Movie Review: The Muppets (2011)

Details from IMDB:

  98 min  -  Comedy | Family | Musical   -  23 November 2011 (Canada)

Ratings: 8.3/10 from 2,807 users   Metascore: 76/100
Reviews: 51 user | 81 critic | 35 from Metacritic.com

With the help of three fans, The Muppets must reunite to save their old theater from a greedy oil tycoon.

Initial Thoughts:

Like lots of people who group in the late 70s-early 80’s I was a fan of the Muppets show and I’ll admit that I really don’t remember seeing any of the other Muppet movies. I’ll also admit that I’m a huge Toy Story fan and when I learned of a new short before this movie, I wanted to see it if only for another look at Woody and the gang.

Main Points:

The movie starts off clever enough with Jason Segel’s character, Gary, who is an ordinary guy that just happens to have a Muppet brother, Walter.

Walter is completely obsessed with the Muppets, naturally , and when Gary plans a trip to L.A. with his girlfriend Mary (played by Amy Adams), Walter wants to come and visit the Muppet Theatre. Things aren’t so well there as Walter soon discovers that the Muppet Theatre will be demolished so that an oil tycoon can get the oil under it.

So Gary, Mary, Melvin and Kermit decide to get the gang back together and have a telethon to raise $10 million and buy the theatre outright. There are a few funny parts as the gang was collected but to be honest I found the movie dragged and I guess I’m a little too old to really enjoy a Muppet movie.

SPOILER ALERT!

Of course the Muppets stop the theatre from being destroyed (which you need to stay for some of the credits to find out), Gary proposes to his girlfriend Mary and Walter becomes a Muppet, fulfilling his life-long dream.

Final Thoughts:

This isn’t a bad movie but for me I can only give it a 6/10. I got bored and I’m just not the ideal audience. For me the music was the best parts (with the theme song being my favourite) and everyone does turn in good performances (aside from the rap song from Chris Cooper which sucked) but there just weren’t enough of these moments. If you are a fan of the Muppets or have kids that are I’d give this a reserved recommendation but be prepared to feel a little ripped off if you pay the usual theatre price (my tickets and treats came to almost $40 for two of us! ). I guess it’s true that sometimes you just can’t go home again.