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Our favourite puppet characters are back in their latest movie
but this one lacks the charisma and fun of its predecessors.
One can't help thinking that the Muppets are not the same without
creator Jim Henson at the helm.
This movie centres around resident weirdo Gonzo who starts
to wonder who is and where he comes from. Messages in his breakfast
cereal convince him that he is from outer space and he embarks
on a campaign to make contact with his own kind. All sorts of
sticky situations arise because of this including running afoul
of top secret government agency COVNET and its paranoid head
K. Edgar Singer (Jeffrey Tambor).
Most of our favourites are back: Kermit, Fozzie, Miss Piggy,
Animal, Dr Bunsen Honeydew, Rizzo, plus newcomer Pepe the Prawn
who gets some of the best lines. There are also plenty of star
cameos including Andie MacDowell as Miss Piggy's TV host rival,
David Arquette as a psychotic lab technician, Rob Schneider
as the TV producer, Hollywood Hulk Hogan as himself (!), Katie
Holmes as, wow, a cute but cynical teenager, and Gates McFadden
as a space agent.
There are plenty of movie and TV spoofs such as Close Encounters
of the Third Kind and Star Trek but on the whole the movie did
not seem as endearing or funny as the Muppet movies that have
come before. Even the big musical number did not hit the spot
as well as those that featured in the TV series.
This is one for the kids or the tru blue Muppets fan. But everyone
would be better off going out and renting The Muppet Movie instead.
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