While on a grand world tour, The Muppets find themselves wrapped into an European jewel-heist caper headed by a Kermit the Frog look-alike and his dastardly sidekick.
Muppets Most Wanted is a solid effort but lacks the magical quality of its nostalgia-driven predecessor.
Smartly spoofy rather than sweetly nostalgic, this distractingly star-studded jaunt is fast and funny, but short on emotional punch. But a good time awaits for kids and long-time Muppet-lovers.
Nearly as good as the last film — the starrier cameos compensating somewhat for the more scattershot plot — this is fun but could have been more deeply felt.
Whether you check your cynicism at the door or cling to it like a life raft, you’ll nonetheless be reduced to a strange, furry pool of lunatic happiness.
While this is an overall inferior product compared to its immediate forerunner, as well as other earlier films starring the felt motley crew, there’s enough entertainment here to separate it from nadirs.
Young children’s attention may wander.
Fundamentally, Most Wanted gets its strength from the Muppets as first conceived by Jim Henson: a chaotic, dimwitted vaudeville troupe who would be lost without their MC.
It feels like a feature-length version of a starry segment that would be used for an awards show.
"Everybody knows a sequel is never quite as good," the Muppets themselves admit early on during their latest big-screen adventure. They're quite correct.
Verdict: Not their finest hour.
Returning director James Bobin seems intent on making Waldorfs and Statlers of us all with a film that forgets to include what has, historically, made The Muppets funny: real heart.
Ricky Gervais's lead may lack some of the heart of the original, but the sequel is fun all the way.
Miss Piggy: The Making of a Muppet Fashionista
Bret McKenzie
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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