When it comes to the Muppets, the secret ingredient added solely for the movies is sentimentality and never more so than in the Jason Segel dripping in the stuff 2011 “The Muppets”. So all we could hope from the 2014 sequel was less of the ol’ personal jesus stuff and more thrills and chills and starring Ricky Gervais as the Muppet World Tour manager Dominic Badguy (“It means guy who is good”) and a most wanted frog in the world Constantin as the Kermit doppelganger, that’s what we got.
Picking up exactly where “The Muppets” left off, the extras go home and the cameras keep running and that means… A SEQUEL. The unscrupulous Mr. Badguy has Kermit kidnapped and sent to a Gulag in Siberia where Tina Fey is the sweetest Head Guard on earth and the inmates plan to put on a show a la “The Great Escape”.
Meanwhile, the Muppets play venues near museums so Badguy and Constantin can break in and steal artifacts leading to a heist of the Crown Jewels in the Tower Of London. Guest star cameos abound, Lady Gaga, Tony Bennett, Selma Hayek, Frank Langella, Usher (as an usher at the big wedding) and P. Diddy, and parodies of movies and Muppets are relentless.
Unfortunately, at nearly two hours it is maybe 30 minutes too long and sags here and there and again. Also, the Muppets are kinda not in it enough. There is so much plot they seem a little on the side of the story.
I’ll take it over the 2011 reboot any day, it wants nothing much from the viewer, just a willingness to believe and be entertained and really that’s cool enough. Oh, and the music improves in context plus Ricky Gervais is every thing Jason Segal isn’t: willing to just play along with the silliness.
Grade: B
