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Tina Fey

What the Muppets Most Wanted was Time to Think

by Dane Benko

The Muppets Most Wanted poster

2011’s The Muppets came with a big question mark for most fans over whether any post-Henson treatment could be up to snuff. As it stands the movie managed to capture a closely studied and caring revival of the franchise.  The creative team behind the movie fought for the old Muppet magic against fan doubts, the financial question of a neglected franchise, and even Frank Oz’s dismissal. Nevertheless the movie not only managed to win the acceptance of fans, but also has managed its first sequel.

 

The Muppets Most Wanted poster
Crowd’em all in, we have less than two hours and several hundred feet of theatre real estate to throw every character at them.

Muppets Most Wanted returns The Muppets director James Bobin and co-writer Nicolas Stoller, and switches out the warm and quirky presences of Amy Adams and Jason Segal with slightly sharper-edged comedians Ricky Gervais and Tina Fey. Those are promising indications going into a movie that starts right out with the Muppets’ surprise and slight confusion at the metajoke that they’ve been selected for a sequel, which they sing and dance about being not as good as the original (and also take some time to remind you that many other movies came before). Whereas the Muppets have always been self-aware, this metajoke is also laced with the slight sarcasm of the costar comedians.

 

Darker hues descend as a froggy criminal mastermind named Constantine (who looks just like Kermit, save for a big mole and sour face) engineers a break-out from a wintery gulag somewhere in Siberia. This intro is madcap and frantic, and from there the movie whisks its way into a meeting between the fleece troupe and Ricky Gervais playing a one “Dominic Badguy” (the latter is pronounced ‘Bahd-gwee,’ though the character may be lying). Dominic  offers the Muppets an opportunity to go on a European tour, a trip Kermit is somewhat hesitant about but quickly drowned out by the enthusiasm of his friends.

 

Before the scene even ends Dominic is revealed to be working for Constantine on a scheme to set the Muppets up for a great heist. Dominic is Constantine’s ‘Number 2’, a status made much of and bluntly by the egomaniacal Constantine. It’s not long before Constantine manages to dispatch Kermit as himself back to the gulag, and wind his way into the troupe under the claim that his strained Russian accent is ‘a cold.’ The Muppets, too excited by the new allowances they have for their acts and the suspiciously sold-out venues on their tour, hardly notice anything is amiss, and the intricate workings of the heist begin.

 

Now it’s up to Kermit to find a way to escape passed Tina Fey’s gulag security guard with a second comical Russian accent (and a crush on Kermit), while the ever wide-eyed Walter begins to suspect Constantine and his comical Russian accented attempt at a comical Kermit accent, all while the crew is chased down by a strange partnership between Sam the Eagle, the comical American-accented CIA agent, and Jean Pierre Napoleon, the comical French-accented Interpol agent.

 

The Muppets Most Wanted still
Name the cameos, but hurry it up people, we have a lot countries to cross-cut to.

Am I going too fast for you? Because this movie goes fast.  Jaunty musical numbers cover up demolitions. Strained comical accents talk over each other. And Kermit spends most of the playtime either getting physically yanked and jerked around or yelling in frustration to be heard. After an hour and change, Muppets Most Wanted begins to make you wonder if Bobin and Stoller forgot to add the Muppets’ brand of introspection to this otherwise monotonously bombastic movie.

 

Luckily the movie eventually finds its way (possibly a little late in the game), and it’s also hilarious.  Despite its loudness, Muppets Most Wanted manages to plaster a big dopey grin on your face, and the payoff is that the frenzied antics and comical German, Spanish, Irish, and English accented location jumping eventually lead the gang to realize they should probably stop talking, settle down, and listen to each other once in a while. Eh, form follows function, possibly.

 

It’s another crowd pleaser. Hopefully, however, the next film will have a lot more breathing room and few less comical accents. And by the way, Frank Oz still thinks it sucks.

Filed Under: MOVIES Tagged With: Amy Adams, comical accents, Constantine, Dominic Badguy, England, Frank Oz, Germany, gulag, Ireland, James Bobin, Jason Segal, Muppets, Muppets Most Wanted, Nicholas Stoller, Ricky Gervais, Siberian, Spain, Tina Fey

The Short Form: The 71st Annual Golden Globes

by Michael Tyminski

(L to R) Hosts Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. (Source: NBC)

Welcome to the debut of a new awards show feature, The Short Form. The Short Form exists to condense a whole night of buzz into a quick easy cheat sheet so that you, the reader, can sound like you spent your Sunday night watching an awards show without actually bothering to watch it, which considering how sloppy last nights 71st Annual Golden Globes were may be considered a blessing.

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler slay again: It’s not very often that I find myself cracking up at awards show monologues, but Tina Fey and Amy Poehler had me consistently laughing through their tight ten-minute opening set from jokingly calling Matt Damon trash to effortlessly rattling off foreign actors names only to trip on Tam Honks (I mean, Tom Hanks). After the brief monologue we mostly saw quick set pieces, whether playing off of Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick’s daughter being named Miss Golden Globes (unfortunate joke implications aside) or drinking from Gold cups while watching Julia Louis-Dreyfuss hop from TV section to film section. Bonus kudos to Amy for taking home the Golden Globe for best actress in a comedy series for her work on Parks and Recreation.

From a logistical standpoint the show was a mess: While immensely entertaining, the show from a mechanical perspective was a disaster. Aside from the painfully long walks to the podium (the “hurry up” music could have started on some of the winners while they were walking to the stage), we saw some awkward camera cuts, some poorly executed seven second delays (Jacqueline Bissett’s speech came off on the air as a bunch of silence and an expletive), and a full blown transmission glitch as the show was entering the home stretch. The most glaring glitch in a night full of them was a teleprompter error that forced a stagehand to rush a script on screen while Jonah Hill stood awkwardly waiting for his lines.

Looking ahead to the Oscars: On the movie side the love seemed to be spread around. 12 Years a Slave seemed to underachieve, only scoring one award for it’s seven nominations, but the one award it did win was for best picture – Drama. Dallas Buyer’s Club scooped up a pair of acting awards on the drama side of the ledger. Even fringe contenders such as Gravity, Her, Wolf of Wall Street, and Mandela : Walk to Freedom grabbed an award tonight. The real winner of the night, however, was American Hustle, which scored acting awards for Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence as well as Best Musical or Comedy.

Meanwhile, on the TV side: Tonight was unequivocally Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s coming out party. It managed to take not only best comedy actor in Andy Samberg, but also best comedy – an award that the Emmy’s reserve for Modern Family and Modern Family alone. Meanwhile, Breaking Bad took two of three of its awards on it’s last victory lap including Best Drama and Best Actor in a TV drama (for Bryan Cranston). Behind The Candelabra also scored a couple of Golden Globes, but much like Breaking Bad this was no big surprise considering the love the movie received during last year’s Emmys.

On the Red Carpet Front: Tonight’s red carpet alternated between red and black dresses with plunging necklines and gold and black classy numbers with seemingly minimal variation between the two. That being said, there were a couple of intriguing numbers, including Julia Roberts’ perplexing business shirt under a black dress get up and Drew Barrymore’s flowing rose-petal dress. Tangentially related, I was not a fan of Matt Lauer’s sunglasses during the red carpet segment, as he often seemed like somebody trying to perform a bad blues singer impression.

The Night in Speeches: Our early speeches were dominated by the nerves, whether it was Jennifer Lawrence and Elisabeth Moss awkwardly stammering to lead off the night or Jacqueline Bissett’s half bleeped out speech that didn’t start till the music kicked in. I loved Vince Gilligan’s speech during tonight’s Breaking Bad victory lap in which he called out Aaron to give an unbleeped “Yeah bitch!” (in the event that Paul didn’t win best supporting actor, the last possible award that Breaking Bad could win).

On the presenting end Matt Damon charmed an audience calling back to Fey and Poehler’s opening speech (and being the show’s unofficial punching bag) and Diddy implored a crowd to get drunk which was convenient seeing how it would dovetail into U2’s pretentious yawner. The winner of the night seemed to be Emma Thompson, who gave her presentation carrying her shoes, nursing a martini (that seemed to have comically over-sized olives) and talking about the nuisance of writing a great screenplay.

Diane Keaton’s speech to accept the Cecille B. DeMille lifetime award was simultaneously, bizarre, neurotic and sweet, although it’s killer line got eaten by the censors and it ended on an odd little song. Still, if Woody couldn’t be here to accept it, it felt right for one of his most renowned co-conspirators to accept it in his place. We also got pretty bizarre speeches from Cate Blanchett for Best Actress in a Drama picture (including a joke about prying Judy Garland with barbituates) and Matthew McConaughey for Best Actor (including anecdotes about his mother and his wife making him go out and do stuff).

Finally standing out for it’s reason and sobriety was Leonardo DiCaprio’s speech after winning Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical for The Wolf of Wall Street in which he noticed how none of the the nominees in that category were really comedies or musicals. Despite being given the played off rush treatment, DiCaprio used his presentation as an extra bargaining chip in his back pocket in order to finish his list of thank yous.

In summation: I don’t think I could say this any better than Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s close at the end of the night – “This is the beautiful mess we hoped it would be”. America’s drunkest dinner party proved to be just that, with it’s long rambling speeches, rosy cheeks, plunging necklines, and sheer confusion.

 

 

 

Filed Under: ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES, OPINION, TELEVISION Tagged With: 71st Annual Golden Globes, Amy Poehler, Tina Fey

30 Rock Goes Out With a Bang after 7 Seasons

by Michael Tyminski

30 Rock Cast Shot
30 Rock Cast Shot
Source: NBC

Last night marked the series finale of 30 Rock after seven long seasons, and the show ended as it lived: full of rapid-fire humor, Tracy Jordan’s antics, Jack Donaghy’s classic manipulative tricks, and Liz Lemon being as neurotic and frantic as possible.

The first half of this double header finale revolved around Jack Donaghy’s quest for happiness and Liz adjusting to being a stay at home mom. Neither goes particularly well as Liz immediately starts a fight on a moms only message board (with an anonymous poster that happens to be her husband nonetheless), while Jack goes off to formulaically fill out a pie chart with various things that are “supposed” to make him happy (such as faith, hiring a guy off the street to co-anchor for today, and a threesome with Nancy Donovan and Elisa. Despite filling in his happiness pie chart entirely, after reaching a number of goals (including an angry screed by Nancy Pelosi), Jack feels more disappointed than ever and leaves the job that he worked his entire life to get. Conversely, Liz and Criss come to realization that Liz would make the better breadwinner of the couple and Liz goes off to find a new writing gig. This ultimately leads to Liz and Jack getting into the most tumultuous argument in the seven year run of the show after Liz feels betrayed by the fact that Jack made her “want more” (in terms of dreams, expectations, and generally not settling).

Tracy and Jenna on the other hand, formed the backbone of the show’s two B-plots. Jenna attempts to adjust to the show’s cancellation by throwing Jenna-style tantrums but cannot cope with the fact that absolutely no one is listening to her. As a result she tries TV (only to be forced to play roles like corpses) and movies (only to find everyone in Los Angeles is younger and prettier than her). Tracy meanwhile is upset that Kenneth is not around to do him a favor as he used to in his positions of both page (and janitor), leading to a heartwarming moment where he “releases” Kenneth from his entourage.

The second half of the show revolves around a major plot development that occurs in the first half with Liz having to put up one final show of TGS in order to fulfill a contract obligation to Tracy Jordan. However, a monkey is thrown in a wrench when Tracy runs away in order to ensure the show never happens, unknowing of a hefty penalty in his contract that would be owed to him if the show does not reach the 150 episode milestone. As a result, Liz has to chase him down in order to shoot the final episode. Liz ultimately finds Tracy in a strip club, where Tracy is running from the show in order to avoid having to say goodbye.

Meanwhile Jack is trying to patch up with Liz after the tumultuous argument that occurred at the end of the first part of the show. This ultimately leads to Jack hitting rock bottom and various cast members wondering if Jack was looking to off himself. However, this turns into Jack’s final manipulative game, as Liz finds him boarding a boat to find his true bliss, only for it to turn into the shortest boat trip of anyone’s life after deciding to push a “see-through dishwasher”.

The show’s final C-plot involves Frank and Toofer trying to get Lutz to move off of Blimpie’s when he got to choose the writers’ final lunch. Nothing however will work to make Lutz not pick Blimpie’s as he chosen it for revenge after all of the hell the other writers have given him over the past seven years (until Liz, who is tyrannical about food throws Lutz in her office tells Cerie to order sushi and dessert). However, Lutz takes the ultimate of measures to ensure that the writers’ will eat Blimpie’s, come hell or high water.

The finale as a whole impressed, often juggling four plot lines through both halves of the show, with neither section feeling particularly crowded, and giving every cast member a proper send off, be it Jonathan finally screaming at Liz how Jack was all his, Pete’s attempt at faking his death, and Tracy’s father finally returning from buying that pack of cigarettes. This comes as no surprise, however, as 30 Rock has done an excellent job this entire season of wrapping up lingering plot arcs, whether it’s Kenneth’s final rise to the presidency of NBC (a long term callback to a remark Jack mentioned in which he stated that “Kenneth will be running this company in five years”), Jack’s final realization that despite her salty interior, his mother was really caring for him the entire time, or Liz’s adoption arc that mysteriously fell off the face of the earth somewhere in the middle of season three.

The (in this case, absolute) final verdict: 30 Rock went out with the sort of ending that a show of it’s caliber deserved. Despite the massive changes that many of the major characters had over the course of the show, it took lengths to prove that it’s central characters (Jack, Liz, Kenneth, Tracy, and Jenna) were still at their core the people that they were at the start of the show. As has been the case all season, the show managed to neatly tie up a number of unresolved loose plot lines, whether it’s Jack’s unresolved love life or the Liz Lemon adoption arc that disappeared from consciousness over the past couple of seasons. A terrific sendoff (and the first of many this season for NBC’s Thursday night lineup) for a show that was fearlessly frenetic and funny.

Filed Under: BREAKING NEWS, ENTERTAINMENT, OPINION, REVIEWS, TELEVISION Tagged With: 30 Rock, Alec Baldwin, Finale, NBC, Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, TV reviews

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