"Muppets Most Wanted" (2014)

Kermit: “You mean all this time I've been trapped in a Russian Gulag, no one, not one single person from the Muppets, except Animal, noticed I'd been replaced by an evil criminal mastermind?”
Fozzie Bear: “It sounds worse than it was...”
Walter: “No, it's as bad as it sounds.”

Perhaps you may have heard that the new Muppet Movie was not as good as the last one, that it is another let-down of a sequel, that you needn’t catch this one. Well, It really isn’t as bad as some would have you believe.

Sure, there is a little let down from the last film, that really rivaled the original film in heart, which is where the truly great Muppet endeavors excel. This film still has all the clever humor, well done songs, and the characters we love doing the things we love. It just isn’t about the classic Muppet message of believing in a dream.

This film picks up right where the last one left off. The Muppets have reunited and found their audience again. The issue they confront now is, what are the challenges of success? In this case, they are targeted by some bad guys (one named Badguy, “It’s French”) and their naiveté is exposed.

The way the criminals manage to manipulate the Muppets so effectively is by simply giving them everything they want. It is actually a timely message for today’s culture. Where Kermit’s path to accomplishing one’s dreams is through hard work, smart decisions, and taking things one step at a time, his evil doppelganger’s approach is to let everyone do whatever they want, lie in evaluation, and to pay off audiences. Everyone is so caught up in their “success” they fail to see the clear signs that things are very wrong.

But mostly, this film is less about message and more about hilarity and wit.