Tag Archives: The Muppets

Top movies of 2011: Some thoughts

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I’ve noted this before, but there was a period when I was in a movie theater every single weekend. I reviewed movies from 1978 to 1990 and saw almost everything that came to town.

More than a few years since then the majority of my movie-watching has been on home video. The demands of real life — particularly when nobody was paying me to review movies — meant I caught a lot of movies months later.

Accompanied by various enthusiastic family members and friends, I saw a lot more movies in the theater this year. I still haven’t seen the “Sherlock Holmes” sequel or “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” but I saw a lot of movies earlier in the year. Particularly the geeky, comic-booky ones.

I just ran across this list, on Box Office Mojo, of the top movie box office results of the year and thought I might make note of those movies that caught a few bucks from me this year.

1. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2,” $381 million. How could I not go see the final big-screen outing for Harry and company? Maybe not my favorite of the movies — I think “Prisoner of Azkaban” takes that honor — but a fitting end to the series.

2. “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” $352 million. Yeah, my attendance of this was kid-driven. But you know what? It was a pretty fun action movie. And who doesn’t like seeing Buzz Aldrin interacting with giant robots?

3. “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1,” $273 million. Haven’t seen it yet. Probably will on DVD. Not holding my breath.

4. “The Hangover Part II,” $254 million. I thought the first one was a hoot. Haven’t seen this yet. It just didn’t seem like a must-see-in-theaters to me. Obviously a few people disagreed.

5. “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” $241 million. I’ve never gotten these movies. Johnny Depp is fun in them but the stories are unfathomable. No ocean pun intended.

6. “Fast Five,” $209 million. Didn’t see it. I imagine I’ll watch it on TNT someday. Or the Speed channel.

7. “Cars 2,” $191 million. Another kid-driven movie and not as good as the original, but good, silly, fun. Can’t top other Pixar movies for heart, smarts and humor, however.

8. “Thor,” $181 million. If you told this Marvel Comics-loving kid back in the 1960s that someday somebody would make a multi-million-dollar blockbuster about Thor and that millions of people would go see it … well, I’d probably be so pathetically grateful that you knew who Thor was that I would have believed you.

9. “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” $176 million. Maybe the biggest surprise of all the movies on this list that I saw. Who knew it would be so good?

10. “Captain America,” $176 million. One of my favorite comic book characters in one of my favorite comic book movies. And I totally geeked out over the “Avengers” preview at the end. (Spoiler!)

Jumping down the list, a few observations:

I’m kind of surprised that “Bridesmaids” didn’t place higher than 12 with $169 million. “This is like lava coming out of me.” I laughed a lot.

At 14, “X-Men First Class” also deserved to make more than $146 million. Almost as much of a surprise as “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.” A good Marvel movie from someone other than Marvel? An even bigger surprise.

Speaking of comic book movies, “Green Lantern” was 22nd with $116 million. If I could, I’d get my money back and the movie would have made $10 less.

“The Green Hornet” ($98 million) made more money than “Crazy, Stupid, Love,” with $84 million? Are there more Seth Rogen fans than Steve Carell fans?

“Real Steel” ($84 million) and “The Muppets” ($80 million) should have made more.

 

‘The Muppets’ make a heart-felt return

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I was a bit outside the demographic for “The Muppet Show” when it aired in the late 1970s. I was in high school, so I was too old to be one of the show’s fervent kid viewers.

I was however, a show business nut. I was the kid, you might remember, who read Sammy Davis Jr.’s autobiography from my school library.

I could appreciate the show on several levels: Its silly jokes, its vaudeville style, its love of … show all appealed to me.

The guest stars were kind of dumbfounding. Mark Hamill from “Star Wars” one week, Gene Kelly the next.

So I had nothing but high hopes and good thoughts for “The Muppets,” the new movie starring Kermit the frog, Miss Piggy, Amy Adams and Jason Segel, the wonderfully awkward actor from such cult exercises as “Freaks and Geeks” and “Saving Sarah Marshall.”

Segel, apparently, was a Muppets fan growing up and despite his reputation for making R-rated comedies was given the opportunity by Disney — the studio that has owned the Muppets for much of the time since creator Jim Henson’s untimely death but has never seemed to know what to do with them — to guide a potential revival.

Segel plays a sweet, kind of clueless guy — his specialty — who, along with girlfriend Adams, helps his brother Walter — a Muppet in felt construction but a human in every other respect — meet the Muppets. Once they meet Kermit and learn that an evil oil magnate — played with relish and mustard by Chris Cooper — plans to demolish the old Muppet studio, they decided to put on a show to save the day. (And if that sounds like something out of an old Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney movie, rest assured that Rooney even makes an appearance.)

Ultimately, the movie is about the strengths of friendship and loyalty, but before the moral is lightly delivered there are plenty of celebrity cameos — Jack Black chief among them — and jokes, ranging from typical Fozzy Bear groaners to clever, meta references. (One of those comes early on, when Kermit appears ready to stop the plot in its tracks, prompting Adams to say, “This is going to be a really short movie.”)

Random thoughts upon watching the movie:

• Adams, next set to star as Lois Lane in the upcoming Superman movie, is adorable but downright womanly compared to the slight young actress who played the part in “Superman Returns.” That’s not a bad thing, but an interesting choice.

• I’m surprised the movie approached the idea of whether the Muppets are too old-fashioned to appeal to young, jaded audiences in such a head-on manner.

• Those bald, round-headed Muppet infants still creep me out.

“The Muppets” seemed like an odd choice for Segel to make, but Disney made a great decision in putting the franchise’s revival effort in his hands and those of director James Bobin. I hope the franchise goes on forever.