The Puppet Masters (1994)

Best movie ever!

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

While "The Puppet Masters" is generally an entertaining movie with a good pace going for it, the simple fact is that it's much too belated an official adaptation of the Robert A. Heinlein novel. We've seen other, similar stories since, including of course "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (although the Heinlein novel actually preceded the Jack Finney book of "Body Snatchers"). The presentation is definitely competent if not inspired. The creatures themselves are fairly cool, and visuals (specifically, the hive interior) are solid, and the script (credited to Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, and David S. Goyer) is fairly intelligent, but the direction (by Stuart Orme) is nondescript. The music is generic stuff, as well.It's an alien invasion tale of starfish shaped slugs that land on Earth, attach themselves to the backs of humans, and control their actions. It doesn't take long for an infection (which starts in rural Iowa) to spread and spread. The man in charge of handling the crisis is Andrew Nivens (an amusing Donald Sutherland, who performs with wit and style), who heads up a covert agency that is an offshoot of the C.I.A. and which deals with "scientific intelligence". Also involved is Andrews' special agent son Sam (Eric Thal) and a scientist (the irresistibly cute Julie Warner) who specializes in theorizing about alien anatomy, believe it or not!The story isn't a bad one but just isn't that meaty; I'm told that, as is so often the case, that the book is a superior work of fiction. The filmmakers do their best to keep us interested in the characters, putting each of them in peril. The stars do good work (this wouldn't work as well were it not for Sutherland), and are well supported by a rich variety of top character actors and familiar faces: Keith David, Will Patton, Richard Belzer, Tom Mason, Yaphet Kotto, Gerry Bamman, Sam Anderson, Marshall Bell, Benjamin Mouton, Andrew Robinson, and Dale Dye (some of them, however, get no more than a few lines).Never boring but never that exciting, either, this does fall victim to the "more than one ending" cliché but does have its good moments too. Best recommended to undemanding fans of the genre.Six out of 10.

Three top level government agents (Donald Sutherland, Eric Thal and Julie Warner) make a disturbing discovery that extraterrestrial beings have landed on earth and they quickly take over control of the residents in a small midwestern town. The agents find out, they can using their bodies and minds like puppets. While the creatures multiply and spread quickly, the agents have to think fast and destroy these seemingly unstoppable aliens.Directed by Stuart Orme (Best known for directing TV Movies or TV Shows) made an entertaining, science-fiction thriller with an amusing performance by Sutherland as the sardonic lead agent. While Thal and Warner certainly do well in their roles. Since this movie has good creature special make-up effects by Three Time Oscar-Winner:Greg Cannom (Blade, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Hannibal). The feature has good production values but somehow director Orme doesn't have much imagination during some of the rather tense sequences and the climax between Sutherland and Thal is a disappointment with cheap visual effects. The movie is certainly on its best in the first two-thirds of the picture.DVD has an fine anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1) transfer and an good Dolby Surround 2.0 Sound. The DVD doesn't have any special features. "The Puppet Masters" came out in October 1994, it quickly became an box office disappointment and the movie had a lot of imitations before. Which the movie took the edge off and it never really caught any fire. Despite it is based on a novel by Robert A. Heinlein (Starship Troopers). Director Orme certainly wasted some talented actors in small roles like Yaphet Kotto, Richard Belzer, Andrew Robinson and Marshall Bell. Although it is nice to see Keith David (Best known for two John Carpenter movies, "The Thing" and "They Live") in a supporting role. Will Patton seems to be having an great time as the odd-ball scientist. Since the script is pretty good. Written by Ted Elliott (Aladdin, Godzilla "1998", Small Soldiers), Terry Rossio (The Pirates of the Caribbean series, Deja Vu, Shrek) and David S. Goyer (The Blade Trilogy, Dark City, Death Warrant). Although their script was heavily re-written by five screenwriters and the director as well."The Puppet Masters" today, it is certainly an curio. Although exciting at times with an nice leading performances by Sutherland, Thal and Warner. Which Sutherland is no stranger to this kind of movie, since he was in the superior remake as the lead actor in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", which it was directed by Philip Kaufman. Perphas some die-hard science fiction fans, it would make an great double feature with "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and "The Puppet Masters" for one night viewing. Despite some real flaws and an terrible climax, it is still worth viewing. Panavision. (*** ½/*****).

Despite being one of the key dozen or so science fiction writers of the 20th Century, relatively little of Robert Heinlein's work has been filmed and, with the exception of Starship Troopers (turned on its idealogical head), nothing from the 60s onwards, when his work started to carry more serious subtext.The Puppet Masters, a book from the 50s, is essentially fairly lightweight, albeit the invasion motif is similar to that of much 1950s science fiction in echoing a fear about the spread of communism - indeed, the parasitic slugs in Puppet Masters form a single entity - a commune if you will - and are therefore a fairly obvious analogue for the red menace. The novel was also fairly saucy for its time, with large chunks of the population having to peel down to their skimpies and beyond to prove that their clothing was not hiding the alien slugs.Well, as usual, Hollywood doesn't like to present the naked body to the viewing public, so the protagonists in this film version of Heinlein's story encounter more difficulty than they need to, simply by virtue of everybody keeping their clothes on. Apart from that, it follows the main sequence of events fairly faithfully, albeit updated to be more contemporary.Donald Sutherland is a serviceable "Old Man", even though he is quite different to how I imagined the character from the book (which hardly matters). There are several well-known albeit minor names in the secondary case, but the main leads are taken by Eric Thal and Julie Warner. Neither has had major success before or since (Warner had a lengthy run in Family Law) and, to be perfectly frank, this movie gives a good idea why - they have little charisma, and no chemistry despite the fact that they supposedly fall in love during the film. The story demands lead players who don't come across as insipid, but it doesn't get them.There is relatively little in terms of special effects, but what there is does the job. The major effect is the slugs themselves, and they are pleasingly unpleasant..There is some offensive - and entirely unnecessary - use of the F-bomb. I don't mind it when it's there for a purpose: here it serves no purpose whatsoever. It doesn't advance the plot or illuminate character, it simply makes an unpleasant comment even more unpleasant, and it could have been omitted entirely without any detrimental effect on the movie.With some promotion, this movie could have been rather more successful than it was, albeit it came on the heels of what might have appeared to be similar epidemic-type stories. Perhaps Heinlein's time in movies is still to come.

An interesting adaptation of Robert Heinlein's original story about aliens that come to Earth and take over a small town as parasites controlling their host bodies. This film was made in 1994 and I find it an enjoyable watch. True it is very different to the source material. The Heinlein book is a lot different as are most book to movie adaptations. But I found it interesting without being overbearing.I liked the leads in this film and Donald Sutheland chews up the scenery as the leader of an agency who it seems, but its not overly mentioned go ET hunting on occasion. He's a great actor and added to the movie, making it just that much more enjoyable.There are other films that deal with the same kind of subject matter, most notabely the movie "The Faculty" which has exactly the same idea with little parasites attaching to people but this film stands well on it's own despite this and I'm sure will find its own little niche of fans.