If a Rated-R, raunchy, rude, and outrageous movie that involves puppets, is something you'd like to watch, then go ahead and check out "The Happytime Murders." I'm assuming that you must have already seen the red-band trailer, and thought that this movie is going to be hilarious to watch from front to back. Well, you thought wrong. Now for those of you who were immediately offended by the content shown in the trailer, feel free to not watch this movie. You're not missing that much.
To the movie's credit, it does make every attempt in the world to be hilarious through and through. In fact, the funniest scene in the whole movie wasn't even in that promotional trailer. With that said, most of the jokes are just mildly amusing, which is admittedly a disappointing thing to say for people expecting a laugh-riot. It's just really awkward seeing many jokes fall flat, or humor that only manages to get a silent nod of acknowledgement recognizing that there was a joke that made an attempt to make people laugh.
Truth be told, the biggest mistake this movie made, is that it relied on it's outrageousness to carry the whole thing through until the end. Which is ironic, since the outrageous nature of the premise is the likely reason people do want to see it. Unfortunately, the shock factor of seeing puppets curse and do sexual acts might seem like a hilarious thing at first, but then it sinks in that the explicit nature of those jokes can only go so far before you just get bored or desensitized by them. Some of it did work though, but that doesn't happen often enough.
The saving grace that makes the time spent watching it worth it, is the world building that was established in the premise. The human-puppet social commentary theme was genuinely something I'd like to see more of in much better movie as well. There are also some jokes that were actually good and even clever, that legitimately worked, and didn't rely on shock value alone. Then there's the movie's murder-mystery plot itself, that I found myself invested in seeing things through until the conclusion. Plus although it isn't perfect, the interactions between Melissa McCarthy's Detective Edwards, and Bill Berretta's puppet Private Investigator Phil Philips, was entertaining enough for me.
Despite all the criticism that can be tossed at "The Happytime Murders," it's not a terribly made movie by any means. It's just mediocre at best, that fits perfectly well in the "disposable entertainment" trash bin. Of course we still should at least admire the work done in making those puppets come to life. I know I personally wouldn't mind seeing more of this world that the movie created, but let's just hope that it's for a much better film next time. If there's even a next time.
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