Forced Films 2019 – #4 – Carl’s 1st Pick – The Great Muppet Caper (1981)

This is the 4th of 10 films that I was “forced” to watch by my fellow bloggers who participated in my 4800th review Contest last December. This movie was the 1st of 2 films chosen by Carl of Listening to Film

Tnx for the suggestion. Let’s see what I thought of it….

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“You are all WEIRDOS. ” – Sam the Eagle

Number of Times Seen – 1 (19 Feb 2019)

Brief Synopsis – Three reporters travel to England to interview a famous fashion designer when her jewels are stolen which causes the reporters to try and solve the case.

My Take on it – As a fan of the Muppets as a kid, I’m actually a bit surprised that I never got to see this film beforehand, and was therefore pleasantly surprised when Carl chose this film for me to watch.

The film itself is quite enjoyable despite the fact that the plot lacks something much deeper that would raise the level of things to a paoint where it all would be much more interesting.

They utilize some of the great MUppet Show gags that works really well when trying to remind us that we are in this world.

Unfortuantely, these things sometimes hurt the film because it takes away much from the realism of it all.

On the other hand some of those gags also help things because it adds to the humor of it all.

The story itself is quite predictable throughout and it quite often feels as if we are in the midst of a skitthat runs too long instead of a movie.

As always, the best parts of the Muppets (for me at least) is getting to see the various hilariously commentary from Statler and Waldorf and also seeing the numerous cameos along the way that are sometimes hard to spot.

This film works for what it tries to do, but still is hard to take serious in any way because it’s much too tame for its crime theme.

Bottom Line – Enjoyable Muppet movie that doesn’t have enough “meat” on it to make it even more interesting. Some of the running gags of the The Muppet Show work well to remind us that we are still in the Muppet world and that both hurts and helps the story along. The story is much too predictable and it feels like a skit that runs too long instead of a feature length film. As always, the best parts of anything Muppet (for me that is) is getting to see the comments of Statler and Waldorf and trying to catch as many of the cameos that keep popping up. Works for what it tries to do, but is much too tame to be taken seriously.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – The bike riding sequence was accomplished by using a combination of radio-controlled bikes, marionette rigging, and in some cases, attaching several bikes together with rods so they could stand upright on their own. The end of the bicycle scene (where all of the Muppets are shown riding together) was done by putting all of the Muppet characters onto their bikes, hooking them together, and pulling them. Brian Henson, on an oversized tricycle, was amongst those who pulled the bikes. (From IMDB)

Rating – BAFTA Worthy (6/10)