The Puppet Masters (1994)

Too much of everything

The Age of Commercialism

So much average

The acting in this movie is really good.

'The Puppet Masters' is famous for... well, not much really. It kind of slipped under the mainstream consciousness in the wake of the (far superior) X-files and the general craze that aliens were about to knock on our door with ray-guns blazing. However, just because it tries to be every (alien-related) X-files episode in one go doesn't actually mean it's a bad film. Especially the opening anyway.It starts off pretty damn good... an alien 'something' crashes in a small American town and we join a quartet of government agents sent in to investigate. And, one of said agents is the wonderfully-dry Donald Sutherland, who cares about nothing more than thwarting the plans of those extraterrestrial nasties at all costs (and no matter who he has to whack with his walking stick to do so). Naturally, they soon find that this is no hoax and the whole world is under attack from leaping jellyfish-like space monsters who want nothing more than to insert their slimy tongues into the backs of our necks and ride our collective bodies like race of particularly docile broncos.However, once this is unveiled the agents leave small town America and go back to their base to study the creatures and work out a plan of counter-attack. This is where the film kind of slows down a bit, which is a shame as it comes about an eighth of the way through the film and we still have practically an hour and a half left of run-time.What follows becomes a lot less tense and far more predictable. Donald Sutherland is sadly too old to really be the true 'hero' of the film and we're left with his far less charismatic on-screen son to fight the good fight. Don't expect any Independence Day aerial dogfights either. The aliens are barely seen and there isn't a lot of action in it. Overall it comes across as a bit of a 'made-for-TV' movie.However, just because the film trails off early doesn't mean that I can bring myself to hate it. The Puppet Masters has always been a bit of a 'guilty pleasure' film of mine. It's cheesy and low budget and desperately wants to be a big budget A-list film, only it doesn't have the star power or money behind it to make it so.If you like your alien invasion movies (or are stuck in a perpetual time warp where you're in the nineties and still believe Area 51 holds the bodies of the Roswell aliens) then this one isn't so bad. I think one of the reasons it never did that well at the Box Office is because most people may resent paying full price for it. However, in this age of internet websites which stream movies like this as part of a package, it's definitely one to add to your watchlist if you fancy something that won't stretch your mental powers too much.Mulder and Scully were obviously on holiday when this alien invasion occurred.

Stuart Orme directed this adaptation of the Robert A. Heinlein novel that stars Donald Sutherland as Andrew Nivens, and Eric Thal as his son Sam, along with Julie Warner as Mary Sefton, who are government scientists investigating a alien spaceship that has landed in the Midwest, and they soon discover that the alien inhabitants have somehow taken over the minds and bodies of residents in a plot to take over the Earth governments. The aliens are slug-like creatures that attach to the back of the host, and our three heroes must do all they can to stop this insidious invasion. Well cast and made, but utterly uninspired, with inconsistent characterizations and plot developments. It's all been done before, and better.

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.

I may be the only one, but I just watched this movie again tonight and it is completely like the X-Files! Does anyone else see this?I had seen it before, but had not seen the connection. But tonight I noticed it.Even the music is similar...Is this a set up for X Files, or what????As I began to watch it tonight, hubby and I were amazed at how many X-Files references there were - there are all the elements of an X-Files story.We have both read the book - this has little if any resemblance to the book, but if you listen to the characters, and watch the way the story plays out - it is TOTALLY X-Files!