Muppets Most Wanted - review

The Muppets say it themselves in the opening number of The Muppets: Most Wanted when they quietly sing "Everybody knows that the sequel's never quite as good".

If The Muppets was that feeling of seeing an old friend after a number of years and it's like you never been apart; sharing the same old jokes and anecdotes, etc, then Muppets: Most Wanted is that stage where after a couple of hours, the old jokes aren't as funny anymore and you realise why you never make the effort to hang out together more often.

Muppets: Most Wanted does have everything you are looking for from a Muppet movie: jokes, songs, an exhausting list of celebrity cameos, etc, etc but none of them feel as fresh and fun as the last one.

The human element is where the film is lacking the most ooomph, with no one matching Segel and Adams pure joy an enthusiasm for the product. It doesn't help that Gervais, Burrell and Fey are more caricatures than characters.

At least they continue their trend in developing new muppets with number one bad guy Constantine gets a lot of comedy mileage from his impersonations of Keeerrmit the Frog.

The Muppets might be together again (again) but if they don't recapture that magic soon they won't be everyone's most wanted for long.

3 stars

6 Reasons why The Muppets would rock as Oscar hosts.

Yesterday one muppet, in the form of Brett Ratner, stepped down as producer of the Academy Awards show following a series of PR disasters on a par with Frankie Cocozza on X Factor.  Following his departure, and that of Ratner's choice of host Eddie Murphy, it seems there is an online campaign to get another bunch of Muppets to host Oscar night.

It is a stroke of genius.  Everyone loves The Muppets (unlike with Ricky Gervais, celebrities would be happen to have the piss taken by the Muppets), they are current due to having a movie out in the US on Thanksgiving (us in the UK sadly have to wait until Feb), and from their recent hosting duties on WWE Raw showed (part 1 and part 2), they have what it takes to host... and most importantly for the Oscars, they are funny and entertaining.
You can follow its progress on Facebook and Twitter as it continues to gather momentum and popularity, here are my two cents worth on the subject and five reasons why it could be the greatest Oscar night ever.

1)  The National Anthem

At the beginning of the broadcast, the stuffy and pompous Sam Eagle could come out and demand the entire audience of A-List celebs stand up and join him in singing the National Anthem as is accustomed at all major sporting events.

2)  The Orchestra

Not only would we have Dr Teeth and the Electric Mayhem playing all the music for the evening but celebrities would be quaking in their boots that if they happen to start droning on about thanking their publicist in their acceptance speech, Animal would be quick to jump in and play them off with a mental drum solo!

3)  Interviews on the Green Carpet by Beaker

As if the Oscar ceremony isn't long enough, we have to put up with 1-2 hours of cringworthy interviews with celebrities on the red carpet as people we've never heard of ask Natalie Portman what designer she's wearing or how George Clooney feels to be nominated.
The eloquent Beaker would be the perfect person to ask those hard hitting questions we all want to know the answer to, "have you practiced your 'shit I lost, look happy for the other guy face'?" and chat up the attractive female nominees.
His partner in crime, Dr Bunsen Honeydew could also provide a firework and pyrotechnic display to kick things off.

4)  Statler and Waldorf

These two loveable curmudgeons would be ideally placed in one of the boxes at the Kodak theatre overlooking the stage to provide their unique brand of saracastic commentary to the proceedings.
"You know what the only thing worse than hosting last year's Oscars... watching it!"

5)  The catering backstage and at the after party...

6)  Let's face it, they tried to get Kermit and Miss Piggy to host last year!!!

So there you have it.  Undeniable proof that having The Muppets host the Oscars is the right thing to do... but if they do need a little human help, look no further than this man...

Meg Ryan was gutted to hear she'd been replaced for When Harry Met Sally Again...