly broke himself in half laughing at the Chickens bit.

[SMD]

Big laugh out loud moment was when they told Kermit they got a celebrity host and how. Fucking love Kermit.

[oli]

My mate Oli nearly broke himself in half laughing at the Chickens bit.

My wife nearly choked laughing at the chickens bit.

[Wickedkitten]

It was definitely far far better than I ever expected it to be and I absolutely loved the Muppets when I was a kid.

[Dame Orbette]

I want the chickens to release a covers album.

[Wickedkitten]

I want the chickens to release a covers album.

Kickstarter project, GO

[lordcookie]

Well this week I discovered that my older brother is a complete and utter idiot. He took his two kids to see The Muppets last week and said it was shit and to top it off he also said he doesn’t like The Muppets Christmas Carol. I am now seriously questioning whether one of us was adopted.

If you are a fan of the Muppets I think it is medically impossible not to like this film. It manages to be a love letter to the gang with out the reverence and it manages to capture the spirit of the original series and films without feeling like a total rehash of past glories. Jason Segel was an inspired choice to help bring the Muppets back to where they belong. He may be a pretty poor actor but he clearly gets what made them work originally and why they still work now. There is no pretension here, it is a warm hearted slice of stupid gags and pratfalls. I think it could have been very easy to modernise the Muppets by making them ironic and have gags that play to different audiences. This would have been wrong and I applaud the fact they have kept to the original spirit. The film allows the Muppets to do what they do best, you don’t need an elaborate plot (in fact you want anything but) or rich character development, you just need Kermit, Miss Piggy and the gang to be themselves. This is something that a lot of the Muppet films lost sight of post-Christmas Carol and something that this film greatly benefits from.

The new additions also work incredibly well. Segel and Adams make a sweet couple and it is testament to the script and the performances that the film works just as well when the screen is Muppet-less as it does when they are on screen. Gary’s relationship with his brother, Walter, is also beautifully judged. It is a really simple but endearing bond and something I wasn’t sure would work (bringing in a new Muppet could always be a risky strategy). All the songs are great as are the routines that accompany them and getting some of the creative team behind Flight of the Conchords was a perfect match with the material.

Although it is a crime to criticise the Muppets I don’t necessarily think the film is perfect. The voice work misses Frank Oz. Eric Jacobson does a solid impersonation but the voices of Miss Piggy and Fozzie never sound quite right. Going against forum opinion I actually think the telethon is a low (but not bad) point of the film. It doesn’t help that I absolutely loath Jack Black but the telethon lacked the heart and the jokes of the rest of the film, although the climax more than makes up for it. The cameos were all pretty poor and pointless and the film could have been a little shorter without really losing anything. These are small criticisms in the grand scheme of things because when the overall package is this good, joyous and faithful to Jim Henson’s original creations it is hard not to fall in love with the Muppets all over again.

****

[moosegrinder]

I honestly didn't notice it wasn't Frank Oz. Why wasn't he involved?

This was awesome. It's just...awesome. I took the missus' 15 year old daughter (who was a lot more enthusiastic about seeing it than I'd anticipated) and we wailed with laughter. Bit out of place in a cinema full of women with children under 10, but whatever. Looking forward to the blu-ray, which going by Disney time should be out in June.

[SMD]

Frank Oz is pretty much in retirement now, isn't he?

[Harsin]

Yeah, he's pretty much retired from muppeteering nowadays, apart from the rare appearance on Sesame Street, He also didn't like the script of the new film.

"I wasn’t happy with the script”, Oz explained. “I don’t think they respected the characters. But I don’t want to go on about it like a sourpuss and hurt the movie.”

Keep in mind it went through a lot of revisions. One version had a reveal that Tex Richman was actually Kermit in disguise so you don't know which one he saw.

[Jimmyzilla]

I really liked it but the ending felt like a bit rushed

and I wished that

Animal had a bigger solo

but it was a lot of fun

Seeing Seldon Cooper was a little jarring though (not as much as Leonard in 'In Time' though)

[Popo]

I only have 5 words to say about this movie:

Automatic Destroy Plumbing Business Button

[amc]

I only have 5 words to say about this movie:

Automatic Destroy Plumbing Business Button

Yeah the explosion pressing that caused must have cost a fair old whack.

[tec1122]

Muppet Man and the barber shop quartet were solid fried gold.

[Monkeyboy]

Finally seen this. Excellent film. I'm currently trying to knock up a film review to do it justice.

With regards to Muppet Christmas Carol, Michael Caine was never invited onto the TV show, despite wanting to be on it. I expect there was a waiting list anyway, back in the day.

[Alex W.]

Muppet Man

I had forgotten.

[lordcookie]

I wouldn't be surprised if the explosion is a little nod to the unproduced, The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made, whereby Gonzo blows the entire budget on the opening credits and they have to cut corners during the rest of the film.

[Daley]

Take Manhattan is definitely worth a watch and From Space isn't too bad either but not up to the quality of a number of other Muppet films (particularly The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper and Christmas Carol).

These are £4 in HMV. I bought the first for the little one. Yes the little one.

I will watch it too obviously.

[Tunisia]

Saw this last night with the gf, it was spectacular. Had never actually seen the muppets before except snippets of Christmas Carol in festive periods gone by- I suspect I missed a few references and cameos.

[moosegrinder]

http://youtu.be/jRcON9t5Dlc

I either didn't realise what this was in the film or I was too busy pissing myself laughing at it that my memory has blanked it out, but it's so, SO fucking brilliant. It's also now my ringtone.