The Happytime Murders (2018) Review

"I don't take compliments well, but I get them all the time."
-Ronovan Scargle



In a world where puppets and humans live together, the cast members of a popular 90's TV show start getting murdered.  Ex-cop turned private eye, Phil Phillips (Bill Barretta), is forced to team to up with his old partner, Detective Connie Edwards (Melissa McCarthy), who helped get him fired from the force.  Phillips and Edwards have to dive into the seedy underworld of Los Angeles to put a stop to the killings as fast as possible because both Phil's brother and his ex-girlfriend were stars on the show.  Can Phil save them before the killer strikes again?


What Works:

I gotta say, the puppets looked great and are the highlights of the film.  There are a lot of really creative designs and wacky characters.  The filmmakers got to go nuts with these puppets and they were a lot of fun to watch in action.

There are about 5 or 6 jokes throughout the film that are really funny.  Like top-tier funny.  There aren't many funny moments in the film, but there are a few that knock it out of the park, with the best happening when Edwards gets kicked out of the police station and calls out all of the other cops on her way out the door.  It's hilarious and gives me flashbacks of Melissa McCarthy's character from The Heat.

When I first heard about this movie, I hoped they would get really seedy and dark with the material and there a few moments where they do.  The best moment is the sequence inside the sex shop.  It's shocking, disgusting, disturbing, alarming, hilarious, and insane.  I loved every second of that sequence and I wish the movie had more like it.


What Sucks:

A lot of the jokes in this film fall flat.  It's very hit-or-miss with its humor and most of it is a miss.  Most of the jokes are lowest common denominator the likes of which you could see on a bad episode of Family Guy.  If that's your thing, fine, but I was hoping for more.

The movie doesn't do enough with it's premise.  There is plenty of opportunity to get creative and weird with this type of story, but there are only about three sequences in the film that really seize the moment to do something memorable.

I love me some Joel McHale.  I am a huge fan of Community and was very excited to hear he was in this film.  He gets five scenes and absolutely nothing funny or memorable to do.  The jokes about his character are the worst of the movie.  Nobody but maybe middle-schoolers would find them funny and this movie is R-rated.  These jokes have no business being here.

Finally, the 3rd act is just awful.  It's like they forgot how to make an engaging movie.  None of the action is interesting, none of the jokes are funny, and the big twist doesn't make any sense and is completely mishandled.  It's safe to say, The Happytime Murders does not stick the landing.  In fact, it face-plants.


Verdict:

The Happytime Murders has some awesome puppet design, a few really funny jokes, and a couple of solid sequences that use the premise well, but the film doesn't do enough with the material, most of the jokes aren't funny, Joel McHale is wasted, and the 3rd act is abysmal.  It's a shame, I was really excited for this movie and I am incredibly disappointed.

 4/10: Bad 



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