Puppet Master: Axis of Evil (2010)
Distributor (UK): Revolver/Full Moon
DVD Release Date (UK): 24th January 2011
Directed by: David DeCoteau
Starring: Levi Fiehler, Jenna Gallaher, Taylor M. Graham, Tom Sandoval
Review by: Ben Bussey
California, during the Second World War. Upstairs in the Bodega Bay Inn, a most unusual puppeteer named Toulon is about to die. Meanwhile, down in the basement mending chairs is a young man named Danny (Fiehler), a skilled carpenter who longs to enlist and fight for his country, but cannot due to being lame in one leg. Coming into possession of Toulon’s puppets, Danny takes them back home in the hope of fixing them up and figuring out Toulon’s secret of controlling the puppets without the use of strings. But on returning home, Danny happens upon a dastardly plot hatched by an uneasy alliance between spies from Germany and Japan. At last, Danny will indeed get to fight the enemies of the free world, but with two distinct differences. Firstly, he’ll get to do it on his home soil. Secondly, his weapons won’t be bullets, bombs or bayonets, but puppets.
This, apparently, is the first entry in the Puppet Master series for a decade, and the ninth film in the series to date. The ninth. Wow. I had no idea the premise of Puppet Master stretched that far. Actually, let me rephrase that: I remain unconvinced that the premise of Pupper Master can stretch that far. I’m no well-versed devotee of these movies, nor for that matter anything Full Moon have done. I’m aware of them as a vaguely more upmarket, less knowingly offensive version of Troma. What little I have seen of their output blurs in my memory, partly due to having seen them many years ago; partly due to having seen them through a haze of Mad Dog 20/20 or Thunderbird or some other adolescent intoxicant of choice; and partly because, unsurprisingly, the movies are more than a bit samey, and more than a bit piss-poor. And so it is to a large extent with Puppet Master: Axis of Evil. It may be a 2010 production, but you’d be forgiven for thinking it was plucked straight out of 1989. From the cheap sets, the low-rent cinematography (yet crucially what looks to be film, not digital) and the pseudo-orchestral score played out on a synthesizer, it looks, sounds and feels like an 80s B-movie through and through. This, of course, is by no means a bad thing. But if you’re going to revive an old and long dormant franchise in much the same spirit as before, it probably wouldn’t hurt if the franchise in question was much cop to begin with.
Even so, credit where it’s due: efforts are clearly being made to craft something interesting here. Schindler’s List or Saving Private Ryan this ain’t, but the wartime period is approached surprisingly seriously, with proceedings largely driven by Danny’s patriotic anxiety over not being able to fight. Indeed, once Danny uncovers the bizarre German/Japanese conspiracy on his doorstep (and concessions are not made to political correctness here, with the characters routinely referring to the Germans and the Japanese by terms we frown upon today), he’s really pretty happy about it; at last he has the chance to kick some enemy ass. Now, I tried my hardest to identify any kind of sly commentary on modern day patriotism in the wake of 9/11 and the war on terror; after all, why else would the filmmakers choose a title that evokes so directly the words of George Dubya Bush? But honestly, if any such contemporary resonance is intended, I’m damned if I could spot it. The whole thing seems to be aiming more for the feel of a simple, pulpy, Saturday morning adventure serial.
Unfortunately, the predictable weaknesses occur, most significantly a cast that is not up to the job at all, in particular those struggling to be convincing as Nazi spies. Then there’s a script stuffed with overloaded, trite dialogue. Then there’s the absurdly sudden ending, presumably intended to leave things open for a direct sequel but simply denying the viewer any sense of closure. And as for the puppets themselves; honestly, they barely even register. They’re just another weird little detail in a movie already bulging with weirdness. I dunno, perhaps long-time Puppet Master fans (and there must be some out there if they’ve got to nine bloody films) will find something to enjoy, but the uninitiated are very unlikely to be won over. I’d say it was well time they cut the strings off these puppets, were it not that they had no strings to begin with…