"The Muppets Take Manhattan"

1986
-directed by Frank Oz
Perhaps in thirty or forty years, just to feel Jim's final Muppet presence on the big screen, i'll watch this one again. But it was breathtakingly bad, just painful. It perhaps even deserves consideration for the "All-Time Worst Films" list. The human ingenue was, well, not horrible. And the actor who played Bert Buchman on MAD ABOUT YOU, it was nice to see him. And Gates McFadden plays a secretary, TREK fans. But i will not offer anyone a reason to see this, because oh lordy, it was just screamingly dull and void of magic. It was Frank Oz's first effort directing a big-screen movie all by himself, and perhaps he, like Jim before, wasn't quite ready. It would be hard to overstate the impact the Muppets had on my young life, starting with "Bein' Green". At the age of five i heard this song, and immediately knew i wasn't alone in the universe, as i had previously wondered. It was the first anything that made me feel that there was something or someone out there who knew who i was. To this day, "Imagine" is the only other song to have touched me so. A few years later, The Muppet Show came out, followed by THE MUPPET MOVIE. Later on, there was LABYRINTH. We all have our favorites. For me, it was maybe Statler and Waldorf. If you've not heard the collaborations with John Denver, get on it. FRAGGLE ROCK has always seemed quite inferior, but since some swear by it, i'll allow that my reaction may have just been bad timing. Maybe. But the characters and magic in Jim's creations (and of course he had much help...Frank Oz alone is worthy of an article or two)...well, they are simply an enormous part of who i am. Keep your laureates and statesmen: in terms of making the world a better place for having been alive, i don't imagine any human has ever done better. I've never been as stunned and saddened by the death of someone i'd never met.
I'll give the film one more star than it deserves, simply because it was the last time Jim would be that little green frog. Or the last time that little green frog would be him. "Thank you" will never be sufficient, Jim. But thank you.
1 star.