Reviews

(And even WITH Rifftrax, it's hard to not want to look away. This movie is UGLY.)

NOTHING about this movie is good. Absolutely zip. Special effects? Garbage. Acting? Abysmal. The songs? Stupid. The plot? What plot?! And when it's not bad, it's weirdly boring.

I remember seeing the trailer and asking aloud "who asked for this? WHO?! And can I hurt them?" It really, truly is THAT bad. I promise. Even if you actually like the musical (that in and of itself is so niche), you will not have a good time.

My best recommendation is to get stoned off your ass and put on some Kevin, Mike, and Bill. And when you're done, pass around the eye bleach. Don't be stingy!

I watched 3 SD movies as a kid. "Zombie Island," "Witch's Ghost," and this.

I'm gonna say it: "Scooby Doo and the Ghoul School" is not as good as you remember. It's a LONG movie, it does the same joke over 5 times in its runtime (and DEAR GOD the puns! They are actually painful.), and it's like episodes of a show that never happened were all slapped together into one long viewing. And it has Scrappy. 😕

The ghoul designs are still great, though, so I'll defend them and the Liza Minnelli knockoff. I don't know why I was so enamored with it as a kid.

It's TEDIOUS!

This is...this is abysmal. I'm actually in pain.

I owe "Muppets from Space" an apology. At least that had heart.

Much like the Tin Man, this movie is heartless. And soulless. It feels like almost a knockoff of a Muppet movie. Somehow both cutesty AND too crude.

The only, ONLY compliment I'll give this movie is the writing for Pépé. He got a few snickers out of me.

Run, run so far away.

In the past few weeks, I decided to watch every Muppet movie to decide which ones were great, and which weren't, and maybe to find some new favorite movies.

This one is more on the least-favorite side of things.

Firstly, this movie doesn't have a lot going for it. It's a very simplistic plot, even for a Muppet movie, and there's just not a lot going on. Gonzo feels alone in the world, but then has a vision that he's an alien. Then he gets contacted by the aliens and gets kidnapped by the government. That is the plot. And it's less interesting than it sounds.

There're also no original songs. That's basically blasphemy for a Muppet film. I think it's the only one that doesn't. Thank god this trend didn't continue.

There also aren't a ton of cameos, and though Jeffery Tambor is acting his heart out (and I'm vaguely interested in his character), he can't save the film like Tim Curry could. The jokes are also relatively mediocre, and I almost think they could have gotten more laughs if the other Muppets believed Gonzo, and reacted to his news like "oh, you're an alien? Uh, yeah, that makes sense!"

I relatively enjoyed the subplot with Rizzo as a lab rat, but the rest of the film is just kinda boring. There was one, ONE joke that actually made me laugh out loud, and that's a pretty bad score for a Muppet film. It was this one: "When are they coming?" "I don't know." "Who are these aliens?" "I don't know." "Where are they landing and DON'T say 'I don't know'!" "...I know not?"

I love Gonzo, seriously, but I feel like part of his charm is that we don't know what he is. And this movie kinda wrecked that charm.

It's a very average kids film, but as a Muppet movie? I'd give it a thumbs down.

The fact that I watched this for the first time around the same time as the other two Henson Muppet films, and remembered almost every single thing about them, and next to nothing about this one, says it all. Like, if you'd asked me what happened, I would have said "Uh, there's a pizza restaurant...I think?" This movie is painfully forgettable. And for a movie, especially a Muppet movie, one of the worst things it can be is bland. This movie is so, so bland.

Which sucks, because the music is actually pretty okay. Not amazing, not the best for Henson, but good for a kids film. They even reused one of the songs ("Together Again") in the almost equally meh Muppet film "Muppets Most Wanted."

I'd say watch it if you're a die-hard Muppet fan, or if you want to see the origin of the Muppet Babies, but otherwise there are far better Muppet films. Literally almost any of them.

I didn't grow up with this movie, so watching it as a college student, and then again as an adult, I had to warm up to this movie. Even so, I think I like more bits and pieces of this film as opposed to the whole thing.

The music, for instance, is fantastic. And I'm still bitter they haven't rereleased it on iTunes. This is easily one of the best Muppet soundtracks made under Jim Henson. My personal favorite track being "Happiness Hotel." The humor is also top notch. I still get a kick out of Kermit and Fozzie being identical twins.

But I also agree with what a lot of other critics are saying; the second half is pretty slow. There aren't as many fun cameos as we've come to expect with a Muppet film, and Miss Piggy's story really isn't that interesting. Also, as much as I enjoy the song "The First Time it Happens," the number really drags. I guess it's relatively cool seeing Piggy do synchronized swimming, but it doesn't add anything. And I found myself checking my watch and wondering when the movie would...move along.

Overall, if you asked me to pick a Muppet movie to watch, still made by Henson, that isn't "The Muppet Movie," this one gets my vote. But don't be surprised if I just watch my favorite bits.

First of all, this is a show for a VERY niche audience: people that love the Muppets, but won't feel like their childhood is ruined if they do some dirty jokes. It's also not necessarily as family friendly as the other Muppet shows, but it's not...Avenue Q. Kids might just not like it because they won't get the jokes, but it's not super raunchy or anything. Basically, I'd feel more comfortable letting a kid watch this than something like "Family Guy."

Basically, Miss Piggy has her own late-night talk show, and her ex-boyfriend Kermit is the producer, with all the other Muppets working on the show in some form or fashion. It's filmed mocumentary style, like The Office or Modern Family, which works...okay? Tbh, you could've just filmed this show normally and it would've been fine.

The jokes are all very modern and have to do a lot with topics like micro-aggression, office politics, relationships, gender, sexuality, and even drug use. My favorite being a little nod to the members of The Electric Mayhem being "medically happy" and buying all of Bobo's GirlScout cookies.

I basically went in expecting the worst thing in the world, but it was actually pretty good! But don't get me wrong, I totally see why this was canceled. This is just a very odd combination of material. It's weird seeing Kermit and Piggy have real relationship conversations, it's weird when the show alludes to Bunsen and Beaker possibly spending the night together, and it's weird watching Piggy make-out with Josh Groban. Like, I dig it ALL, but it's also just plain weird.

I gotta throw out my favorite line of the whole show, however, and it is this: Fozzie: "Kermit, have you ever been hit with a tranquilizer?" Kermit: "No, but I once licked my third cousin and the walls started melting, so I feel you, bro."

"Ravenous" is, without a doubt, one of the strangest movies I have ever seen. If nothing else than just for its tone. Or tones. Because it has several. It's horror, it's a period piece, it's a bromance, it's a dark comedy, it's queerbait. If nothing else, it's very entertaining. There is never a dull moment in this film, and I was hooked the whole time.

Pierce plays a man who was in the Spanish-American war, and got a medal for his rather accidental capture of an enemy base. But the general in charge of his battalion knows that he was really a coward, not a hero, and boots him from the army. Pierce ends up living in the mountains of California, with a sort of rag-tag group of men (including a possibly mentally disabled priest and a junkie, for starters) and one indigenous woman. One night, Carlyle's character is found in their camp and they manage to revive him. He tells them that his whole wagon party ate each other after becoming lost on the trail, but he says he left two survivors at the camp and asks if the men can help him save them.

I won't say anymore because the movie gets bonkers after Carlyle's character shows up.

If you want straight-up horror or a serious historical drama, you're going to be disappointed. The best way to enjoy this film is to go in not really knowing what to expect. And don't watch the trailer; the trailer makes no damn sense. But I really enjoyed this one!

There are a lot of excellent Christmas Carol adaptations, and this is one of them. I don't think I need to explain the story, because if you don't know what a Christmas Carol is by now, you must live under a rock. The only thing that's different about this version (besides the obvious) is that Charles Dickens (Gonzo) is the narrator, but he also travels along as a background character.

Michael Caine plays Scrooge, and he's...fine? Not the best Scrooge ever, not the worst. Sometimes he gives a lot of emotion, and sometimes he looks completely zoned out, if not a little silly. He's somebody that I'm not sure could carry the film on his own, but with the Muppets, it balances alright.

It hardly needs to be said, but the puppetry in this movie is ridiculously impressive. I especially like the design for the Ghost of Christmas Present. I don't know how they operated him (I know it's a suit), but he looks really cool. The songs are also just fantastic and ear-wormy as any other Muppet film. You could sell this movie on the soundtrack alone.

It's definitely a must see for Christmas Carol fans and Muppet fans alike, and I personally watch it every year.

While not necessarily the best of the Muppet movies (though that's a tough contest), it is one of the most enjoyable. I'll admit it does start off a little slow (with the exception of Billy Connolly's cameo), but once they actually get on the boat, you can't look away. And for one good reason: Tim-Freaking-Curry. He is having a blast in this movie and is not shy with letting everyone know it. In an interview, Curry once said this was the most fun he ever had making a movie, and that's very apparent to the viewers. Without him, this movie would have been fine, but with him? It's so much fun. The writing is also great and 9/10 of all the jokes land.

Two things I didn't absolutely love, first being the music. It's fine, but it doesn't have that extremely catchy nature that all the other Muppet soundtracks have. Honestly, with the exception of "Cabin Fever," the numbers are pretty forgettable. The second is the kid who plays Jim. He just doesn't have the energy needed for this kind of performance. It might be because Curry eats all the scenery before he can even get there, but he's pretty bland. I kind of even forget when he isn't in a scene. In fact, most of the side-character humans in this movie are forgettable.

It may not be everyone's cup of tea, especially considering how flat-out fantastic the other Muppet movies are, but its a good time to experience at least once.

When this series came out, I was probably outside of the intended reading level, being already in high school. But I read the first ten or so books faithfully, and really enjoyed the first two live-action films (third was meh, haven't seen the fourth).

In a way, I felt obligated to watch this. Like most people are saying, this is a solidly fine film. I like the animation style. It reminds me a lot of "The Peanuts Movie" that came out in 2015. It's faithful enough to the books, but...how do I put this, the characters are too "nice." If you've ever read the books, Greg Heffley is an insufferable kid, but that's what made the books so different. He's kind of a jerk, though he feels very real, and his parents are so distracted with their own stuff that they don't even notice his behavior. Here, they do notice he's a jerk to Rowley and call him out on it. Yeah, that never happens in the books. Even the other movies, to an extent, still got this right. This felt like a very "Disney" change.

That all being said, what didn't feel like Disney was the voice acting quality, which was really not good for a professionally done movie. The actress who plays Susan Heffley literally sounds like she Skyped in her lines. It was abysmal. The kids playing Greg and Rowley sound fine enough, but nothing too memorable otherwise.

They also left out a LOT of characters. Patty, Chirag, and other notable classmates are nowhere to be seen. The story is all over the place, mainly being more like little vignettes from the book than a flowing narrative. The other movies had this too, but still had a theme, like the first being about Greg's friendship with Rowley, and the second being about his relationship with his brothers, and the themes helped tie the film together.

Despite all I've said, this is not a film that's "bad for kids," nor am I saying no one should ever watch it. It's just not necessarily as good as it could have been.

I feel like, overall, the good kinda balances out with the bad, but barely. And it never outweighs it. The music is fantastic, maybe even better than its predecessor, "The Muppets." My personal favorite song being "We're Doing a Sequel." And I enjoyed both Ty Burrell and Tina Fey immensely. I also loved that Sam Eagle got more screen time. But the writing is kinda weak, for Muppets at least. And something about it just doesn't work; I'm not even sure I can explain it. It's almost like all the characters seem unnaturally mean. It doesn't give me the warm fuzzies almost all the other Muppet films do. But just for a kids film, you could do a lot worse.

I don't think I appreciated it as much when I was younger, but this movie is lovely! The puppetry is incredibly impressive, too. And it's fun to see how many people both acted in the film AND in the show.