THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS (2018)

Its premise and poster made me think that THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS would be a film noir parody with puppets. The second the movie started, I couldn't help but to notice the bright cinematography, upbeat music and regular-speed editing. I thought that my assumption had been wrong. Then, the protagonist started to narrate lines that seemed like they came out of a classic detective story... which is what this ultimately is (it's so clichéd that I knew who the villain was the moment they appeared (although I wasn't able to predict their motivation and backstory)), minus the stylistically dark atmosphere. Look, the best parodies are the ones that recreate the genre's look and feel. Playing it straight creates a funny contrast. To be fair, even if director Brian Henson had gone after the tone that the script required, I doubt that the immature jokes would've been that much funnier. Believe it or not, even lowbrow humour requires intelligence.

1/10
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