THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS

Cert Running time

Crude, rude, violent and engagingly daft, the core notion that depraved and swearing puppets live alongside equally dysfunctional humans is amusing enough, but rarely does The Happytime Murders raise a laugh or deliver a truly shocking moment... a bit of an issue for a supposed grown-up comedy.

But the film does at least aim high in terms of casting and tone. The puppets co-exist alongside humans, but they are an oppressed and picked-upon minority group.

In Los Angeles, former LAPD detective-turned-downmarket private eye Phil Philips (Bill Barretta) gets a job from a seductive felt femme fatale who is being blackmailed, and starts his investigation at a puppet porn store, where he bumps into a puppet rabbit who used to star in a hit 1980s children’s show.

After a hooded gunman targets the store, it becomes apparent that stars of the show are being targeted, and Phil finds himself having to work alongside his former LAPD partner Connie (Melissa McCarthy), who has her own anti-puppet prejudices.