This is dreadful and squanders a fun concept. I highly enjoy The Muppet Christmas Carol, so I hate to say Brian Henson (Jim's eldest son) is a bad director...but this film is simply ineptly made, other than a few of the puppet gags being cleverly realized from a technical standpoint. The film's most entertaining sequence is its end credits, which feature behind-the-scenes puppetry footage. Otherwise, this is 90 minutes of dead air. Scenes are interminable; again and again, the film believes, "ha, ha, they are Sesame Street-style puppets, but they are dirty!" is enough, no wit or visual panache required. Worse still are the heavy-handed attempts at social commentary; this is far too soulless and juvenile a product for any racial symbolism to be poignant or compelling. It is so badly handled, I honestly resent the screenplay for even trying. And Melissa McCarthy feels left out to dry. I enjoy her in a decent film (Spy, for example, or Bridesmaids), but her high-volume improvisation feels desperate and irritating rather than inspired with no firm direction and no flesh-and-blood foils.

Itz a bomb

Here’s the problem. The movie’s biggest laugh doesn’t come when the puppets are acting risqué (the movie’s entire hook). No, it comes when McCarthy’s character is storming out of a police station yelling at various officers about what she wishes she could do to them. She falls to the last one and says (paraphrasing), “And I wish I could’ve fucked you!”. The camera pans over and it’s none other than Ben Falcone, Melissa McCarthy’s real-life husband.

That joke I’d say is more cute than it is funny, but that’s what we’re working with here.

As you probably could’ve guessed from the trailer, the movie has enough jokes to sustain two minutes and thirty seconds. Ninety minutes? Not so much.

D+

That Ben Falcone cameo was hilarious. Also really loved the part where Connie argued with the gypsy on the street ("You're searching" "I just told you I was looking for a woman so that isn't you predicting the future" "fuck you" etc.) Other than that and a few other funny (mostly human character) lines, a total misfire. The movie is just boring for most of it's runtime. Thank goodness for Melissa McCarthy, she really is one of a kind and if anyone else but her would have played her role, the movie would have been MUCH worse. As it is, don't bother. Glad I saw it for free

I feel a bit Donald Trump saying this, lol, but it is an oddly low-energy film. It just moves from scene to scene in an almost dutiful way; there is no zip, no sense of discovery or anything being revealed or learned. This is particularly problematic since it does have a plot; too many scenes are devoted to the puppet murders and who is committing them and why (contracts-and-royalties exposition!) for this story to be so bland, even in a comedy. The mediocre "noir" overlay does not help.

Definitely, I couldn’t wait for it to end especially in the first act, it just dragged. I’m Melissa McCarthy’s biggest fan, but I’d say this is her worst film alongside Tammy. I’m still excited to see her future films, as this is not her typical movie directed hy Paul Feig or her husband-her work with her husband definitely got better (though I honestly found The Boss funnier than Life of the Party) so here’s hoping her next collaboration with him is close to the quality of The Heat or even Bridesmaids

I never find Muppet jokes funny so I knew what I was getting into. For me the Muppet jokes the same old (funny in once a while but overall just a drag) but it was the story itself that was so dragging that the raunchy Muppet concept is laid entirely to waist. Since I saw the trailers that endless jizz scene wasn't funny enough and I hated all those social messages added here. McCarthy was just doing the same role she had played many times but without the dialogues, story or star-power to support her this time. But yeah overall not a fun movie to sit through. I did like that milking the cow bit but overall pretty bad.

3/10

Maybe its because I was in a good mood when I saw this, but honestly I enjoyed it. It's stupid as hell, but I laughed quite a bit throughout. I wouldn't call it hilarious or anything, but I was thoroughly entertained and really that's all I want from a flick like this. I really liked the Phil character and his back and forth with McCarthy was fun even though I still think you could have gotten someone better in her role. Also, while the puppetry is really good in this film, man did it look cheap as fuck in every scene. If you were to tell me this was a tv movie or a movie that went straight to Netflix I would believe it, because this didn't look like something that belonged in a theatre or worth seeing on a big screen.

B

There's no denying this is a missed opportunity and that it's a pretty lazy attempt at an R-rated raunchy puppet comedy. But I did not hate it. I enjoyed the PI stuff, and when it's just puppets it's fine. Melissa McCarthy is probably the main issue, ahead of the laziness of the plot. Seriously, it felt like an episode of Streets of San Francisco. It was all over and solved (despite having no evidence) within, like, a couple of days. They also missed a ton of opportunities to have celeb cameos. Those always raise the profile comedies, and it would have worked perfectly here. C+