The Age of Commercialism

A lot of fun.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

This installment is much better than Puppet Master 2 & 3, with better acting and the puppet effects are better, as well. The puppet movement is a vast improvement on the previous films. The demons were a bit limited to movement, though, and actually quite funny at times.A group of friends staying at the famous hotel where Toulon committed suicide, discover Toulon's trunk, and the puppets inside. One of the girls keeps going on about how they shouldn't open it, but gives no reason why they shouldn't. When her boyfriend finally asks her what she's so scared of, she replies "I just can't stand here and watch you guys do this." Just an example of the silly dialogue... Having said that, I must admit to actually enjoying this installment. The puppets are the good guys here, as they protect the youngsters against demons sent to kill them.

After being locked up and forgotten the puppets are back when Rick Myers, the caretaker of Bodega Bay Inn, stumbles upon them and the secret elixir of life. Meanwhile Rick's coworkers are in trouble from Sutekh's evil forces that are at work. This is a leadup to a showdown between Sutekh's mini demons vs the puppets. It was a nice twist to see the puppets being portrayed as the good guys in this film who seem to be having a good old fun time. The puppets mean spirited characteristics are now gone as Andre Toulon is speaking to them from the beyond the grave to do some good. I'm a fan of the Rick Myers character and not so much of his counterpart Cameron who was so unlikeable that movie was off putting at times because of him. Otherwise I enjoyed the film and it kept my interest but that being said the 4 rating is based on the film having all around poor performances and writing.

So I decided to watch the entire Puppet Master series, and had just watched parts 1-3, which I thought were ALL excellent. They had a unique charm to them, and a certain intelligence that I really appreciated. About a year ago, I even saw Puppet Master Vs. Demonic Toys, which of course was bad, but still a terrific guilty pleasure and fun to watch.From the very beginning of this film, I knew it was in trouble. The cheesy Power Rangers-style Egyptian skull villain who watches the Puppets 'Rita Repulsa-style' through his pyramid glass came straight out of left field! All of the additions to this franchise in this story were completely absurd! Suddenly we have a grand assortment of all kinds of new and random characters and plots that are a far cry from the first three films. I seriously doubt that when the first Puppet Master was being penned, the writers had visions of someday seeing an Egyptian Power Rangers villain, totem monsters, annoying twenty-somethings who seriously can't act (and are supposed to be brilliant scientists but never say anything intelligent), and a lame "Decapitron" puppet who's head can morph into the ghost of Toulon.Another thing that greatly disappointed me in this film was that it completely ignores what happened in the last entry (Part II, since III was a prequel). Suddenly, the puppets are back at Bodega Bay Inn, back in their case (minus Blade), and Toulon for some reason is willing to help his puppets again (he betrays them in part II for his love of Elsa). This isn't explained AT ALL...and so with that, and all of this other junk thrown in, I was no longer amused.I'm a huge fan of ridiculous B movies, a connoisseur if you will. I even collect laser discs of rare B movies you can't find on DVD, and so it takes a lot for me to say that this was one of the most absurd movies I have ever seen in my life. I still love those puppets, the original ones, Blade, Tunneler, Pinhead, Jester and the rest, and if they had only stuck with what they had rather than trying to fix something that wasn't broken, well, the series might still be alive and in good health. That being said, even though the reviews aren't so great, I'm really interested in checking out Puppet Master Retro, sounds like an interesting one that pays great tribute to the original themes.

I though that PM4 and 5 were the best of the series. the puppets are fighting the Totems, minions of Sutek, who want the secret Toulon stole from him back. To help the Puppets, a new one, Decapitron (originally an idea for an unmade Empire Pictures filck) is made. This has always been my favorite Full Moon flick, and I love part V. Keep up the work Mr. Band. As usual, the video contains an excellent videozone, and the video itself was distributed by Paramount. A Puppet Master Box Set was released in 2000 by Full Moon, but was quickly recalled by Paramount because they still claimed the rights to these films. Paramount needs to stop being an ass and let Mr. Band release all of his great films through Full Moon, not the Paramount "Full Screen Collection". Bless Full Moon.