The Muppets debuted in 1955, and the late great Jim Henson’s creations have been delighting audiences (and fellow entertainers) of all ages ever since. They’ve made their mark on the small screen — most notably with The Muppet Show (1976-81) — and at the movies, starring in eight feature films across four different decades. However, 2011’s The Muppets was their first big-screen outing in a dozen years, and the movie spent most of its time wondering if the Muppets’ old-fashioned, irreverent charm still had a place in a more jaded pop culture landscape. The answer was a warm, if not quite resounding, yes. With that out of the way, Muppets Most Wanted is a return to the sort of zany showbiz farce that made them movie stars.

“Doggone it…it looks like they’ve ordered a sequel!”

A concussion is a brain injury that causes trauma, confusion, loss of concentration, and impairment of judgment balance and coordination. The new film Concussion starts with a woman getting hit in the head with baseball thrown by her stepson. Abby (Robin Weigert) is married to divorce lawyer Kate (Julie Fain Lawrence). They seem happy but bored in their relationship. Kate obviously probably was in a relationship with a man before but gave up on it. The two kids seem distant and grouchy toward Abby. Both seem to be well off and have their own money. Abby has been taking a break from renovating apartments, but she decides to go back to it. She spends lots of time with other women over 40. They all seem vaguely dissatisfied, but Abby seems even more edgy than that. Her partner, Justin (Jonathan Tchaikovsky), is used to her bossiness and she decides to confide in him. Abby is bridling at how boring her relationship has become. She decides to go to a hooker. She does it again. Each encounter is different with varying degrees of unsatisfying and satisfying. The implication is that the concussion has shaken her brain up and changed the way she thinks. She learns that Justin is dating “the girl” who sets things up. Justin lets her know that she might be able to play the other side of the fence. Get $800 instead of paying $800. There are young women with lots of daddy's cash who are looking for someone more mature. Justin says, “What's the difference?” So Abby starts seeing young women, under very controlling and particular situations. She gets to meet “the girl”, who is a rather neurotic and pretty college law student. Abby asks to see all kinds of women, not just young ones. “The girl” thinks that is fine, and it would be nice if she would work more than one day a week.

The clients are all different. At one point Justin says number five wants to see her again. Abby says no. Then we see why. Number five likes to choke her and hurt her. One of the clients who turns up happens to be an acquaintance of hers who is married to a Goldman Sachs stockbroker. It was assumed she was happily married, and she is, but she's excited by a lesbian fling. Sam (Maggie Siff) becomes a regular client. Abby enjoys feeling desirable. Most 42-year-old women would probably like the idea of lots of sex with different people, but clearly Abby's life has been thrown out of its safe trajectory. It is obvious that something has to give. It is not likely she can remain a housewife and a hooker forever.

Need for Speed is based on a video game. It caters to people who love the experience of speed. There is a huge audience for this sort of thing. To their credit, the writer and director makes every effort to create an actual story and real characters in this presentation. It is easy to compare it to Fast and Furious, but why bother. That gives these sorts of films too much credit. Fast and Furious and Need for Speed are designed to give people a thrill. If anything Need for Speed takes things more seriously than the Fast and Furious series. It also focuses more on beautiful and very expensive cars. Some of the cars featured include Koenigseggs, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Porsches, McLarens, and Jaguars, but Ford Mustangs and Torinos get some of the most lavish praise. It could be a commercial for these cars. In fact, the film could be a commercial for the video game and the car culture, in general. One of the plot points is that the millions of invested in these cars is motivation to overlook past hostilities. The other reason for making this film is to give a star vehicle to Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad).

Tobey Mitchell (Aaron Paul) has a high-performance car shop in Mount Kisco. There are some fun street racing scenes right at the start. It should be stated that, at every point in this film, there is zero concern for the safety of innocent bystanders. The driving is always reckless and insane. He connects with his old girlfriend Anita (Dakota Johnson) who was stolen away by an old friend. That ex-friend Dino Brewster (Dominic Cooper) is now a big shot in the racing world. Tobey is behind on the mortgage on the shop. Dino offers him $500,000 to fix up a $3,000,000 car. Tobey has no choice but to set their differences aside. All his coworkers and best buddies are totally against it including Anita's brother Pete (Harrison Gilbertson). Pete is also a bit of a psychic and seer, predicting that Tobey will win a great race that ends at a lighthouse.  I'm not going to go on about the plot too much, because it's predictable and done just to make sure no one just thinks it's a cheap video game ripoff. Aaron Paul does give full commitment to his role and is actually very good. I don't think he's leading man material, but he is able to convey all levels of intensity. This movie would be better off with a Steve McQueen type, but those are nearly non-existent (although I think Tom Hardy has potential, but he's not in this movie).