Puppet Master: Axis Rising (2012)

2012

Directed by Charles Band
Starring Kip Canyon, Jean Louise O'Sullivan, Oto Brezina, Scott Anthony King, Stephanie Sanditz and Brad Potts

The plan for Axis of Evil, the movie reviewed last week right here on the ol' blog, was to start a new "mini-franchise" for Full Moon, and that's exactly what it did.  By and large, the movie was solid in both plotting and execution, and fans of the whole merry band of murderous (yet righteous) puppets seemed to applaud the move as well.  Thus, two years later, we were blessed with another budget that couldn't have possibly been more than a million bucks tops along with a production team that consisted of Charles Band and about six other people.  The result?  Another fair-to-good action flick with some fun horror-y moments.  In other words, pretty much exactly what you expect from this studio and this series.

The thing that works about this flick despite it being pretty stupid once again on a surface level is that it has a different tone from the last one.  Axis of Evil was a movie about its heroes; this one is pretty heavily focused on the villains.  Each Puppet Master movie kind of has that feeling if you go through the whole series, but I won't bore everyone with the bloody details of how this comes to be.  Partly because I don't feel like typing it out, and partly because I don't think anyone would care.  I suppose this introduction would get a good solid B- from the official movie review arbiters of the universe consisting of James Beradinelli and the ghost of Roger Ebert.  With that, let's get to the blow-by-blow.

You know, when I sat down to watch this flick, I really was expecting to see a movie with the same characters as the last one played by the same actors.  After all, it came out in 2012, a mere two years after Axis of Evil.  Well, imagine my surprise when I find out that Danny Coogan and his girlfriend Beth had both been recast.  Yes, sir, instead of the pieces of cardboard that we grew to know and love earlier, they are now played by Kip Canyon and Jean Louise O'Sullivan, and I've got to say that this was an improvement.  For those keeping score, Danny is our star character in these movies, a nice, unassuming guy with a bad leg who longs to serve his country and is unable to, while Beth is kind of his feisty sidekick.  Only this time the actors are able to pull it off with a modicum of success.  So +2 cool points to the movie in this regard.

Time to start yacking about the story in this film.  Ozu, the Japanese villain that we grew to know and hate, has captured Tunneler and is trying to broker a deal to hand him over to the Nazis in return for...cash, or something, I honestly can't remember.  Anyway, she is shot and killed.  I am one damn good film reviewer.  Said Nazi is named Moebius, he's played by Scott Anthony King, and he is AWESOME in his role.  The thing about this little mini-trilogy is that they really do feel like classic Universal monster movies in that they have "mad scientist" type villains who are WAY over the top played by actors who totally embrace the cheese.  But he's not all that this movie has up its sleeve.

See, Moebius has his own secret lair in Chinatown where he begins conducting experiments to replicate the life-giving properties that the puppets possess.  And it's here where we meet his assistant of sorts, Uschi, played by the certifiably gorgeous Stephanie Sanditz.  She has the world's thickest and fakest German accent to go along with the thickest and fakest boobs, and she is something else.  Their job is to oversee the experiments of Dr. Freuhofer (Oto Brezina), kindly old get who is trying to create his own puppets both out of a need to see his captured family again along with his lust for Uschi.  A truly Shakespearian plot, if I say so myself.

So what happens in this movie?  Well, the truth is that we get long stretches where not much does happen.  The short version?  Danny and Beth are now under the protection of the military and get babysat by the dog-faced Sergeant Stone (Brad Potts).  Slowly but surely, they catch on to what Moebius is planning, leaving it up to them and the puppets to stop.  The really cool thing?  Freuhofer eventually succeeds in creating new puppets, meaning that Blade, Leech Woman and the rest of them have some truly formidable opponents: NAZI PUPPETS.  Just typing those two words makes me happy.  I'm not going to spoil what their gimmicks are here, but suffice to say, they're amazing.

I'm well aware that the tone of this review has been very positive, but I think I need to point out once again that I LOVE movies like this.  In this day and age where every movie above a certain budget shoots for that ever-lofty goal of attaining a  quality score of 7 out of 10, a series of flicks about killer puppets that are also the good guys and totally embrace being the good trashy fun that it encompasses are A-OK in my book.  The effects on the puppets are again top notch.  Almost every actor in this film is pretty much cast perfectly, especially Sanditz.  Every time she's onscreen you can't look away, for both good reasons (her smokin' hot body) and bad ones (that accent, tho).

Much like I point out how I love this whole series, I also need to reiterate that they aren't for everybody.  There are some people who disagree with me about how much fun this franchise is.  Seriously, the gall of those people to disagree with ME!  Joking aside, they definitely serve a niche audience.  If you're not in the weird cult of movie fans who find weaponized puppets killing the fuck out of a bunch of Nazis entertaining...yeah, stay away from this one.

Final rating: *** out of ****, the same score that the previous movie enjoyed.  It's absolutely no better or worse, and it will give you more of what you want if you're a fan of the [i]Puppet Master[/i] films.  Check it out.