Search - Puppet Master 4 on DVD

James B. (wandersoul73) from LINDALE, TX
Reviewed on 6/22/2009...

Watch this one & Pt. 5 back to back, as they both fit together.

Bad Puppets Go Good(But Good Series Is Starting To Go Bad)

Stanley Runk | Camp North Pines | 07/13/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

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The demonic underworld creatures that Toulon got his puppet reanimation secrets from are now on a search and destroy mission so their secrets aren't known or used by the "upworld". So they set out to destroy anyone attached to something called the "Omega Project" in order to keep the secret to themselves. So they send small doll-like creatures to assassinate all scientists involved with this project. Scientist Rick(Gordon Currie) is the last one on their list to destroy. What a coincidence!!! He just happens to be carrying out his research while pulling double duty as caretaker at the Bodega Bay Inn!! And we all know who resides there. His girlfriend Suzy comes to visit him, along with a rival scientist and his girlfriend who just happens to be a psychic channeler. Everything fits too nicely into place here, doesn't it? The evil "Totems" arrive and it's a fight to the death with Rick and his pals. But Rick has reanimated Toulon's puppets with that special green elixir(apparently the human brain element was dropped after part 2) and now they're helping him fight the nasty buggers. The puppets bust out their big guns in the form of a new puppet called Decapitron. Decapitron wears a black leather coat, can morph his head into Andre Toulon(bad CGI here by the way) and change heads to fire big blasts of electricity at the Totems.
Yes, as you can imagine, the series has now been pushed full on into Saturday morning cartoon mode rather than horror. All credibility as a horror film are thrown out the window in the beginning when we see the underworld beasts and their leader. You'd swear this guy stepped straight off of the Power Rangers set! There are about eight billion inconsistencies and plot points that totally clash with what was established in the first two movie. I'll point out a few even though the other reviewers have already done so.
First is the appearance of Six-Shooter. He wasn't in part 1 or 2, why is he here now? And where did Torch disappear to?
Second is the return of Andre Toulon(Guy Rolfe again). The puppets killed him in Part 2 coz he betrayed them. Why is he still around in spirit form as the leader of the puppets and a kind of mentor to Rick?
Upon being reanimated by Rick, why didn't the puppets immediately proceed to slaughter him and his friends as they would have done in the previous movies? Why did they have to be reanimated at all? They were all alive and well at the end of 2. In fact, at the end of Part 2 they were in a van heading out to do puppet shows for children under the guidance of a new master.
There are so many more of these examples, but it makes my head hurt just thinking of them all, so I'll quit. But in the VideoZone "Making Of" segment director Jeff Burr states that this film is more like, "The Adventures of the Puppet Master" rather than an actual sequel. When looked at in this light, it makes the movie a bit more enjoyable in a totally cornball kinda way. It does make sense coz Parts 1 and 2 seem to be their own storyline(a much darker and better one), and Part 3 sorta starts it's own totally new series.
It certainly is silly, childish and kinda fun, but the series is now miles away from where it started.
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Now these are starting to go downhill...

deanmozzer | Los Angeles | 01/01/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Here is a quick synopsis for the film:

In present day (1993) Scientists and toy makers seek to create artificial intelligence in the form of the robots, in order to play somewhat of a laser tag game. Meanwhile, the evil Egyptian spirits that Toulon (apparently) stole the secret of life from, are seeking to get their revenge, hence, they send evil 'totem' toys through the mail to these AI enthusiasts in order to stick it to them.

Before I name the problems I had, i'll state some of the positives of this film: For one thing, the parallels between this Part 4 and Part 3 can be seen. For example, the story is somewhat updated yet connected in the goals of some of the humans. In part 3, world domination, or the search for power to do so seemed to be an underlying theme. In part 4, the search for power seems to be on a more personal level than a global one. The scientists in this movie seem to be working in a capitalistic society, hence the mighty dollar is what is fueling most of their drive. The one protagonist, however, seeks to find Toulon's secret for the mere love of technology rather than for the sole purpose of business. The dvd itself, like the other ones in the Puppet Master Box Set, is done rather well. Like the others, it also contains a trailer, behind the scenes, cast and crew bios, and links to other Full Moon products.

And now the bad: The movie contained more cheese than I can usually handle. It reminded me of something like a Witchboard - unappealing even by b-movie standards. I may seem like a typical critic here by pointing out some of it's flaws, but even for this being a b-movie series, I must point a few things out. The placement of the puppets was way off. So...six-shooter was in the prequel (part 3), and in this one too...so why wasn't he in parts 1 & 2 ??? The point: he was a cool puppet but if this story was to take place in a current (1993) time, a reasonable explanation might have been given for him popping up. Where was Mrs. Leech, and that one that threw flames in part 2? And how the hell did Blade end up with this guy to begin with??

I guess with b-movies it's important not to ask too many questions - I should know that more than anyone. But I guess after seeing Part 3, the inconsistencies in this movie irked me even more. I think what really bugged me was that the story focused more on these current characters more than they did on what made the franchise what it is - the puppets, and Toulon. I didn't care too much for the story on what these people were trying to accomplish. The puppets seemed like secondary characters to me, whereas they should have been the stars of the show like in the previous three installments. It was neat that they brought back Guy Rolfe to play Toulon, but he rarely came out as it was basically his spirit talking through one of the newer (at least to me) puppets.

My final verdict: If you're a completist like me, you'll likely want to see this sequel if you loved the previous three. This movie isn't without some value. But be prepared, the amount of cheese in this one may be more than you can handle. While the small zombie motif may have been dropped, we do see some cheesy alien/demon action ala Troll. To be honest, it reminded me of some of the horrible costumes used on the Power Rangers. But even this wears thin by movie's end. I would advise you not to skip it, just for the fact that it is Part 4 of 7. Just don't expect to see too much of the puppets in this one, because they don't get as much screen time as they did in the previous three. After Part 3, they already had part 4 in mind and ending up shooting this movie and Part 5 together, so I guess it figures that they did a bit of a rush job on it. Don't expect too much from this film, and you may end up liking it, or at least bearing with it like I did. For the ultimate Puppet Master experience, check out the first 3."

Just Didn't Do it For Me...

The Piper at the Gates | Bakersville, North Carolina | 11/08/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Going into this Puppet Master sequel, I tried to keep my enthusiasm about not only this film in particular, but the Puppet Master series as a whole. But after watching this one, I can't say I was too thrilled about it. First off, just the story itself was just a little too far-fetched for my taste. The story picks in present day, some time after Puppet Master 2 (since part 3 was a prequel). This time it isn't the puppets against humans, rather its the puppets fighting evil demonic spirits (called Totems) from the underworld, (or maybe Hell, I'm not really sure!) that have been set out to reclaim the ancient secrets that Andre Toulon had used to reanimate his puppets many years ago, and to make sure that knowledge is never used by anyone ever again. Needless to say, the puppets are discovered and brought back to life by a scientist/programmer, who, ironically enough, is working on a program that is very similar to Toulon's original work. The plot is very weak to me, especially the totems, which I think is just taking it a bit far out of the realm of reality, and that's scary when saying that about a killer puppet movie!! Some other things I didn't like was, of course, the acting. But not just the acting, but the cheesy lines that all the characters were given. There are some really horrible corny lines of dialog in this one. Not to mention, you've got one character, who, if I counted correctly, fainted about 364 times in the movie!! Seriously, it seems like she passes out during every scene shes in! Also, they made the puppets too comical. The puppets are doing funny hands gestures,patting each other on the back, or saluting their "new" puppet master. I just thought that was kinda dumb. Oh, and one more thing, where the heck did the puppet six shooter come from?? He wasn't in the first 2 films, he was in the third one, but again, it was a prequel. So how did he just show up in this one? No explanation here. And where did the puppet Torch go? He was in the first two, and is even on the cover of the movie, but he doesn't appear n the film. Again, no explanation. But there is a new puppet called Decapitron, but only gets reanimated towards the end of the movie. All in all, there's really not much I got to say about this film thats good, really. But I'm not gonna say is unwatchable or anything, cause I've seen a lot worse films than this one. And it is worth buying if you're needing to complete your Puppet Master movie collection. But I am saying as far as the individual Puppet Master movies, this one might leave a rather bad taste in your mouth. And don't expect it to get any better, cause Puppet Master 5 is just a continuation of Puppet Master 4.

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