[yasr_overall_rating]
When the puppet cast of an ’80s children’s TV show begins to get murdered one by one, a disgraced LAPD detective-turned-private eye puppet takes on the case.
In my mind’s eye, I can see the film’s producers pitching the concept to studio executives. The producer shouts earnestly, “It’s fantastic, bold – a cross between ‘Ted,’ ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit,’ and ‘There’s Something About Mary!’” Despite this odd pitch, the studio loves the idea anyway and signals the green light for production – hence, “The Happytime Murders” now showing at a theater near you.
Despite Melissa McCarthy’s top billing as Detective Connie Edwards, the star of the movie is Phil Philips, voiced and performed by Bill Barretta. The film begins interestingly enough with the intrepid puppet PI, an ex-cop, driving an old car around Los Angeles. In this setting, humans, and puppets co-exist, though puppets are clearly second-class citizens. Phil was discharged from the police force in disgrace for failing to shoot another puppet to protect his partner, McCarthy’s Detective Edwards.
With little warning, the narrative takes a sudden departure into explicit language and raunchy behavior that will likely catch most audiences off-guard and genuinely amused – at least at first. Soon enough, however, the constant overreach to generate a cheap laugh grows tiresome. Make no mistake, “The Happytime Murders” is a hard R-rated film, with much of the content about as graphic as one can imagine for an odd assortment of stuffed dolls.
The skeletal plot revolves around a discontinued kids television show, comprised of one human, played by Elizabeth Banks, and a cast of puppets. As the show’s characters wait for the payoff from syndication rights, most or all of them have fallen on hard times and now reside in the seamier sides of L.A. However, before the former TV stars are able to collect, bad things start to happen.
In case you didn’t know, puppets can be killed, and so, one by one, each cast member is systematically murdered by a mysterious entity. Unfortunately, as Phil tries to solve the case, he finds himself unwittingly present at the scene of each homicide, making him the prime suspect.
Melissa McCarthy provides another characteristic performance as the bitter ex-partner – credible and often funny, but also one-dimensional. Elizabeth Banks fares somewhat better, as she descends from the angelic sweetness of her days on TV into a fixture of the seedy underbelly of LA strip clubs.
“The Happytime Murders” is probably a love-it or hate-it movie. The more I think back on it, the less I find to like. Sort of the way “Borat” fades on subsequent viewings. Though I couldn’t help but laugh at several scenes, it was never very satisfying. Equally annoying were the flimsy attempts at social comment that were both superficial and fleeting.
The film’s chief shortcoming is attempting to blend bawdy, adult-oriented fare with a less-than-sophisticated noir tale that is simplistic and unimaginative. Very often tasteless and tedious, the film still somehow manages to generate moments of laughter, if only because of the incongruous merging of cute with crass. Sadly, those moments are not enough to salvage the overall enterprise.
In theaters Friday, August 24th
