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As you may have gathered from my recent review of Delicacy, I love Audrey Tautou. I am a long-time defender of her career as she is often wrongfully labelled as a typecast actress. Sure, she has starred in more romantic comedies than you’ve had hot croissants (unless you aren’t a big eater of hot croissants, in which case I don’t care what you think) but that doesn’t mean she plays the same role over and over.

Realizing that I haven’t watched as many Audrey Tautou films as I thought I had (but enough to know that she is one diverse lady) and finally getting fed up of seeing “if you liked Amelie, you’ll love this!” on anything to do with a Tautou film, I have decided to join Mild Concern editor, Tim’s “Body Of Work” quests and review as many Tautou’s films as I can get my hands on.

Although my initial reasons for reviewing Tautou’s catalogue of work were a tad cynical – I mean, who dedicates potentially millions of hours of their time to reviewing, just to prove a point to no one? – the undertaking of this effort is still more an act of love than one of smarm and I look forward to all the varied and probably-gorgeous films ahead.

Sadly not all of Audrey Tautou’s work is available to us here in the UK (I love the lady, but not enough to pay premium for imported DVDs whilst I am on the breadline!) so below is the list of films I will be reviewing in chronological order over the coming months courtesy of my own DVD collection, borrowing from others and Lovefilm:

Venus Beauty | Vénus beauté (institut)

Happenstance | Le Battement d’ailes du papillon

Amélie | Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain

God Is Great and I Am Not | Dieu est grand, je suis toute petite

He Loves Me… He Loves Me Not | À la folie… pas du tout

Pot Luck | L’Auberge espagnole

Dirty Pretty Things

A Very Long Engagement | Un long dimanche de fiançailles

Russian Dolls – Pot Luck 2 | Les Poupées russes

Hunting And Gathering | Ensemble, c’est tout (2006)

The Da Vinci Code | Ron Howard’s The Adventures Of Tom Hanks & Audrey Tautou

Priceless | Hors de prix

Coco Before Chanel |Coco avant Chanel

Beautiful Lies | De vrais mensonges

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Finally, if you’re reading this Audrey, I look forward to a scented letter of appreciation for this endeavour and I await your invitation to a romantic evening together.

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Over 12 years since their last cinematic release, and over 30 years since The Muppet Show finished on the small screen, the Muppets have split up, their studios have fallen into disrepair and Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) wants to buy the land to drill for oil. Enter Walter (a puppet/Muppet?) and Gary (Jason Segel), a pair of brothers determined to help reunite the Muppets and raise the $10 million they need to save their studio. Given two hours of primetime TV to hold a telethon by a desperate studio exec (Rashida Jones), the gang have just days to put together a revival of The Muppet Show.

Amy Adams is also in the cast as Gary’s fiancée in a wholly redundant sub-plot about nothing much at all, but I’ll mostly be ignoring that part of the film. Other criticisms (let’s get them out of the way) include the fact that the premise of a telethon allows for a few too many brief celebrity cameos, and that some jokes are better in the set-up than the execution – the Muppet collecting montage is a prime example. The Muppets is also guilty of overusing green screen to get the Muppets in a variety of locations and doing things impossible for a puppet to do. I understand this can save time and money but it also takes away from the rustic charm of the Muppets.

Griping over.

At its heart The Muppets is one great big love letter to the Muppets. The film is a celebration of our favourite felt-based friends and acknowledges the TV and film heritage they have created. This is most evident in this instalment’s connections to 1979′s The Muppet Movie, not only is one song from this film reprised on-stage but the Standard Rich and Famous Contract, which the Muppets receive at the end of The Muppet Movie, serves as the Maguffin in The Muppets. This is roughly as intellectual as I can get.

Present but never overused is the standard Muppet meta-humour, the characters are aware that this is a film, and after the disappointment of Muppets from Space, the songs are back. And what amazing songs! Man or Muppet truly deserves to win the Oscar for Best Original Song. It is clear that Bret McKenzie from Flight of the Conchords wrote the songs as they have that distinct Conchordian sound, and are all the better for it. My acid test for a musical is whether or not the songs are in my head the next day, and Man or Muppet was ringing loud and clear in my brain for the rest of the week. Job done.

There is so much to love about this film that the few flaws are easily forgiven and The Muppets ends up being a superior production to the early Muppet films it is paying tribute to. I left the cinema with a massive grin on my face, a song in my heart and a skip in my step. There was also a book in my bag, but this is unrelated.

The Muppets is a joy, made for the fans but surely just as enjoyable for the uninitiated.

Only one question remains about The Muppets, where the hell was Rizzo!?

Muppet Movie Ranking:
1. The Muppet Christmas Carol
2. Muppet Treasure Island
3. The Muppets
4. The Muppets Take Manhattan
5. The Great Muppet Caper
6. The Muppet Movie
7. Muppets from Space

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We’re nearly at the end of our BlogalongaMuppets journey and our penultimate stop is with Muppets from Space. This time round the literary adaptations have been abandoned, the Muppets are all living together and Gonzo is having an identity crisis. Just as Gonzo is wondering what he is, and where he came from, he starts to receive mysterious messages in his cereal and through his dreams suggesting an extraterrestrial connection. Naturally the government tries to kidnap Gonzo and he must escape in time to meet his relatives from beyond the stars.

This entire review could simply be a .gif of me slowly shaking my head in disgust. Muppets from Space does not feel like a Muppet movie and for the most part doesn’t even feel like a proper movie. The quality of film here is more on par with their TV-only fare like It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie and is a far cry from The Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island. The plot is weak, most Muppets are underused and there aren’t even any proper songs. No songs in a Muppet movie, the cheek of it!

While it is nice to have Jeffrey Tambor playing the token bad guy, and his bear sidekick was a good source of humour, this does not excuse the bizarre cameo from half the cast of Dawson’s Creek (in character but without Dawson himself) and the general lack of wit or intelligence. You can have as many clever movie references as you like but these cannot save the worst Muppet outing so far.

My final complaint is just how perverted the Muppets seem to have become. Every other Muppet made a sexual advance on one human or another and I’m sure at one point it was implied that Animal had sex with Kathy Griffin’s security guard, an image none of us want planted into our mind’s eye. Can’t we be satisfied with keeping the parents amused with a clever homage to Independence Day and not reduce the Muppets to sex pests?

Muppets from Space was a real disappointment, made all the worse for following the two strongest Muppet instalments. Watching it simply wasn’t fun, and fun is what the Muppets are all about. Thankfully Rizzo and his fellow rats were there to provide me with the occasional moment of comic relief. I love those little guys so much.

I think before you answer that question you’d better be real clear on the final destination of that finger.

Only one question remains, who is taking me to see The Muppets?

Muppet Movie Ranking:
1. The Muppet Christmas Carol
2. Muppet Treasure Island
3. The Muppets Take Manhattan
4. The Great Muppet Caper
5. The Muppet Movie
6. Muppets from Space

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I am relishing this section of BlogalongaMuppets as we are in the period of the Muppets which overlapped with my childhood. How can you not love a Muppet film if you first saw it at the age of eight?

Following on from The Muppet Christmas Carol Disney have tried to replicate that winning formula by adapting another classic novel in the unique Muppet way. This time we have a young Jim Hawkins (Kevin Bishop) and his best friends Rizzo the Rat and The Great Gonzo, who are given a treasure map and set sail on the big blue wet thing, looking for adventure. Captaining their ship is a certain green frog and taking the role of lead famous human actor is the always entertaining Tim Curry as Long John Silver. Tim Curry plays the treacherous pirate with such relish it is a joy to watch.

All of my praise for this film is pretty much the same as that which I heaped on The Muppet Christmas Carol. The film has a tight plot, is funny throughout and is filled with catchy songs. The humour never becomes too meta and there are no cameos for cameos sake; Jennifer Saunders and Billy Connolly both give great performances at the start of the film and both have something to do beyond being a recognisable face.

The winning formula for a great Muppet film is for our felt covered friends to adapt a classic novel, have a respected British actor in the lead human role and have decent songs. Christmas Carol and Treasure Island also share the trait of not being afraid of being dark in places, the opening song in Muppet Treasure Island ends with a whole pirate crew being shot. As Rizzo said, “He died? And this is supposed to be a kids’ movie!”.

As usual I want to give a quick nod to the various Muppet rats who throughout the pirate adventure have their own sub-plot as Rizzo has a side business running a rat cruise on-board the pirate boat. There’s something about rats behaving like humans on holiday that tickles me beyond explanation. Look at their teeny clothes!

You wanna knock it off with the booze? It’s peeling the paint off of the shuffleboard court.

In short, Muppet Treasure Island is amazing and I will never tire of it. Sadly The Muppet Christmas Carol just pips it to the top spot (so far) by virtue of being a Christmas film and therefore automatically being slightly better.

Muppet Movie Ranking:
1. The Muppet Christmas Carol
2. Muppet Treasure Island
3. The Muppets Take Manhattan
4. The Great Muppet Caper
5. The Muppet Movie

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Woody Allen is one of my favourite writers, directors and actors, and yet I have only seen a handful of his films. With every new film he releases Woody Allen is declared to have either returned to form or lost the plot, and yet with a list of 49 films he has either written or directed I can’t be sure when Allen truly peaked as an auteur, what his best work is and whether he’s ever made a film worse than Match Point/Scoop.

To combat this confusion and dire lack of Woody Allen experience I am going to blog my way through every single film Woody Allen has either written or directed in chronological order. As 49 films already sit on this list, and Allen shows no signs of stopping any time soon, this is going to be a long-term endeavour and will most likely take years to complete. With any luck this project will give me an insight into one of cinema’s icons and give me a new specialist category in Mastermind should the need ever arise.

My journey will start with 1965′s What’s New Pussycat, Woody Allen’s first screenplay, and end with whenever he steps out from behind the camera for the last time.

The full list of films, with links to reviews when completed, can be found below: Read more »

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