Curse Of The Puppet Master (1998)

Okay. This. This was a film. The sixth entry in the Puppet Master series doesn't really feel like a Puppet Master movie. Instead, it feels like one of those low-budget films trying to cash in on something more successful, which is very odd. Think of how Dolly Dearest compares to Child's Play and you'll get the idea (oh, and for those who have not seen it in years, it does NOT hold up well). A bit of research once the end credits rolled shows that the film also borrowed quite liberally from a 1973 movie named Sssssss, which means I will have to check that out one day. It also helps to explain why this feels less like a film belonging to this series than any of the other instalments I have viewed so far.

The plot this time around concerns a Dr. Magrew (George Peck), the owner of a doll museum known as The House Of Marvels. On a jaunt with his daughter (Jane, played by Emily Harrison), just home from college, the two meet a mild-mannered young man named Robert (Josh Green) who works at a small gas station. Robert also carves small wooden creations that impress both of the Magrews, prompting a job offer. Once back at The House Of Marvels, Robert is shown the living puppets that viewers are already familiar with, and Dr. Magrew admits that he is looking for help in crafting his own new creation. So it looks like everyone could help each other out, much to the chagrin of a local bully (Joey, played by Michael D. Guerin) who seems quite bitter and jealous.

It's David DeCoteau back in the director's chair, credited as Victoria Sloan, but this is one of the many movies that he can seem to do nowadays for the producer-pleasing combination of quick and cheap. Hey, he's made a huge number of films, and kept a whole lot of people in employment, so it works more than it doesn't, but it feels like a further step down for this series after the previous couple of movies.

The script, by Neal Marshall Stevens (credited as Benjamin Carr), is . . . well, it's actually not TOO bad. There aren't any surprises, despite Stevens maybe thinking otherwise, and the broad characters are given the sort of dialogue that feels like it came out of a book entitled "cheap genre screenwriting 101", but it does everything required, sows a couple of good ideas, and at least tries out this particular diversion without really messing up the established history preceding it.

The performances are, to be as nice as possible, pretty much exactly as you'd expect. Peck is quite good fun as Magrew, Harrison is quite sweet as his daughter, and Green does better when he gets to move forward from early scenes that have him perilously close to just being "Simple Jack". Guerin is an irredeemable baddie, which makes things all the more enjoyable when he is finally shown the supernatural power of the puppets.

It's bad, yet it's not awful. There just isn't enough good stuff in the first half, one or two nightmare sequences aside. That wouldn't be a problem in the finale made up for it. It doesn't. In fact, once it became obvious where things were heading (which you should be able to spot quite early on) it then becomes a waiting game to see how well it's all depicted, leading to disappointment when you see that it's not depicted half as well as it could have been.

4/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy a decent little set here.

Hybrid (2010)

Killer cars. They've appeared in movies before and they're often a lot of fun. Sometimes they're driven by a killer driver and sometimes they're just evil machines that can drive themselves around. Personally, I think that Christine remains at the top of the pile in this particular subgenre so that's the movie that newcomers have to get close to. I won't beat around the bush here, Hybrid doesn't come close enough. It's not terrible but it stays just below average throughout.

The basic premise is a good one - a killer car. Only this isn't actually a car. It's something else, something that can imitate numerous vehicles in a way that helps it to catch food. And when I say food I mean people. After a bit of a smash up the car ends up in a garage and it's not long until those working in the garage start to realise that something is up. Unfortunately, by the time the full extent of the danger that they're in hits them it's too late for them to leave. They are, in fact, trapped.

Well, when I say that they're trapped I actually mean that the audience is supposed to believe that they're trapped. Being in a big, multi-level garage doesn't exactly help to make the movie claustrophobic and tense. It's not even an underground garage like the one in the enjoyable P2. And then there's the fact that the reason everyone is trapped inside is because the boss man (Oded Fehr) is a big asshole, the kind of guy who gets his emergency exits welded shut to stop break-ins.

Fairly capably directed by Eric Valette, Hybrid suffers most of all from a pretty weak script by Benjamin Carr being handled by a fairly weak cast. Not everyone is bad, mind you, but Fehr is stuck with such a bad character that it's impossible to warm to him (which is fine and dandy sometimes but just doesn't work for this movie) and Ryan Kennedy is sadly underused. The lead actress, Shannon Beckner playing Tilda, just isn't very good. I'm sorry to say it, she may be a lovely person in real life, but she simply doesn't cut it in this role. She puts up with too much crap from others, making her hard to like, and then when she finally becomes assertive and develops into the potential heroine of the piece . . . . . . . . . it's not only unbelievable but it's also a case of too little too late.

There are some good ideas here though. That enjoyable premise is fun and the fact that the car isn't really a car allows for some successful "car sneaking up on someone" scenes that usually irritate me so much (yep, despite my ability to suspend disbelief for most things I have some pet peeves and "the superquiet vehicle that nobody notices until it screeches and/or makes an impact" is one of them). It's a shame that there wasn't much else in the movie to make it worthwhile, one or two decent moments aside. Even the CGI disappoints when it is needed most.

With a bit of tweaking here and there and some more money available, this could have been a very enjoyable film. As it stands, it's stuck just below average but the director is someone to keep an eye on (as fans of his 2002 film, Malefique, already knew).

4/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hybrid-3D-Blu-ray/dp/B004L5UINE/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1348212770&sr=1-2