Puppet Master 4 (1993)

I love this movie so much

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Toulon's puppets battle a bunch of gremlin-like monsters who want to steal the elixir from boyish young scientist Rick Myers (a lively and engaging performance by Gordon Currie). Director Jeff Burr relates the entertaining premise at a brisk pace, maintains a generally serious tone throughout, makes neat occasional use of funky stop-motion animation, and delivers a generous sprinkling of gore. This film further benefits from solid acting from a capable cast: pretty Chandra West as Rick's sweet girlfriend Susie, Jason Adams as smug and jealous jerk Cameron, and foxy Teresa Hill as sensitive psychic Lauren. Gulf Rolfe makes a welcome return appearance as Andre Toulon while Felton Perry has a regrettably small part as amiable scientist Dr. Carl Baker. The gremlin creatures are real gnarly. Moreover, it's cool to see the puppets as the good guys for a change. The tight 80 minute running time ensures that this movie never gets dull or overstays its welcome. Adolfi Bartoli's crisp cinematography gives the picture a pleasing polished look. Richard Band's spirited score hits the nicely spooky spot. Worth a watch for fans of this franchise.

I remember not particularly caring much for the rest of Full Moon's direct-to-video Puppet Master films that followed on after third instalment, but I managed to come across Parts 4 and 5. I had inkling to see if I still felt the same way and after getting through the fourth film it was actually better than I remembered. Nevertheless I didn't really liked how the puppets are turned into the good guys (although you could say that was the case in the third film, but I preferred that one's revenge angle) facing off against a Sutek the ancient Eygptian God and its minions that can control totems, but credit is due to somewhat (as some familiar staples do crop up) not completely repeating itself. Directed by Jeff Burr (a regular to the genre and to sequels… who would also direct the back-to-back made filth film), does quite competently polished if mechanical job, knowing that it's the puppets themselves that are the main attraction, as the animation is well-executed and the personalities of each one of them standing out with Blade taking centre stage. I always find something unsettling about the puppet Six Shooter and his laugh and again it's no exception here. The only two that didn't appear were leech woman and torch.The whole angle has the puppets finding a new master and protecting him from the demon who wants to destroy the late Andre Toulon's work and the tone has kind of changed, while some dark glimmers I didn't find it all that creepy (with nastiness mainly occurring off-screen) and even the cliff side hotel they occupy doesn't have that dominating presence either. Some instances fell on the funny side, but the change of pace and whole drama moves by quick enough. Also it looked like it had a little more money behind it and Richard Band chimes in with an airy, majestic score. Reasonable performances by Gordon Currie and Chandra West in the leads with Guy Rolfe returning as Andre Toulon.

This one and the one prior "Toulon's Revenge" and the next one seem to be completely different from the first two movies where the puppets were not so nice. It is basically choose your series, the first two go together and paint the puppets as killers, while the next three are a series of them being the good guys. This one plays out to much like some cheesy television series episode to be as good as part three was and I never really had the urge to try and watch part five of the series. Basically, a kid gets the puppets while some strange dark lord or something sends his evil puppets out to kill, this dark lord looks like some sort of enemy from one of those live action Japanese shows like Ultraman. The movie is over before you know it though so it has to get credit for not inflicting you with a very painful to watch movie. Just to many plot holes and things in it for it to be considered an okay movie. You do get to see the guy who played Toulon in the last movie though then you have a very anti-climatic battle and wham the movie is over before it really begins.

Puppet master 4 lacks many things that made the first three movies feel like something special. There is the absence of that quiet, almost fairytale, quality found in previous instalments, noticeable right from the opening score.I tried to be patient with this film- and indeed the opening, which focuses on other worldly demons who wish to guard the secret of life as tapped into by Toulon, feels like it has the potential to be interesting, something new, a further exploration of the puppet master mythology perhaps.But it's wasted potential- nothing is explored in any kind of depth. This is especially disappointing in contrast to the thoughtful Puppet Master III. Up until now Puppet Master's puppets have always played a relatively small part in a greater story. Yes they probably are the reason people rent these movies, but we are treated to a lot more than just puppets killing people- there's interesting character development, some great building of tension, a rich past to explore but this film focuses mainly upon the puppets themselves, and these demonic critters sent from another dimension.The whole cat/ mouse feel of the action gets really tiresome. It's just not fun to watch the same "scream, struggle a bit then eventually kill the baddie" routine over and over again in this movie. There's a genuine lack of tension as well. For example we see the puppet master's chest being prised open for about five minutes. The audience knows what will be inside- we've seen the other films, and yet we're forced to sit through this. Why? That isn't tension- a revelation, isn't a revelation if we already know what to expect.Everything feels overly forced too. The boy-genius in his Converses who enjoys jumping around his room firing lasers at robots because he's "crazy fun!" too. He's not especially likable, he just feels like some, I dunno, Micheal J Fox in-the-80s throwback. The techno-babble is another annoying aspect of this film- we know means nothing so why bother? Even the selling point of this chapter- "when bad puppets go good!" is redundant because we've seen these puppets as justice-givers in the previous instalment. It's just really a sad contrast to the interesting characters we've met in previous instalments and the simplistic charm of those films too.The sad news is this was filmed back-to-back with its sequel Puppet Master 5. I have the box set, so I'm inevitably going to watch it, but I'm not excited. I don't care about this badly executed plot. The characters aren't interesting to me. A definite change in direction is what I'm looking forward to. Still here's hoping I don't find myself whistling in boredom during the next one.