plumfennec Reviews

Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich (2018)

If only the comedy had been as gleeful as the gore

[5/10 · 4 September 2018]

I am admittedly not massively familiar with "Puppet Master" as a series. I saw the original years before and thought it was passable, but while I may not have latched on and become a fan - I've always liked the puppets themselves. They are fun designs I cannot deny. So when I heard the series was receiving something of a fresh start, I decided it was time to give Puppet Master another chance.

The film is set mostly in a hotel not far from the home of one Andre Toulon, a Nazi sympathizing French puppet maker who went on a series of killings 30 years before. It follows a group of people who have collected Toulon's puppets in order to contribute to a museum exhibit on Toulon's murders. Little do they know, Toulon is very much still alive and commanding his army to take out those he finds undesirable.

It's admittedly an outright tasteless film. It never once apologizes for the fact that you are essentially witnessing hate crimes performed by puppets being controlled by a literal Nazi. There is even a puppet that is, of course, a big nosed Jewish stereotype. Not to mention the kills themselves. There is one kill that legitimately made my jaw drop - a veritable "Did they REALLY just do that?" moment. That said, I do not think the film is racist - afterall, Toulon and his puppets are the villains and they do attempt to create two sympathetic protagonists. Well... three, but the third guy I found somewhat obnoxious. The two main leads were acceptable if bland. But while I do not find the film truly racist, it's worth noting that if you don't like such issues being handled in an explicitly exploitative manner - I wouldn't recommend watching this film.

The biggest flaw of The Littlest Reich however is the fact that it simply fails to truly tap into the potential of being a true horror comedy. There are moments that bring a smile to your face, like one of the protagonists beating a reptilian clown puppet against a car's steering wheel as the horn honks among some occasionally humorous dialogue. The film even fails to make use of the great Udo Kier - they cast him in a role that is PERFECT for the mans eccentricities, and he has one real scene to shine in and it's brief and you never really hear from him again. Wasting Udo Kier is a goddamn crime.

I would have loved if this film leaned into it's humour more than it leaned into its gore. If they could find a balance between the ridiculous, shocking, gleefully presented carnage and the deep potential for schlocky, pitch black humour - this could be a delightful addition to a midnight movie collection. Perhaps the more or less guaranteed sequel will manage to build on that.

Much like the original Puppet Master, this film is ultimately just passable. Yet I feel it could grow into something more. This is a fresh start for the franchise and while it stumbles some, I actually *am* still curious to see what they will come up with next. It'll be hard to top... err, *THAT* scene. That's for sure.

How to Talk to Girls at Parties (2017)

Cute and fun, if you can tune into its wavelength; but not great.

[7/10 · 10 June 2018]

This is certainly a bizarre production. I went in less as a John Cameron Mitchell fan (Though I did enjoy Hedwig & even to an extent Shortbus) and more as a Neil Gaiman fan. I had no clue how such a short, strange, and vague story could really be adapted and Mitchell's answer was less to make a film out of the story and its implications - but his own film, in his own style, with his own themes based upon the skeleton of the story.

And it works, provided you can tune into this films wavelength. It's an intentionally weird film; extremely campy, often stupid, and very heavily targeted towards an LGBT friendly demographic (In spite of the heterosexual main couple.). If you enjoy some of the more out there films from that crowd including some of Mitchell's previous films, you might be able to find How to Talk to Girls at Parties as charming as I did.

It's not a great film by any stretch and it ends on an admittedly confusing note that I'm not sure I fully understood. It doesn't stick the landing when it comes to delivering on the sci-fi elements implied in the original short story. But one could argue that wasn't the point. It's clear this movie just wants to have fun.

And fun it is! The characters are charming, there's some fun dialogue & gags, and the playful sexuality of the film is something that appeals to me as a member of the LGBT community. But it's easy to understand why this film is going to appeal to a very small niche.

To quote Gaiman himself on the film: Watch the trailer. If that looks like a film you'll enjoy, go ahead and see it. If the style turns you off... you'll probably hate it. It is not for everyone and that is clear from any distance, but I just so happen to be in the demographic that found something to enjoy here.

Assassin's Creed (2016)

Dreary, dull, and full of wasted potential.

[3/10 · 26 May 2018]

I have never loved the Assassin's Creed games despite the fact that I have always wanted to. I love the ideas. I love the settings. I even love some of the characters. But the gameplay has never gripped me.

Yet I was willing to give the film a chance hoping that perhaps the film could present the ideas, settings, and characters I enjoyed in a format I would find more palatable. Sadly the film does not succeed at this task.

The most immediate failure of the film is that it focuses on the part of the game that even ardent fans of the series loathe: The ponderous future segments. The appeal of Assassin's Creed has always been the segments set far in the past. In the games, players are constantly rubbing shoulders with famous historical figures, climbing beautiful world wonders, and looking on in awe as the past is brought to life before their very eyes.

The segments set in the future were nothing more than a framing device. An excuse to send players back into the past and to explain away the idiosyncrasies that interactive narratives create. They were never the focus and there was a good reason later games in the series diminished the presence of these segments.

Yet the film chooses to stay in the future and barely acknowledge the past. It doesn't help that almost everyone in the film is a non-character. Yet we know even less about the assassin Aguilar then we do Callum Lynch.

This is an absolute waste of a rich setting: the Spanish inquisition. We never get to see the horrors of this era (Then again, this IS a PG-13 movie... based on a firmly M rated game. Go figure.) nor do we ever get a compelling villain despite there being plenty of real life villains to choose from. Instead we get a boring corporate suit as our villain.

It does not help that the film is utterly dreary. While the games may have been largely serious in their tone they chose to create beautiful, vibrant, colorful worlds and actually made an attempt to add in humor, charm, and actual character. Instead the film opts for a grim, bleak aesthetic full of shaky-cam and brown hues that makes an already boring film just as bland visually as it is narratively.

And it is all such a shame. There is so much they could have done with this setting. There is so much they could have done with this cast. I'll even argue that some of the action scenes aren't half bad; there was an attempt to make them appear very much like the games - you see Assassin's leaping across roof-tops and fighting with their badass hidden blades in ways that are immediately reminiscent of the games. At the very least you get the impression that if anyone cared about this project, it was the choreographers.

It does not matter if you are a fan or merely a casual observer, I cannot recommend this film to anyone. It is not the worst video game movie I have seen but is arguably one of the most boring and uninteresting.