Set sometime "after the Decline", in a world of no-place, this Hitchcockian story of an android, painstakingly created in the likeness of his maker, is a Frankenstein fable for the millennium. The dark and eerie world of P... more »uzzlehead is one where betrayal, deception, and murder lurk just beyond each twist and turn of this meditative plot.« less
Jefferson N. from BLAIRSVILLE, GA Reviewed on 12/16/2011...
Puzzlehead is the story of a professor in a dystopian future who has created an android. He has shaped it to look like himself and treats it as his own child. The professor is also obsessed with a local clerk at the store down the street, but can't find a way to get her to like him. He sends his android to try to woo her for him, but things go awry when the woman falls for the android, but can't stand the professor when he tries to step in. This Frankenstein story has a very eastern European feel to it and is very good for a low budget film. The pacing is slow, but if you like Russian movies, you'll probably love this one. The twists and turns at the end liven it up a bit.
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Movie Reviews
Unique take on Frankenstein
Brendan M. Howard | Kansas, USA | 08/12/2007
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Puzzlehead's body is android as imagined by 1980s sci-fi, with fake skin and metal innards. But in a new twist on the Frankenstein myth, Walter uses his own psyche as the software on Puzzlehead's mental hard drive. The two are equally inhuman in the movie's first scenes, but as Puzzlehead starts to experience some of Walter's emotions, he becomes the character we sympathize with. What did Walter build him for? Does it have something to do with the beautiful, but unhappy Russian woman who owns a shop down the street?
It does. The old Frankenstein plot, where the Monster takes out his jealousy and anger at the good Doctor by murdering his beloved, gets a twist here, too. Both android and android maker fall for the same girl. But it's only natural--they're two men with the same brain.
While the twists are fairly predictable, and Galaida's twin performances seem more than artfully flat, Puzzlehead is a fascinating, new look at an old fable. Writer-director Bai's interest, however, is clearly in the art of the endeavor, not the philosophy. Expect to be wowed by the world and the visuals, not so much the plot."
Ingenious, low budget, sci-fi
W. Leonard | 05/04/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Worth watching more than once to admire the planning that went into this film. Definitely Frankenstein inspired, as the cover review states. The movie does so much entertainment with so little resources--like 'Clerks', but with an ingenious plot. I gave it five stars instead of four because of what was achieved despite its economy."
The Worst Robot-Gone-Bad-Dystopia Film Of All Time
Anne Castles | 02/03/2010
(1 out of 5 stars)
"I'm sorry, but this film is really bad. It makes very little sense. Maybe if it was pitched as a sci-fi black comedy I could give it a better wrap. Sadly it has the potential to be incredible, but I cringed watching it all the way through. It gets worse as the film progresses. The director has a few simple cinematic tricks up his sleeve, but overall the film is just... bad.
The characterisation is confusing and the acting is fairly awful. Stephen Galaida is the worst, most ham-fisted android of all time. It's almost as though the only role research he did was to watch the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 1 and copy DATA (badly). And he's the flattest, dullest, most monotone actor you could imagine. The fact that he plays BOTH roles blows my mind. I'll grant he is physically suited to the role of the android. Especially that bad hair. My partner even commented on the scene-stealingly bad hair.
The rhythm of the plot is badly paced and at times laughable. The plot devices are rudimentary and guessable for anybody who has watched bad TV drama. If you like robbers with guns, you're in for a great time. Oh, how menacing! I'm living in a futuristic dystopia where anything can happen and here comes a ROBBER...
For those who say it's steampunk or whatever, there's only one sentence at the beginning of the film where the narrator (the android) tells the audience about the world. After that there's little sense of place in the film. What happened to the old adage, "show, don't tell"?
The female lead character is a cardboard cut-out, disempowered, fragile woman with a terrible Eastern European accent. It is almost as though the writers of the film have never met a woman before. Seriously. The way they portrayed her pregnancy and birth were comical if not for the intended seriousness of the subject matter ("The baby is coming"..."Okay"... let's STRAP her into an ambulance like some victim). And I'm sorry, but how does any real woman go from attempting suicide, to wanting to play house with the man who raped her, to wanting to keep the baby, ALL IN THE SPACE OF 10 MINUTES IN THE FILM? (And make sure you don't miss out on the actress's eyes blinking when she is in the bathtub possibly meant to be dead).
I could say more but I'll save my breath. Watch this film if you want to cringe. It's got a small glimmer of hope at times, but overall it's just a train wreck. If you like the "so bad it's good" class of movies, maybe give it a watch."
PUZZLEHEAD -> Essential Cyberpunk
Sean Curtin | Warners Bay, NSW Australia | 08/17/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Puzzlehead was an amazing movie considering the low budget nature of the film.
What I found most striking was how well this movie shows that good Cyberpunk can be made on a low budget.
Cyberpunk is simply the eventual evolution of humanity, whereby we make the leap to incorporate artificial devices into our own bodies. It's already been around for many centuries in the form of jewelery and tattoos in some sense, but now more than ever the true Cyberpunk is starting to emerge. Dependence and even an accepted social desire to incorporate technology as part of our being. Take for example the revolutionary mobile phone, wearable computers, Ipods, electronic clothing, more and more advanced watches, personal torches, bluetooth devices etc. How long do you think it will be till people decide to skin graft a mobile phone(using better transmission mediums than RF energy transmission), into there skin? Already there are studies into biological data transmission. The ability to transmit data simply by shaking someone elses hand. This technology exists now along with organ cloning.
Is that a scary thought? I don't believe so at all. In fact it's anything but. Imagine organs were allowed to be commercially grown. It would spell the death of illegal organ harvesting.
Puzzle head is a movie about the ultimate in human creativity and imagination. For centuries man has contemplated the idea of making machines think, behave and even feel like a human beings. It would simply be one of the most amazing if not ultimate achievements. Robotics and Cybernetics fascinates people such as myself as it is an area where we discover just how incredible we are. The complexity of creating hardware to allow a machine to think and make decisions is simply daunting. There are so many possibilites to acheive the same goal, yet only limited hardware to make the idea work. Hence all robotics ends up being a compromise. So too does any device to aid organic machines(in other words our very own human bodies), yet slowly but surely advances in articicial eye sight, power assisted limbs and mobility vehicles becomes a reality.
Puzzle head is a slow movie that may not appeal to viewers who look to Cyberpunk for a thrill ride, however it does have some really great moments if your a technologist and can look past the budget special effects(which to be honest really suited the sets (main a large house), that most of the movie takes place in.
The story also highlighted the possibilities of what happens when a being becomes sentient and able to think for itself. How to have freedom and then have it taken away from you, will change you. Also how parents must feel when there children come into the world.
Puzzlehead starts as a dumb robot but over a long period of time begins to learn, think and even feel. Eventually it's as if Puzzle head is more human than his creator.
This movie is in short some of the most excellent in Cyberpunk movies I have ever seen. Sure it will not compete with Blade runner for scope but I give it 4 stars for achieving a great story with a lot of thought provoking drama on a tight budget.
This movie spells great hope for those like myself who wish to make great movies but want to do so through thoughtful story writing that will work with what's around them.
Terrific Cyberpunk and essential viewing for anyone who is a fan of robotics, cybernetics or artificial lifeforms.