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Reviews
Puppet Master X: Axis Rising (2012)
Full Moon's answer to "Ilsa" in a movie about killer puppets? Bring it on.
Puppet Master X Axis Rising is the latest addition to Full Moon's Puppet Master (PM) franchise. If you like the indie horror series about magically animated puppets with a penchant for bloodshed, you won't be disappointed.
Frankly, I don't understand one-star reviews for a movie like this. Axis Rising has a built-in "bad movie" factor, but it's fun-bad in my view. The Nazis play up nefariousness for all its worth, and Brad Potts is hilarious as Sergeant Rock knockoff Sergeant Stone. Paul Arnold cuts a George C. Scott-like figure in his brief appearance as General Porter. And Stephanie Sanditz, who plays Nazi villainess Uschi, gives a deliriously sexual, power-hungry performance with a presence as eye-popping as any hentai girl the demographic for this type of movie could imagine. What else could the straight-to-video horror junkie want?
It might have run longer (a common flaw with Full Moon films), but writer Shane Bitterling does a nice job balancing the storyline with his obligation to showcase a slew of creepy puppets. Kenneth Branagh acting? Peter Jackson effects? Polanski atmosphere? Come on!
Not to beat the dead horse of believability, but anyone who saw the last PM knows this WWII is not set in our universe (in writer August White's version the U.S. jumps into the fray in 1939). Relax, it's okay if some of the accents and period slang miss the mark. Enjoy the movie for what it's supposed to offer: grue, cleavage, and puppets.
Decadent Evil (2005)
Surprisingly not bad
This is a decent film for its kind. The story moves along with snappy, hardboiled dialogue and Phil Fondecaro and Raelyn Hennessee stand out as the midget Van Helsing and vampire stripper, respectively. Writer August White was known for a few stinkers (try "Petrified"), but in this one he manages to jack up the conventions of a sleazy genre and keeps what could have been a sagging storyline moving at lightning speed. To be honest, you can't help but expect a bit of T & A with straight-to-video movies like this, and in this respect Decadent Evil was disappointing. Still, there is the obligatory strip club scenery (it's rumored White was an uncredited patron in the opening scene) and plenty of nubile women to earn the "Decadent" part of the title. And there's evil in it as well, in the form of a wonderfully hideous little creature called a homunculus (just wait till you see the end!). All in all, a pretty good bit of entertainment from Full Moon.