The Happytime Murders (2018)
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The Happytime Murders Movie Review
The Happytime Murders is a 2018 comedy crime film directed by Brian Henson and starring Melissa McCarthy. It’s an okay, passable movie and a guilty pleasure for me.
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“I guess we know the purple carpet doesn’t match the drapes“
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First and foremost, I do realize that this movie is hated and I still wanted to watch it ’cause I was intrigued by its concept very much. I do realize that it’s trashed by both critics and audiences and that I am in the vast minority who tolerate it. But full disclosure, I like stuff like this – the adult-oriented cartoon/puppet etc. movies/shows that push people’s buttons. And although it’s of course infinitely inferior to both South Park and ‘Sausage Party’ as it’s never as smart and the racial allegory is way too on-the-nose, I still found the movie a lot of fun.
It’s not hilarious and most of it is borderline offensive and reaching to provoke a violent reaction and shock and awe instead of genuine laughter which is earned, but I still laughed at a couple of jokes and ridiculous imagery and overall I was amused which is what I expect from my comedies. It’s not hilarious and it’s very slight in terms of the plot (though it does channel 70s crime flicks reasonably well), but still I had fun with it and that was enough for me to give it a passing grade.
Melissa McCarthy is pretty good. She seemed disinterested at first, but she genuinely became better and better as the movie progressed and I just loved her relationship with Phil the puppet. He is the most memorable puppet and the two share a terrific chemistry and some very funny interactions. But Elizabeth Banks and particularly Sandra felt underdeveloped and overly sexualized as well as stereotypes. And them being lesbians was unnecessary and somewhat offensive. All of the other characters are forgettable. Maya Rudolph is pretty good though.
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The humor is so-so – sometimes it misses the target, sometimes it works. Some of the imagery is fine, but some of it was just awful and offensive just to be offensive with no point to it whatsoever with the sex scene being the best example of that. The runtime is short, the editing is bad and the script could have been better, but the film is hugely entertaining, interestingly campy, very memorable and overall passable. It was influenced too much by ‘Roger Rabbit’ though.
The Happytime Murders has some scenes which are just offensive to be offensive with no point to them whatsoever. It’s also rather on-the-nose with its racial allegory, the script is so-so and the humor is hit-or-miss, but the central relationship works well, the acting is fine, some scenes are quite amusing and the overall movie is passable, ridiculous entertainment and certainly a guilty pleasure for me.
