'The Muppets' true to absurdist, anarchic style

LOS ANGELES: As someone who grew up on "Sesame Street," I often imagined that one day, I'd be able to go through the TV screen and live in a brownstone next to Ernie and Bert and Oscar and Big Bird. So when I saw Walter (voiced by Peter Linz), the new Muppet character from "The Muppets," have that same dream about following Kermit and Fozzie and Miss Piggy to the other side of the glass, I knew that the Muppets' return to the big screen was in loving and capable hands.

Sure, the plot borrows heavily from "The Muppet Movie" (this time, Kermit has to reunite everyone rather than get the band together) and the TV movie, "It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie," wherein an evil financier wants to steal the Muppets' theater. This time Chris Cooper's oil billionaire steps in for Joan Cusack's banker.

But "The Muppets" has the same brilliant absurdity, anarchic humor, subtle uplift and ensemble comedy that fans have come to expect over the years.

Jim Henson may be gone, but a new generation of writers and performers are doing right by his creations.

The aforementioned Walter has grown up loving the Muppets, as has his brother and best friend Gary (Jason Segel, who also co-wrote the film). Gary takes his longtime girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) to L.A. to celebrate their tenth anniversary, and Walter tags along to see the sights -- not that there are many of those to behold at the decrepit Muppet Studios, a moth-eaten shadow of its former self.

Walter sneaks into Kermit's old office and hears the ruthless Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) detail his plans to buy the studio and the theater under the guise of building a Muppet museum, even though his real agenda is to tear it all down and dig for oil underneath.

Horrified, the small-town trio track down Kermit (voiced by Steve Whitmire), who's puttering around a moldering Bel-Air mansion, nostalgic for the past. Walter inspires Kermit to reassemble the Muppets to hold a benefit telethon to save the theater, sending them off to collect Fozzie Bear (voiced by Eric Jacobson), who's performing with a tribute act called "The Moopets" in Reno; Gonzo (voiced by Dave Goelz), now a successful plumbing-fixtures magnate, and all the rest.

In true Muppet fashion, there's a montage of tracking down beloved characters -- and people in the movie mention the fact that they're in a montage.

But there are challenges, of course: can Kermit convince his estranged girlfriend Miss Piggy (Jacobson) to leave her gig as plus-size editor at French Vogue to return to the fold? Will the Muppets find a celebrity in Kermit's 1970s Rolodex to host the telethon? And will Walter figure out what talents he might have in time for the show?

The plot, as you may well imagine, is secondary to the barrage of jokes, songs, fourth-wall violations and occasional celebrity cameos that are part and parcel of the big-screen Muppet experience. And "The Muppets" gets all of this just right. 

Several of the new tunes are from "Flight of the Conchords" songwriter Bret McKenzie. "Conchords" vet James Bobin directs the new movie.

While Segel -- who memorably worked singing puppets into "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" -- and Adams are perfectly charming, and totally get into the spirit of things, can we take a moment to acknowledge what a great performer Kermit the Frog is? He's got one of the most expressive skulls in show business (albeit also one of the softest ones), and he can convey a panoply of emotions just by indenting his temples or folding in his top lip. All of the Muppets, of course, have that gift of smiling by opening their mouths as widely as possible.

There are one or two draggy moments in "The Muppets," but nothing that will render young audiences any more fidgety than, say, the "Never Before and Never Again" number in the original "The Muppet Movie." And for Muppet fans who, like "Star Wars" nerds, speak breathlessly of "the original trilogy" -- namely, "The Muppet Movie," "The Great Muppet Caper," and "The Muppets Take Manhattan" -- this reboot stands proudly, wackily, and adorably with its storied predecessors. (Reuters) 

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Jacqueline Against Horse Carriages

Celebrities know how to keep themselves in the news and that is how they improve their promotional value in the market. Jacqueline Fernandez has remained in the news for many days now after she received good response for her Murder 2 performance. However, that has not stopped her from making more news. She recently did an advertisement for PETA where she clearly indicated that she is against horse carriages that horses have to pull for the entertainment of the people. Now this could be a good thing for the horses but it is definitely going to annoy some people who earn their living on horse carriages. 

In her latest photoshoot for PETA ad Jacqueline Fernandez is posing in bikini and patting a dark horse on the beach and where the ad clearly says to Boycott horse drawn carriages. The ad was shot by ace photographer Anushka Menon and PETA is trying to bring out this ad after one of the horses collapsed in an incident when the horse was forced to pull eight people sitting in the horse drawn carriage. The incident took place near Gateway of India where foreigners and even Indians love to take these rides for their enjoyment.

PETA has been working with BMC and Mumbai High Court to ban horse drawn carriages in Mumbai because most of these carriages do not have license and that they force horses to drag and pull more weight without giving them proper meals and nutrition that is required. Talking about the ad, Jacqueline Fernandez said that she herself have seen many such incidents and she feels that horses do not belong on streets and they certainly don’t deserve to pull carriages beyond the point of exhaustion. Currently, Hema Malini, John Abraham and Lea Michele have joined this campaign with PETA.

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Randeep Taking Cricketing Lessons

MUMBAI: We all know that Randeep Hooda is a class actor because he really delivers good performance no matter whatever role he is offered. However, all that performance only comes through better research and coaching that enables him to understand the mind and body of the character he is playing. He was first known for his role as Desu in D where he gave one of his best performances and recently we saw him delivering awesome performance in Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster.

Recently, Randeep Hooda replaced Arunoday Singh in Madhur Bhandarkar’s Heroine where Randeep plays the role of a cricketer. 

Hence, he decided to take some cricketing lessons from one of the best batsmans in the Indian side, Virendra Sehwag to understand how a cricketer feels and how the mind and body works when cricketers are on the field in the middle of thousands of audiences watching him. It is known that since the role has been offered to Randeep he has been in constant touch with Virendra Sehwag and getting some helpful tips and information that can help him to prepare for the role of cricketer.

On Thursday, Randeep Hooda and his mentor Naseeruddin Shah went all the way to Wankhede Stadium where Sehwag played the India-West Indies test match. Randeep confirmed the news that he went to meet Virendra Sehwag after the match and that it was great to be with his acting idol and one of the greatest batsman on the Indian side. He also said that since he and Virendra are both Jats they sync well. He also appreciated Virendra for the time he spent with him offering him some tips and information that would help him to portray the role in a better way and he mentioned that Virendra is an entertainer on the field. Randeep also requested Virendra to offer one of his bats that he would used in the movie and Sehwag gladly agreed to it.

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