Muppets Most Wanted, somewhat wanted

Muppets+Most+Wanted%3A+Three+and+a+half+stars+out+of+Five.

Muppets Most Wanted: Three and a half stars out of Five.

Directly following the events of 2011’s “The Muppets,” “Muppets Most Wanted” is the tale of Constantine, the world’s most dangerous frog, who with the aid of Dominic Badguy (Ricky Gervais), takes Kermit the Frog’s place among the Muppets, while Kermit is interred in a Siberian gulag in Constantine’s place.

Following their return to fame in the events of the previous film, the Muppets are convinced to go on a world tour by Dominic Badguy. Badguy uses this as an opportunity to disguise his boss, the villainous Constantine, in plain site as the nearly identical Kermit. As they tour the world, from France to Madrid to Dublin collecting artifacts that they’ll need to steal the Britain’s Crown Jewels.

While Constantine is pretty funny, especially in his terrible attempts to imitate Kermit’s voice. The interactions between Constantine and Badguy are hit and miss at take up a large portion of the film.

Kermit’s time in the gulag is great, with most of my favorite members of the human cast appearing there. Tina Fey’s (“30 Rock”) role as Nadya, a Russian gulag officer with a Kermit infatuation is consistently funny.

The human cast is great, Gervais, Ty Burrell (“Modern Family”) and Fey are all quite funny. But, the focus on the villainous Muppet, Constantine, leaves some of the Muppets you’ve fallen in love with over the past decades with only one or two jokes.

As with the previous film in the franchise, it features music by Brett McKenzie of Flight of the Chonchords (this time with a supporting role for his band-mate Jemaine Clemment). And, while the music is fantastic, it doesn’t quite measure up to the standard he set for himself in “The Muppets.”

The film does have a few strengths over the previous film in the franchise, it spends more time with some of the Muppets outside of the core group, especially Sam the Eagle, whose interactions with Ty Burrell (“Modern Family”) are among the funniest moments of the film.

Walter, the new member of the Muppets as of the last film, also has a fairly large role, and while it’s nice to see that he wasn’t just a throwaway character, it does continually remind the film-goer that this is a direct and inferior sequel.

As usual the film is full of celebrity cameos from Christoph Waltz to Danny Trejo to Ray Liotta but it’s not quite as over-stuffed with cameos as some of the other films in the franchise.

While “Muppets Most Wanted” is a little better than the average Muppet film, it is only a little better, falling somewhere around the middle of their eight theatrical films. It lacks the nostalgia fueled charm of it’s immediate predecessor.

I don’t mean for this review to come across as negative. The film is a worthy addition to the franchise, but it doesn’t quite capture the magic of the best Muppet films. It is definitely worth the price of admission, especially for fans of the Muppets. It has enough good jokes and gags that you’ll get more than a few laughs. Three and a half stars out of Five.

For showtimes at the Stephenville Cinema 6 movie theater click here http://www.cinemark.com/muppets-most-wanted.