I got up early this morning to go get blood drawn, since my doctor kind of strong-armed me into scheduling a physical when I was in a couple of weeks ago about my pneumonia. I’m hoping that it, and the subsequent second chest x-ray I’ll need to schedule, will confirm that said pneumonia has made a full and lasting retreat.
The bloodwork didn’t take long, so after that I went and got some breakfast — it was fasting bloodwork — and then a much needed haircut. (I’m not sure, but it could be than my last haircut was over three months ago.)
I mowed the lawn, worked a little on Kaleidotrope‘s next issue (theoretically out next month), delivered some food to the church pantry with my father (and the dog, who stayed in the car), and went out for a really lovely dinner with my parents. (I had a very nice beet salad to start and a delicious duck breast for my entree.) Then this evening, after what was really a ridiculous amount of deliberating and looking through options, I decided to watch The Muppets.
I liked it, and I liked some of it quite a lot, but I think ultimately it made me nostalgic for earlier Muppet movies more than anything else. Because of the frame story that Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller decided to use, the Muppets, while always the focus, at times feel like secondary characters, or at least not the driving force of the movie. And because so much of the original voice and puppetry talent sadly either couldn’t or didn’t participate in the movie, some of the characters feel just slightly off at times. (I really wish, for instance, that Frank Oz had reconsidered. Did he see a script, or just that brief fart shoes scene in the trailer?) That said, there’s a lot of goofy sweetness to really like about it, and if not brilliant or even in my top three Muppet films, it’s genuinely entertaining.
It sounds to me that the pneumonia is indeed on the retreat if you’re finding that you have energy to do the daily errands and whatnot. And good thing, too!
The thing is, I never particularly felt like I didn’t have the energy for anything. In retrospect, I was maybe a little more tired than usual, but I only stayed home from work (and from daily errands) because my doctor told me to. I went to her because of a bad cough that wouldn’t go away. I’m maybe not the best judge of how much rest I need.
I felt the same about the movie. It wasn’t the *Muppets* but it was about as good a tribute/homage/reboot as could be done. I laughed through a lot of it, but most of those lol moments were at injokes or nods to the original series/movies. And that computer animated fight sequence really bothered me. The absolute genius of Jim Henson was that he was able to make the things he envisioned happen, like the gang riding bikes through Paris. To resort to computer animation was a cheap shot to me. But overall I was just happy that I didn’t hate it. I went in with low expectations, in fear of sacrilege (and the fart shoes came close), but left pleasantly surprised. The spirit of the Muppets is still alive, even if some of the magic is gone.
Glad you’re feeling better, too!
And happy birthday!
I loved The Muppets, but I will cheerfully admit that that was mainly because it hit all the right nostalgia buttons. And it did really make me want to go and watch the first one again. I don’t know why I haven’t yet; I own it on DVD.
Did you love the Chris Cooper bad guy rap? I was positively verklempt in the theatre for that bit.
That was definitely a highlight, as was his “Maniacal laugh! Maniacal laugh!”
Overall, I liked the movie quite a bit, just didn’t love it.