Escape to the Movies: The Muppets

PsychedelicDiamond

Wild at Heart and weird on top
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Jan 30, 2011
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Oh my god! I'm gonna call my political representatives in Washington right now! Oh wait... i'm german.
 

elitestranger1

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Nov 20, 2009
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treasure island is the best one i think. but xmas carol has always been an anual tradition, still have my vhs copy which like the same age as me.

would this new one be good for older generations or is it only for the new kids?
 

elitestranger1

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PsychedelicDiamond said:
Oh my god! I'm gonna call my political representatives in Washington right now! Oh wait... i'm german.
i thought that too. "w8 a minute i dont have any political representatives in Washington, but maybe i can get david cameron on speed dail and have him patch me through" (from UK)
 

Archaon6044

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Oct 21, 2008
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i would gladly help out with the SOPA thing, especially because if you yanks go for it, the UK won't be far behind, but because I'm British not American, I can't do anything politically on your side of the pond.
 

Daria.Morgendorffer

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Nov 26, 2011
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The Muppets are awesome.

This movie was a vanity project for Jason Segel, and like most vanity projects was not awesome.

That is all.

Okay, no, wait, SOPA sucks.

THAT is all.
 

Daria.Morgendorffer

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The Muppets are awesome.

This movie was a vanity project for Jason Segel, and like most vanity projects was not awesome.

That is all.

Okay, no, wait, SOPA sucks.

THAT is all.
 

Andre Nilsson

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May 31, 2011
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just one question about that SOPA thing. What will we who do not live in USA do? and how can one Country do something that effect the hole world? forgather the last Question this is USA, but the fist still stand.
 

artanis_neravar

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MovieBob said:
The Muppets

This is what we call the Muppet Shooooooooow!

Watch Video
Very Awesome movie, love the Muppets, and I am not afraid to admit that I teared up at the end. I'm sure everyone who saw it knows what I'm talking about
 

artanis_neravar

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Daria.Morgendorffer said:
The Muppets are awesome.

This movie was a vanity project for Jason Segel, and like most vanity projects was not awesome.

That is all.

Okay, no, wait, SOPA sucks.

THAT is all.
LIES! This movie, like the vast majority of Muppet movies was awesome!
 

Urh

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Oct 9, 2010
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If anything, the reunion aspect reminded me of the "getting the band back together" premise of the original Blues Brothers movie. Definitely going to see this when it comes out here....in January?!?!? Oh, for fuck's sake...

Rednog said:
Wait, so a human and a muppet are brothers....did their father happen to be masturbating into a sock and somehow it spawned the muppet child?
Someone please explain in what twisted logic this makes sense?
Like others have said, you are putting waaaaay too much thought into these things. They're brothers because shut up, that's why. You're watching a movie about puppets - logic and realism are supposed to be checked at the door to the theater.
 

Daria.Morgendorffer

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Lies?

Dispute the following:

1. Too much emphasis on humans.
2. The original songs ranged anywhere between mediocre to downright painful ("Man or Muppet" had me wanting to bash my head into things, and "Me Party" felt like it was from an entirely different, worse movie).
3. Walter was a bit of Gary Stu wish-fulfillment on the part of Segel (really, an original and unproven Muppet is given all the credit (and waaaay too much screen time), and has a more 'amazing' act than The Rainbow Connection to close the show with?)

I'm not a hater. I have a Muppets marathon at least once a year. I wished this movie was going to be better, but frankly, I don't know why people refuse to admit this movie had some egregious flaws.
 

Rednog

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Urh said:
Rednog said:
Wait, so a human and a muppet are brothers....did their father happen to be masturbating into a sock and somehow it spawned the muppet child?
Someone please explain in what twisted logic this makes sense?
Like others have said, you are putting waaaaay too much thought into these things. They're brothers because shut up, that's why. You're watching a movie about puppets - logic and realism are supposed to be checked at the door to the theater.
No one else said that.
Reading comprehension fail?
 

TitanAura

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Jun 30, 2011
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1. I already sent my anit-SOPA letter.
2. I saw The Muppets BEFORE watching this review and loved it on my own terms for my own reasons.

I'm feeling pretty on-the-ball this week.
 

Denizen

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Jan 29, 2010
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Thanks for the review Bob. I feel like I just re-experienced a missing part of my childhood that blends so well with my current life. It was one of those positive movie experiences that reminds you what's been missing. Thanks again.
 

Diddy_Mao

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Jan 14, 2009
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I went to see the late showing of The Muppets on opening night. Being around 10:30 at night I was surprised to see that the theatre was at least half full...all of whom were men and women approximately my age or older.

it was one of the best theatre going experiences of my life, everyone laughed at the same jokes, sighed a little wistfully at the scene where Walt sees the picture of Kermit and Henson together and got a little misty eyed when Kermit sang Rainbow Connection.

My younger relatives went to see it with their parents the following day and almost immediately came over to my house to borrow my DVD collection of the Muppet Show/movies.


If I had to make a complaint at all it's that the songs in "The Muppets" never really seem to work. Almost all of the original musical numbers are given to the human cast and the Muppets are left to take over montage duties to old pop songs...it just doesn't seem right.

(Edit: On a personal note, I was really happy to see that Uncle Deadly was finally given a chance to shine in this film...that is all.)
 

artanis_neravar

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Daria.Morgendorffer said:
Lies?

Dispute the following:

1. Too much emphasis on humans.
2. The original songs ranged anywhere between mediocre to downright painful ("Man or Muppet" had me wanting to bash my head into things, and "Me Party" felt like it was from an entirely different, worse movie).
3. Walter was a bit of Gary Stu wish-fulfillment on the part of Segel (really, an original and unproven Muppet is given all the credit (and waaaay too much screen time), and has a more 'amazing' act than The Rainbow Connection to close the show with?)

I'm not a hater. I have a Muppets marathon at least once a year. I wished this movie was going to be better, but frankly, I don't know why people refuse to admit this movie had some egregious flaws.
There was some slight emphasis on Segal and his girl, but almost always in a manner that helped move forward the muppet plot. The original songs were all amazing, bar none. They never said that it was more amazing, just that his act was a surprise to everyone, no one had seen his act and they were all pleasantly surprised by how it turned out.
 

walrusaurus

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Mar 1, 2011
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MSfire012 said:
Awesome video as always Bob. One question: Why the Hell didn't you review The Tree of Life or Melancholia?
Both of those movies came out like 9 months ago. Tree of life was horrendous. Melancholia was better, but certainly not in my top 10 for the year.

Bob very rarely reviews art-house flicks. Generally sticking to those films that the audience will all likely have heard of.

off-topic: best movie of the year to date was The Guard.
 

walrusaurus

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Daria.Morgendorffer said:
Lies?

Dispute the following:

1. Too much emphasis on humans.
2. The original songs ranged anywhere between mediocre to downright painful ("Man or Muppet" had me wanting to bash my head into things, and "Me Party" felt like it was from an entirely different, worse movie).
3. Walter was a bit of Gary Stu wish-fulfillment on the part of Segel (really, an original and unproven Muppet is given all the credit (and waaaay too much screen time), and has a more 'amazing' act than The Rainbow Connection to close the show with?)

I'm not a hater. I have a Muppets marathon at least once a year. I wished this movie was going to be better, but frankly, I don't know why people refuse to admit this movie had some egregious flaws.
I'm so glad I'm not the only one who hated that Man or Muppet song. Everyone i've talked to or read about it has been all over it.
The movie was a bit human heavy in the first act, but given the premise of the story how could it not be? Once you get past the setup, there are very few times where the humans are talking without the muppets on screen with them. I wasn't huge on walter, but he stayed out of the way more or less entirely during the back half of the film, which i appreciated.
 

Daria.Morgendorffer

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Nov 26, 2011
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I guess the problem I had was that that it was human-heavy in the first place.

This is a MUPPET movie. It should be about MUPPETS. There should not have been humans to drive the plot along. As for Walter, sure, he stayed out of the back half, but when he came back, what did he do? He did an 'amazing, show-saving' number that followed The Rainbow Connection, which...felt really, really off. Like we were supposed to think more highly of it than it was actually worth (when the show should have ended with TRC. Then the part at the end where all the Muppets were raising him up as if to say "Here's our new bright star!", when he was bland and boring.

So, okay, here's the question I guess I want to pose to the folks who still think that this movie was awesome. I'm going to take a page from the Red Letter Media school of critiquing. If you were to block out ANY other media in the Muppets canon and based an assessment on this movie and ONLY this movie, can you describe anything about the characters that does not involve: their job or what they look like?

The part of the movie that's devoted to humans should have been used to develop the Muppets' personalities (and, in fact, why Animal was in rehab; Animal had the best line of the movie, by the way. "Acting...natural.") so that they didn't seem like figurative puppets to the screenplay and to show up and do the whole "Remember me? I do this!" routine, only for them to slink into the background until the plot needed window dressing again.

So, I'm going to take a whack at Jason Segel for a minute here, so praised for being 'such' a Muppet fan...here was a guy who didn't bother to explore the personalities of the titular characters he claimed to love so much in favor of a Muppet he created himself? I was neutral on the guy before, but now I suspect he's a bit of a jackass.

The fawning over the Muppets he's given to the press, and THIS is the result? That's like saying, I'm going to write a Marx Brothers movie, but really, the story is going to spotlight the lost Marx Brother (Gummo, in case you're wondering), make double sure he gets treated like a reluctant, untested, but blindingly-talented star by the script (Bella Swan, anyone?), not giving Groucho any good lines to chew over, not have a madcap scene of Chico and Harpo tag-team annoying someone, not have Harpo either do some physical comedy and/or play a harp, and by the end of the movie, even Groucho is going to give him props for how wonderful he is. But since I'm a Marx Brothers fan, that's perfectly acceptable. Blech.

So, by that note, of COURSE Walter is wonderful. Because nobody else was given any chance to show off their personalities and talents anyway.

Ugh, I'm sorry to be such a cynical old broad about this, but I really DID want this movie to be better, and I'm really disappointed that I wasn't at least pleasantly surprised. To me, it wasn't a Muppet Movie. And I wanted more Gonzo. More GONZO, do you hear?