Shadow Puppets

"Shadow Puppets" is movie that has a great cast and a great premise! The biggest problem with this movie that it isn't thrilling! Not one moment you get scared! The ghost isn't threatening enough! The shadow ghost is an interesting concept! It is too bad that they didn't use this idea to it's full potential! But this is a problem the whole movie has! The lack of ambiance! It should be key in a movie like this! It could have been overlooked if they had put in some wonderful twist that would have explained the ghost and actually showed how this ghost was created! We do get some explanation on the situation! But by the time we do you couldn't care less because you were bored to death! The predictable story and the lack of thrills make this a movie that is not worth watching !

What can I say? I'm a big fan of horror (as well as science fiction, and anything generally weird). If you too are a fan you will be entertained by this movie. It's a "trapped-and-hunted" movie which is a common enough plot idea, but the delivery had some originality and was very entertaining.

Basically, an unlikely mix of people (one's a nympho, for instance) wake up (separately) to find themselves in a cell in underwear with no knowledge of who they are or where they are except that they are captives of some sort. They are able to leave their cells and walk around and in so doing they eventually run into each other. There mission is of course to find out who they are, where they are, and generally: What the heck is going on!!!

I don't want to say anything more and ruin it for the rest of you. Suffice to say that you will be entertained, especially if you are into horror and sci-fi like I am. Finally, it's really hard to find a good scary horror movie these days, isn't it? Sometimes I think it's a lost art and nobody out there really knows how to scare the crap out of you anymore. In fairness, maybe it's harder to scare today's crowd who've been there, done that. I guess we've lost our innocence and the challenge for any moviemaker these days is to find the child in us and say- "Boo!" Love, Boloxxxi.

I enjoyed it. The basic concept is simple, of course: let's make a version of 'Cube' that is more down to earth/without the math, try even to give nice explanations for the apparently supernatural, get a few familiar faces since there are only 8 roles to be cast, and then give the picture a rusty, blood splattered look - thus it will appeal not only to the sci-fi audience, but also to the horror fans. Fair enough for a genre movie which wants to make a bit of money. 'Shadow Puppets' surely creates an atmosphere of uneasiness when none of the characters remembers who he/she is, and information is revealed only much later. It's none of the "it's Halloween again" flicks that keeps the audience awake only with a killing every five minutes, actually I think nobody at all was killed in the first half. So this may be worth checking out if you are not into horror in the first place, but also some more psychological thrillers.

You know those times in Star Trek Enterprise when we were wondering what the hell does Steve Bakula do and then the writers of the show would gave us one of those "almost naked T'Pol" moments to calm us down? Well, somebody thought making an entire movie on the concept would be nice.

It is not such a bad movie, after all, though. I mean, yeah, the premise is ridiculous, the monster pathetic and the acting poor, but then there is Jolene Blalock, in her underpants! And if it is not enough for you, Natasha Alam looks good enough to eat and she gets a completely naked scene. And if this doesn't do it for you, Buffy fame Spike is there, joined by Candyman's Tony Todd.

BTW, look Tony Todd up. He is at his 136th movie and still acting strong, even if only in secondary roles. When they say supporting role, Tony understands supporting the movie industry. Lol.

So, let's sum it up: the smoke monster from Lost hunts T'Pol, Spike and Candyman in an underground facility where no one remembers who they are. And that's the original part of the movie ;)

Man I was hoping for so much more here. I am a die hard Buffy fan and eagerly anticipated a featured role for Marsters. Tony Todd in my view is one of the great actors working today in any genre, and Jolene was one of the bright spots of a dreary Enterprise. Not to mention I love the basic premise, and am a big fan of Cube. Sadly Shadow Puppets mostly falls into the average category. The acting is good, and there is a twist at the end that may surprise you. I believe the majority of the budget was spent on assembling the cast. I was okay with the generic smoke monster, it was what it was, and it was probably better to do something simple instead of a poor CGI creature. The film is never really that scary or suspenseful and there aren't any clever kills or gore moments so that may hurt it in the eyes of those looking for a Saw or Cube. Because of the cast I was hoping for more, but if it were Lorenzo Lamas and Shannon Tweed headlining my review would be less critical. Still it's a "slightly" above average film with a good cast.