Muppets Most Wanted, film review: Plenty of brash Mel Brooks-style humour

(U) James Bobin, 113 mins Starring: Ricky Gervais, Ty Burrell, Tina Fey Voices: Steve Whitmire, Eric Jacobson, Dave Goelz

Kermit and Miss Piggy are back in 'Muppets most wanted' (Image Net)

"Everybody knows a sequel is never quite as good," the Muppets themselves admit early on during their latest big-screen adventure.

They're quite correct.

There is plenty of brash, Mel Brooks-style humour here but the plotting becomes increasingly soporific and repetitive. Kermit the frog has been thrown in a Siberian gulag.

His arch-criminal lookalike Constantine, in cahoots with oleaginous music manager Dominic Badguy (Ricky Gervais), is taking the rest of the furry gonks on an extended world tour.

The tour is just a pretext for Badguy and Constantine to rob museums and banks – and for the film-makers to include as many songs, dances, in-jokes, pointless celebrity cameos and inane puns as possible.