I have finally gotten "Pokémon: Shield" out of the box, and let me say, it is way to easy to train your Pokémon. Since everybody gets experience regardless of combat, if you are anal retentive like me, you want to make sure the party is all equal before moving on. Dynamax powers are not overly impressive since it did not take much to clear the first gym leader with a non-Dynamax fire Pokémon. Regardless of these design flaws, it is entertaining enough to take up my time to the point where I do not have much else to write about otherwise.
Poor communication that made my 19-day in a row holiday work stretch a thing may have resulted in a break from the retail job for a week. With the "Pocket Monsters" and the chance to unwind, I may just need to take the world a little less seriously. And when your latest DVD.com envelope is Brian Henson's effort to subvert his father Jim's legacy, how can you be?
Being a critic/film expert is how.
The Happytime Murders
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Former and only puppet police detective Phil Phillips is a cynical gumshoe who is jaded by the lack of respect his kind receives. The prejudice towards his race leaves him as the only form of justice available to the felt kind. He has recently had a case fall in his lap (in both figurative and literal senses). Sandra White is being blackmailed about her sexual proclivities, and the criminal must be found. Little does he know that his skills of deduction will lead him into the trappings of a murder spree in which all of the victims were cast members of the first puppet cast sitcom, "The Happytime Gang".
One of the cast members was his brother, Larry. Another member, Jenny, was the human girl who got away. Needless to say, this case is going to be personal, so it will be up to his ex-partner and sugar junkie Detective Edwards and his secretary Bubbles to hold him back from the ledge that vengeance may lead.
After seeing the red ban trailer for this film in a theater, it is great to see that "The Happytime Murders" still had even more Muppet sex jokes to deliver. The downside is that it may have lead to a story that could have used more substance. Hopefully, Netflix will take note of this, and give us a dirty "The Dark Crystal" spin-off.
Or perhaps the strategy was to see if there was a market for non-Peter Jackson obscene puppets. If there was, then the sequel would build upon the predecessor's universe, ala "John Wick". Unfortunately, the returns dictate otherwise. Either reason, the lack of depth in the feature hurts it.
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If it were a mile-a-minute action story, the pacing is done well. This is a buddy cop flick, but with noir undertones. It does not play towards either one enough. The two leads could make the first premise work, but to pull off the noir, supporting characters need to be at least two-and-a-half dimensional. To keep the movie under 90 minutes, those chances to do so are lost.
Despite those story shortcomings, everything else works. The puppets act like the gross out comedy characters you want them to portray, the humans all give solid performances, and all the jokes are good. Since "Family Guy" is still on the air, there feature still has legs underneath it, and I hope the crew behind this will not give up after this first effort. Universal was behind the home release, so Disney is in no position to squelch those possibilities.
As an experimental film, "The Happytime Murders" works very well. The raucous humor keeps you amused as it briefly passes, so only in hindsight do you question whether or not it was good. This is the most fun I have had with Muppets since "Treasure Island", and that was reward enough. Since that was what parents hope for with kids entertainment, how could I not be satisfied?
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