From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Oct 25 09:30:56 1994 Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!pipex!news.sprintlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!spool.mu.edu!sgiblab!pacbell.com!att-out!nntpa!not-for-mail From: throopw%sheol.uucp@dg-rtp.dg.com (Wayne Throop) Subject: REVIEW: THE PUPPET MASTERS Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Summary: r.a.m.r. #02991 Originator: ecl@mtgp003 Keywords: author=Throop Sender: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Nntp-Posting-Host: mtgp003.mt.att.com Reply-To: throopw%sheol.uucp@dg-rtp.dg.com (Wayne Throop) Organization: Alcatel Network Systems (Raleigh, NC) Date: Mon, 24 Oct 1994 16:59:54 GMT Approved: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com Lines: 133 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:2295 rec.arts.sf.reviews:646 [Followups directed to rec.arts.sf.movies. -Moderator] THE PUPPET MASTERS A film review by Wayne Throop Copyright 1994 Wayne Throop I had an odd sensation as I watched the movie version of Heinlein's THE PUPPET MASTERS. I'd just read the expanded book version a day or two before, and as I left the flickery, I didn't have a sense of whether the movie I'd just seen was any good or not. As I say, an odd sensation. And not that I thought it was bad, or even that it wasn't good. Just ... blank. People with me, who hadn't read the book, said it was good. But (unusual for me) I had no sense one way or any other. I think what happened to me was, the automatic mental processes that normally work while I watch movies, and yield a "goodness" value, were busy analyzing issues orthogonal to any good/bad distinction (at least movie-wise). Not completely pre-occupied perhaps, but enough so to produce this odd sensation I mention. Hence I can't really "review" it in the sense of recommending going or not going. But having just read the book, I *did* notice several points about the technical issues of book-to-movie conversion, which may be of some interest. First, the obvious plot compression. There simply isn't even vaguely enough time to put all the book content into a movie. The scenes and subplots cut seemed to be reasonable choices. Much like how the "six days of the condor" became three days in the movie, the months of the invasion in the book became weeks. The vast Zone Red became simply a single state. No international implications. No hard-to-convince President. Several of the agents and minor characters are combined or eliminated. The usual stuff. Understandable. A specific example of such an economy: the combination of Sam's rescue and the foiling of the plot to capture the president, blending smoothly into a modified interrogation scene, eliminating reams of Sam/Mary falling-out subplot, plus long hospital scenes, skeptical-president scenes, and researching-UFOs scenes. Fairly neatly done, I thought. The "compression effect" is also somewhat amplified, because the book was told in first person, with mental self-dialogue and digressions incorporated. A *lot* of information of this sort was dropped, and some of the interactions were somewhat caricatured as a result to convey subtleties the book could convey because of its intimate relationship to Sam's viewpoint and observations. But again, not too badly done compromises with necessity, I thought. The conversion from a setting in 2007 or so Furture History, with space travel throughout the inner system, and "aircars" as common as wheeled cars today, to a more-or-less-today setting, was also handled fairly well. Things that were done in "duos" transfer to either ordinary cars or helicopters, or private jets for longer range. Not too bad. The mechanics of the PMs were also handled fairly well. The physical probe into the spine was a departure, but not an annoying one. In fact, giving them an interesting internal organ structure was rather nice, rather than simply being amorphous blobs. Though some of the leaps from vague supposition to foregone conclusion were a bit much, such as going from "What's this little thing? Oh, it must be an RF recognition signal" or "Gee they're touching tentacles? Oh, they are transferring memories by chemical cues, we should have guessed, ants do that!". The compression into a movie explains some of this, but the portrayal was just a little too glib, too "Dr. Zarkov," too "science oracle" for me. It stuck out as quite un-Heinlein-esque, who's books always portray a bit more sweat in the science, and a bit more skepticism, a bit less cocksurity. And in fact, most of the remaining points that seem worth touching on are of this variety: alterations that aren't all *that* bad, but just aren't quite Heinlein standard "look and feel." Examples. In the book, the major plot break comes with the discovery of one of the subsequent saucer landings, and the discovery (via "Mary"s childhood memories) of the vital weakness that could be exploited. The conversion of this to the movie exposed several un-Heinlein-isms, IMHO. First, the interaction of Sam with his father was made a bit too overt, too confrontational. The caricature to translate from the first person book perspective a bit too caricature-ish in this case. This leads to Sam's "I'm going to rescue Mary," which is pretty much out of character, but leads us to an "infiltrating alien territory" scene with a similar dramatic function to the exploration of the damaged saucer in the book. But problems abound. The replacement scene has Our Hero (with red-shirted sidekick) going into totally occupied territory, and faking possession. The book treated that issue well, and rejected it as implausible. Especially when Sam prepares to commune with the central "mother alien" or "queen alien." The masquerade lasting as long as it did, and the implausibly ineffective pursuit when it was exposed were simply not up to Heinlein standard "look and feel" as I said. Similar breaks from HSL&F pepper other modified scenes. "Sam! Kill him!" is gone. Sam's desperate fight to free Mary, and ultimately forcing him to sacrifice Pirate is gone. "Schedule Bareback" and "Schedule Suntan" are gone. Vigilanti patrols are gone. The death of Sam's father, and the reality of long-term infestation are gone. All replaced by less plausible, less gritty, vaguely more saccharine substitutes. And there are a couple of cases where the Old Man or the PMs or both act uncharacteristically stupid when compared to the book, such as forgetting the cane, or having the apes show intelligence unprovoked. But again, not *all* the modifications are inferior. The substitution of disease, for another example, and the foreshortened discussion of disease as the solution, the delivery, and the analysis of possible vectors, was all quite good. "Mosquitos" a bit lame, perhaps, but all in all, an actual improvement on the vague "9-day-fever" exposition, I would say. So bottom line: is this a good movie? Should you spend your N bucks? As I said to start out, I think my subconscious mental processes were so busy analyzing minutiae of the "look and feel" that they just plumb failed to render up the usual and expected "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" signal. I'm simply not sure "in my gut" whether this is a "good" or "gripping" movie. But it's certainly interesting in many ways, especially if you've read the book. And I didn't feel sick to my stomach as I did with the "weirding modules" and other nauseating modifications in the movie-ization of DUNE. So I guess on balance, I'd have to give it a somewhat abstracted, weak, wishy-washy sort of thumbs up. *If* you try it, you *might* like it. -- Wayne Throop throopw%sheol.uucp@dg-rtp.dg.com throop@aur.alcatel.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Oct 25 09:30:56 1994 Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!pipex!news.sprintlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!spool.mu.edu!sgiblab!pacbell.com!att-out!nntpa!not-for-mail From: blake7@cc.bellcore.com (berardinelli,james) Subject: REVIEW: THE PUPPET MASTERS Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Summary: r.a.m.r. #02993 Originator: ecl@mtgp003 Keywords: author=Berardinelli Sender: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Nntp-Posting-Host: mtgp003.mt.att.com ~Reply-To: blake7@cc.bellcore.com (berardinelli,james) Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ Date: Mon, 24 Oct 1994 17:02:19 GMT Approved: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com Lines: 80 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:2293 rec.arts.sf.reviews:644 [Followups directed to rec.arts.sf.movies. -Moderator] THE PUPPET MASTERS A film review by James Berardinelli Copyright 1994 James Berardinelli Rating (0 to 10): 5.8 Date Released: 10/21/94 Running Length: 1:48 Rated: R (Violence, language, nudity, gross alien creatures) Starring: Donald Sutherland, Eric Thal, Julie Warner, Keith David, Will Patton, Richard Belzer Director: Stuart Orme Producer: Ralph Winter Screenplay: Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio and David S. Goyer based on the novel by Robert A. Heinlein Cinematography: Clive Tickner Music: Colin Towns Released by Hollywood Pictures This film must have given lead actor Donald Sutherland a sense of deja vu. After all, this isn't the first picture he's starred in about otherworldly beings coming to this planet and taking over human bodies. Unfortunately, his second exploration of the scenario isn't nearly as good as his first, 1978's creepy INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. THE PUPPET MASTERS tells a story of alien invasion. The creatures, which bear a remarkable resemblance to the face-suckers from the ALIEN movies, have come to Earth on a mission of conquest (at least that's the loose impression that the picture gives--it's not too concerned about motivation). They attach themselves to a victim's back, stick a probe in their neck, and take over their nervous system, in effect turning them into a puppet. First contact comes in Ambrose, Iowa, a small town with a population of just over 10,000. The aliens multiply at an alarming rate, so it isn't long before the entire town is possessed and, like a disease, the infestation spreads rapidly. Called in to investigate are two members of the ultra-secret Office of Scientific Intelligence, the father-and-son team of Sam and Andrew Nivens (played by Eric Thal and Donald Sutherland, respectively). Joining them is exobiologist Mary Sefton (Julie Warner), who is "on loan" from NASA. What they find in Ambrose is a hoax covering up the aliens' true plans. The race is then on as the U.S. government seeks to find a way to vanquish the invaders before the human race is overwhelmed. Director Stuart Orme's film is fast-paced, apparently more concerned with the action elements of the story than the science fiction ones--not that these are neglected entirely. One of the most fascinating portions of THE PUPPET MASTERS involves an autopsy done on a creature. This scene has a sense of authenticity that is often missing from the rest of the largely comic book-style adventure. Attempts at detailed characterization don't work particularly well, and there's a love story that feels as forced as it is superfluous--although even that isn't as unnecessary as the film's final ten minutes. The tactic of having a "second ending" (a technique that is used often, but rarely accomplished well) is misplaced in THE PUPPET MASTERS, especially since it includes the movie's only incident of obviously inferior visual effects work. It's refreshing to have a human hero who seems to be on top of the situation. As portrayed by Donald Sutherland, Andrew Nivens is a man with a quick intelligence. He's his adversary's match, and only once does he get outmaneuvered or out-thought. In case of a real alien invasion, I'd want this guy on my team. THE PUPPET MASTERS is not a science fiction classic, but it is solidly entertaining. The movie is not so cliche-riddled that is seems hopelessly familiar, nor is it burdened with a complex plot that requires an unpleasant exertion of brain power to unravel. As a Halloween season release, this movie delivers exactly what's most desired: cheap thrills. - James Berardinelli (blake7@cc.bellcore.com) From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Oct 25 09:30:56 1994 Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!pipex!news.sprintlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!spool.mu.edu!sgiblab!pacbell.com!att-out!nntpa!not-for-mail From: leeper@mtgbcs.att.com (Mark R. Leeper) Subject: REVIEW: THE PUPPET MASTERS Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Summary: r.a.m.r. #02994 Originator: ecl@mtgp003 Keywords: author=Leeper Sender: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Nntp-Posting-Host: mtgp003.mt.att.com ~Reply-To: leeper@mtgbcs.att.com Organization: AT&T, Middletown NJ Date: Mon, 24 Oct 1994 17:04:17 GMT Approved: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com Lines: 78 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:2294 rec.arts.sf.reviews:645 [Followups directed to rec.arts.sf.movies. -Moderator] THE PUPPET MASTERS A film review by Mark R. Leeper Copyright 1994 Mark R. Leeper Capsule review: THE PUPPET MASTERS is a no-holds- barred alien invasion film. It is a dark and humorless exercise in which virtually every scene advances the war between humans and parasitic, mind-controlling aliens. Robert Heinlein's 1951 novel comes to the screen in a film that takes little time away from the main plot to develop its characters, but does strike home with a story of a hard-fought battle with a fairly alien and devious enemy. Rating: high +1 (-4 to +4) The obvious comparison to make would be between THE PUPPET MASTERS and the three film versions of Jack Finney's BODY SNATCHERS. That would probably not be accurate, however, since this film is about the aliens possessing humans rather than passing for them. But the paranoid, trust-nobody spirit is much like that of those previous films. An alien craft lands in the rural town of Ambrose, Iowa, and authorities rush in to investigate, only to find that the locals all now claim that the landing was a hoax. In this case the authorities are two agents of a scientific sub-agency of the CIA: Sam (played by Eric Thal), the head of the agency, and Andrew (Donald Sutherland). Also along is an expert borrowed from NASA, Mary (Julie Warner). They quickly determine that there is good reason to believe the landing was indeed authentic. And shortly afterward they also determine that humans are being mentally possessed by slug-like aliens who hide on humans' backs and tap into the nervous system to enslave the hosts. The number of people possessed in this way increases super- exponentially. If one compares THE PUPPET MASTERS to any version of THE BODY SNATCHERS, one finds the emphasis very different, and, in fact, different from most other science fiction films. In the earlier films, the time is taken to establish who the characters are and to provide a context for their actions. This is a film in which things start happening in the first minute of the film and from that point on virtually every scene is devoted to the conflict. The people never stand around and talk about each other long enough for the script by Red Elliot, Terry Russo, and David Goyer to develop their character. This makes for rather flat characters but a very tense film. Their script also "downdates" the story, moving it into our present. Heinlien's 1951 novel set the story in a 2007 when interplanetary colonization was already well under way. That and perhaps budget constraints limit this invasion to just a first foothold in a limited area. Perhaps that is more realistic than the novel, but it also leaves open the unspoken possibility that if it came to a question of human survival, the alien menace could be ended with a few carefully placed nuclear weapons. A few other changes are made to keep the film consistent with its present or near-future setting. Under Stuart Orme's direction THE PUPPET MASTERS is a film that is fact-paced and yet very dark and somber in tone, reminiscent of John Sturges's SATAN BUG. Donald Sutherland plays his role as the head of the security agency with a sinister dignity. As a man supposedly without emotion, he speaks always in hushed tones which only add to the tension. Eric Thal, who was Ariel in A STRANGER AMONG US, plays a character similarly dedicated to his purpose and similarly one- dimensional. It must be disheartening for Thal to be the film's ostenstible main character but to be outacted by ten-inch slugs from the special effects department. The slugs, incidentally, are sufficiently alien and repulsive as well as being reasonably convincing as effects. Julie Warner also is given more distress than personality by the script. The design of the film goes slightly downhill from a rather beautiful celestial event at the beginning to scenes of alien architecture that look a bit cheesey in spots. THE PUPPET MASTERS is a nail-biter with some good moments, but will probably be easily over-shadowed by the upcoming FRANKENSTEIN and INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE. It gets a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale. Mark R. Leeper mark.leeper@att.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Oct 27 09:34:34 1994 Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.kth.se!sunic!ugle.unit.no!nac.no!eunet.no!nuug!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!zip.eecs.umich.edu!yeshua.marcam.com!charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu!olivea!news.bu.edu!gw1.att.com!nntpa!not-for-mail From: tdarcos@access.digex.net (Paul Robinson) Subject: REVIEW: THE PUPPET MASTERS Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Summary: r.a.m.r. #02995 Originator: ecl@mtgp003 Keywords: author=Robinson Sender: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Nntp-Posting-Host: mtgp003.mt.att.com Reply-To: tdarcos@access.digex.net (Paul Robinson) Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA Date: Tue, 25 Oct 1994 17:52:04 GMT Approved: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com Lines: 82 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:2301 rec.arts.sf.reviews:648 [Followups directed to rec.arts.sf.movies. -Moderator] THE PUPPET MASTERS A film review by Paul Robinson Copyright 1994 Paul Robinson As a faithful translation of Heinlein's book, the movie is well nigh perfect in terms of translation to film, and I suspect Heinlein himself would appreciate how close to his original story the movie stays. The few times it does deviate is to make the film closer to reality here and now, e.g., as if the events shown in the movie really could happen today. The original book had human beings already possessing space flight to other places as well as a few other things which would not work today. Also, a couple of incidents in the book were eliminated to streamline the plot of the movie and make it more consistent with reality. A few items were left out which probably should have been covered, and might be (or were but were edited out) if the movie goes to video or gets a sequel. As a translation of a book into a movie, it rates perhaps B+ or an A-. The translation is very good and the original story is very well carried across. As a science fiction movie in and of itself, it unfortunately rates only a C. Possibly it needed some narration or some additional material to explain the opening; I felt that the way the opening of the film, including introducing the three main characters in the film, was a bit strained. If I hadn't already read the book more than once over the last ten years or so, I might have been a little bit lost. I felt the treatment of the material was excellent, and unlike too many films involving extraterrestrial invaders, the "gore level" was toned down from what could be expected / has commonly been used for such films, only showing oozing material, blood or other gory items when it was necessary for plot development and story, unlike too many films that use gore to nauseate the audience and to substitute for a real story and a plot, this story realizes that the audience has an imagination and letting them realize what is happening (rather than showing them directly) is often more effective in a story than saturating the audience with goo. I mentioned that I felt something was missing in the scenes involving the three main characters (Andrew, the head of the agency, played by Donald Sutherland; Mary the scientist; and Sam, Andrew's son). What I felt was also missing was the connection between Sam becoming contaminated by the invaders and his escaping the agency, which the connection wasn't made clearly. (A similar thing occurred in ALIENS where we are suddenly cut to the aftermath of an explosion but the cause of the explosion itself nor the reasoning behind it weren't explained.) A couple more minutes of material in a couple of places could have made what was a fairly good film even better. Where the invaders came from, and whether there are more left, are not covered, as well as the final disposition of the original group in outer space. In and of itself I can recommend the film. I suspect that with some minor and unimportant changes (dropping a couple of swear words) the film might have been able to get a PG-13 rating. (On the other hand, the producers may have felt this film should not be seen by unattended kids; however this film was much less gory and violent than the last year of the "War of the Worlds" TV show which started to "gore up" the show in a futile attempt to increase its ratings. There is some killing and torture in this film, but it is much less "gratuitous" as other films and most of which is well done in the context in which it occurs.) I think that it's suitable for teenagers or anyone who saw JURASSIC PARK and didn't have nightmares. Take any of the Untouchables episodes and any of the later WAR OF THE WORLDS episodes and you have more gore and violence than appears in this movie. The actors do an excellent job in this movie, and Donald Sutherland's portrayal of the essentially ruthless head of a government agency is very well done. It's "ruthless" in the sense that he will stop at nothing to get rid of the invaders; and it turns out that in the long run, they are fighting a war and his opinion was the correct one after all. -- Paul Robinson - paul@tdr.com / tdarcos@MCIMail.com / tdarcos@access.digex.net From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Nov 15 10:31:32 1994 Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!trane.uninett.no!nac.no!ifi.uio.no!sics.se!eua.ericsson.se!erinews.ericsson.se!cnn.exu.ericsson.se!convex!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!gatech!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!news.bu.edu!gw1.att.com!nntpa!not-for-mail From: legeros@unx.sas.com (Michael J. Legeros) Subject: REVIEW: THE PUPPET MASTERS Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.movies,rec.arts.sf.movies Summary: r.a.m.r. #03061 Originator: ecl@mtgp003 Keywords: author=Legeros Sender: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Nntp-Posting-Host: mtgp003.mt.att.com Reply-To: legeros@unx.sas.com (Michael J. Legeros) Organization: SAS Institute, Inc. Date: Thu, 10 Nov 1994 17:28:20 GMT Approved: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com Lines: 46 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:2368 rec.arts.sf.reviews:670 [Followups directed to rec.arts.movies and rec.arts.sf.movies. -Moderator] THE PUPPET MASTERS A film review by Michael John Legeros Copyright 1994 Michael John Legeros Directed by Stuart Orme Written by Ted Elliot, Terry Rossio, David S. Goyer, based on the novel by Robert A. Heinlein Cast Donald Sutherland, Eric Thal, Julie Warner, Keith David, Will Patton, Richard Belzer, and Yaphet Kotto MPAA Rating "R" (presumably for violence) Running Time 108 Minutes == Bring the 1951 novel THE PUPPET MASTERS into present-day and there should be at least one major character in the course of the story who chimes in the line "oh, like one of those BODY SNATCHERS movies?" Unfortunately, not once in 108 minutes does anyone on-screen make a reference to either Don Siegel's 1956 classic or the two remakes that followed. And that's too bad, because no one in THE PUPPET MASTERS should be acting as seriously as they are. Sure, the first forty minutes are ultra-creepy as Donald Sutherland leads his crack crew of scientists through the "infested" hamlet of Ambrose, Iowa. The veteran actor-- who also appeared in the '78 remake of BODY SNATCHERS-- is appropriately stone-faced while poking around a town "taken over" by alien parasites. And, as told from the scientist's POV for a change, these first few scenes have an edgy, matter-of-fact feel. But as the story wears on and more and more people are "compromised," Sutherland's stone-face never lifts. Nor does the film's. Instead of fun we get fight scenes, and chase scenes, and one "runaway" helicopter. Ugh. All too much for the scope of this simple, spooky story. BOTTOM LINE: Cut thirty minutes and you'd have something here. Grade: C- -- Michael J. Legeros Raleigh, North Carolina From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Dec 17 12:34:09 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.direct.ca!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: "Joe Chamberlain" ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Retrospective: The Puppet Masters (1994) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.past-films,rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 12 Dec 1999 20:31:57 GMT Organization: The Movie Guy ~Lines: 51 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <8310nt$153o$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> ~Reply-To: "Joe Chamberlain" NNTP-Posting-Host: homer22.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 945030717 38008 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #22135 Keywords: author=chamberlain X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer22.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:21350 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2510 The Puppet Masters A review by Joe Chamberlain Starring Donald Sutherland; Eric Thal; Julie Warner; Keith David & Will Patton Donald Sutherland stars in this story of aliens trying to take over the Earth. They have landed in a small town and they are taking over the bodies of the town's folk by attaching themselves to their backs and sticking a probe into their brains. Even worse, they are rapidly spreading to the neighboring communities. So it's up to Andrew Nivens (Donald Sutherland) and his son Sam (Eric Thal) to stop them before the entire United States ends up as the puppets for these aliens. Also along for the ride for the required amount of sex appeal is Julie Warner playing a brilliant scientist who eventually falls for Sutherland's son. Even in the brief overview I gave of this movie, you may be able to glean that it is a formula film right from the opening credits. It's sad to say, but I don't think that the writers had one original thought when they wrote this movie. I can't think of a single plot point that I hadn't seen in some other movie. Anything that was even the slightest bit original was so predictable that you almost knew what was going to happen without even giving it any thought. Having said all that, the writers did manage to use some decent plot points from all of the movies that they had obviously watched, so the movie wasn't a total disaster. It's just not something that you should sit down with expecting to be overwhelmed by all of the creatively ingenious ideas. Because it isn't going to happen. The acting is passable at best, on all counts including Sutherland. In Donald's defense, he didn't have a great deal of material to work with. He was playing the uncaring S.O.B. in this movie, which is a role that he has played many times before with much greater success. Julie Warner was also a disappointment since I had been very impressed with her in Doc Hollywood. The only others worth mentioning were Richard Belzer (Homicide: Life On The Street), and his character only said a few dozen words. Keith David also had a small role, but as usual, he made the most of it. The Puppet Masters is just your typical cookie cutter horror / sci-fi flick. There was absolutely nothing remarkable about it. But it was just good enough to keep my interest through the whole movie. Although, I can't say that I would rush out to watch it again any time in the near future. 5/10 Visit The Movie Guy http://movieguy.tripod.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Jul 8 07:10:03 2003 From: Dragan Antulov Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Puppet Masters, The (1994) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.past-films Date: Sat, 31 May 2003 06:06:55 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 34982 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1157363 X-RT-TitleID: 1056318 X-RT-AuthorID: 1307 X-RT-RatingText: 5/10 Summary: r.a.m.r. #34982 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: abuse@supernews.com Lines: 73 Path: news.island.liu.se!news.Update.UU.SE!puffinus.its.uu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!news.kth.se!uio.no!206.252.192.28.MISMATCH!news.stealth.net news.stealth.net!news.stealth.net!in.100proofnews.com!in.100proofnews.com!pd2nf1so.cg.shawcable.net!residential.shaw.ca!sn-xit-03!sn-xit-01!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:6813 rec.arts.sf.reviews:578 THE PUPPET MASTERS (1994) A Film Review Copyright Dragan Antulov 2003 Some movies with great potentials can be ruined or denied their greatness by a single detail. THE PUPPET MASTERS, 1994 science fiction thriller directed by Stuart Orme is one of those films, although it could be argued that the detail in question was beyond filmmakers' control. The movie is based on the 1951 novel by famous science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein (and quite similar to the Jack Finney's story that would later inspire INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS movies). The plot begins in small Iowa town, apparently being visited by aliens in flying saucer. After initial sensation, the local media suddenly start treating the story as a simple hoax. Andrew Nivens (played by Donald Sutherland), head of government's super-secret Office of Scientific Investigation, doesn't think so and comes there accompanied by team that includes his son Sam (played by Eric Thal) and few agents. The town seems to be normal, but Dr. Mary Sefton (played by Julie Warner), NASA scientist borrowed to the team, can't help noticing the apparent lack of local men's attention to her cleavage. Upon further examination, locals seem to lack some of the basic human emotions and Nivens' team soon discover explanation in the form of alien mind-controlling slugs stuck to people's backs. The team manages to escape town, unaware that some of its members got infected. Although not having particularly original plot, THE PUPPET MASTERS is one of the better examples of alien invasion sub-genre. The plot is simple, the characters are drawn in Laconic style and director Stuart Orme, best known for his work at British television, concentrates most of his effort on action scenes. Although the script seems subservient to action, some of its elements seem more realistic than other examples of the sub-genre - this time protagonists are government professional, and their leader, confidently played by Donald Sutherland, is no-nonsense Man in Black quite qualified to deal with the problem of such magnitude. Unfortunately, the script is burdened with huge problems - in situation when any person could be infected by huge alien slug on his or her back, there is an issue of identifying friends and foes. In the novel, Heinlein found simple solution for this problem by having protagonists be naked from the waist up all the time. Unfortunately, filmmakers, unlike Heinlein, had to deal with neo-Puritanical sentiments of 1990s Hollywood and MPAA's increasing intolerance towards nudity. That resulted in protagonist having to abandon common sense and apply more complicated and less efficient method, which in many ways destroyed much of THE PUPPET MASTERS credibility. However, those willing to ignore this flaw would be awarded by stylish, well- acted, well-directed and in many ways bleak and serious science fiction film - something that was rarely seen in 1990 Hollywood, and is even rarer today. RATING: 5/10 (++) Review written on May 30th 2003 Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax http://film.purger.com - Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in Croatian http://www.purger.com/users/drax/reviews.htm - Movie Reviews in English http://www.ofcs.org - Online Film Critics Society ========== X-RAMR-ID: 34982 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1157363 X-RT-TitleID: 1056318 X-RT-AuthorID: 1307 X-RT-RatingText: 5/10