Carnage chez les Puppets

The Happytime Murders is less Roger Rabbit and more Cool World or Monkeybone, the movie is much better than either of those films by virtue of having an engaging lead and a coherent story(which both other films lacked) but its humor is a mixed bag. Its brisk running time of 78 minutes makes it a quick sit, and it doesn't linger on any comic set piece too long (save for maybe a puppet sex scene that falls flat). The puppetry is impressive on a technical level and the movie does a good job of bringing to life its sleazy world of puppets and humans, but its reliance on shock humor makes some stretches rather tedious to sit through. Maybe if The Happytime Murders had been made before the glut of The Hangover clones flooded cineplexes for 10 years it might've been able to have a more lasting impression, but as is it's a comedy with a few chuckles, some decent puppet effects, and not much lasting impact.

An interesting mix of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Team America: World Police that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. This film doesn't pretend to be anything other than a raunchy comedy and doesn't hold back on the gross-out humor. Performances were a bit on the splotchy side and it's easy to tell the scenes where Melissa McCarthy is improvising vs. her scripted scenes. The actual puppeteering is very well done (I would expect nothing less given the involvement of Jim Hensons's son). Overall, the gimmick and little moments are more than enough to make up for the movie's shortcomings, making it very enjoyable, though still not any sort of masterpiece.

Originally saw in the theater last year, I don't know why I didn't review much sooner. Either way Melissa McCarthy is great fun and so is everyone else involved. Unfortunate Happytime Murders didn't do well it's quite enjoyable and cool concept for something that was originally a kids show!

No idea what people were hoping for who left 1 star reviews but this is exactly what I expected- a funny, foul-mouthed, immature and very entertaining comedy

It would be the easiest thing in the world to alate this film and brand it terrible, but I'm going to focus on the positives, the media hate seems this the worst film of the year, and true it's not good. However is very different, it's very original, and at times it had myself and the whole cinema laughing loudly. They took a risk, and I'm unsure it will have paid off, they went for a safe pair of comedy hands with Melissa McCarthy, and personally I found her really funny. Obviously the film has limitations with what it can do, and where it can go, but it's not so bad as it's being made out to be. The Sharon Stone scene is absolutely hilarious.

It's not a wow, but at least it's different, that deserves some credit in this day and age, right? 6/10