It's tough when your brother Gary is played by Jason Segel and you're only three feet tall and made of felt. Like Walter (Peter Linz), whose dreams come true when his brother invites him along on a trip with his girlfriend (Amy Adams) to visit Muppet Studios, only to find that a Texas oilman (Chris Cooper) is planning to drill under the building. To save the theater, they'll have to reunite the feuding Muppets. Disney's reboot of their most adorable franchise, directed by James Bobin from a screenplay by Segel and Nicholas Stoller (responsible for the puppet musical in Forgetting Sarah Marshall), chooses meta over corn, giving us a Muppets for our ironic age, with Segel as another Apatowian manchild, lazy songs by Flight of the Conchord's Bret McKenzie, and the cameos one expects from a Muppet movie. But mostly, The Muppets is a cry for decency from a couple of guys who have done their part to coarsen the culture — which may be the greatest irony of all.
