Muckman

MUCKMAN is a well-made, humorous, ultra-low-budget film from Director Brett Piper. It's a tribute to / parody of rural legends and the TV shows that capitalize on them.

The cast is funny, the story -though slow at times- is straightforward, and the titular creature is above average for a man-in-a-rubber-suit movie. There's even a nice stop-motion sequence near the end for added fun.

Fans of Mr. Piper's other work won't be disappointed...

A TV documentary crew searches the woods for a fabled creature. Starts off poppy.

Ambitious smart low budget movie.

But its charm sort of fades as we get past the first half.

Sort of well made and well acted.

It just doesn't meet expectations based on a really solid open.

So short on delivery.

Plus it's a take off on the search for Bigfoot who we all know is real.

Didn't Harry and the Hendersons -- you know that real documentary -- prove it?

I loved this movie. It's sort of a marriage of Octoman and Swamp Thing. I expected the story to go in one direction that was never really explored too deeply, but that's besides the point.

The Muckman looked great and some of the characters were pretty solid, while others were 2 dimensional throw aways, but doesn't that just add to the Drive-in movie sci-fi charm? There was some fantastic miniature work in the movie. A real pleasure to see in today's "do it with computers" world.

The movie isn't scary, but it is fun. In a campy, goofy, watch it with friends and laugh about it later way.

Trying to save his reputation, a man sends his team of monster hunters to the spot where his career was ruined in order to search for an elusive monster, but when they come to realize that something might be out there beyond the locals faking it they try to get out of the woods alive.

This one proved to be a solid B-movie effort. One of the biggest aspects going for this one is the fun and overly enjoyable low-budget charm running throughout this one. There's a lot to like with how this goes through the early setup of the show to the manner of arriving at the location as they go through various stages to finally arrive at the campsite. Coupled with the continuous action scenes showing the team heading out to catch sight of the creature and the charmingly obvious low-budget throwback feel here, these provide this with a solid charm to this one. That charming low-budget feel in the action scenes works due to the fact that both sides here set up the same scenario. Taking on the idea of the two sides working to fake the creatures' existence by tackling all the various behind-the-scenes antics of everybody in on the joke not only with her having been secretly filming the group conducting their plans or going off to investigate the various clues they've left behind which really gets highlighted in the final half of the film. As the ploy of wondering whether the creature is real or fake, the various confrontations here not only with the race to keep them from finding the truth but also the revelation about the monster which provides some of the most cheesily enjoyable elements here. These here are what holds this one up over its flaws. There are some problems here, mainly stemming from the type of film this one truly wants to be. By going all-out of the plotline about the sides going through their attempts at faking the creatures' existence all the way until the end, there's a distinct and decidedly lighthearted tone present that never once puts any of the characters in danger. There's so little here that it played as threatening despite supposedly being about a creature hunting them down through the woods, and the setup requires so low a body-count there's no need for blood and gore as a result. As well, that forces this one into some incredibly hard to believe rational being uttered by the characters which make for a hard time to believe what's going on here. Alongside the shoehorned monster at the end which doesn't need to be there, there here are the films' flaws.

Rated R: Graphic Language and Mild Violence.

Brett Piper is the man responsible for one of my favorite crapfests, "A Nymphoid Barbarian In Dinosaur Hell". The reason I love that movie so much is because it's so bad you have to do a double-take to be sure you just saw it. Actually, I have seen that way more than two times, and that's not something I do if I hate a movie. It packs the charm of a chinaman (whatever that means). But that movie is old news, it's from 1990! So now I have watched Brett Piper anno 2009-ish and I can assure you that it's a lot more entertaining and solid overall, but still features the best of his old ways.

Starting off showing an unaired TV show about mythical creatures, and quickly revealing it all to be fake and staged, we're soon introduced to another TV crew that are hired to make a new show about the same creature - the Muckman. They're sent out to the woods to live in a cabin, and the hostess of the show has made sure that they will catch something on tape by faking it. As you would expect from any monster movie with similar plot lines, the real monster is out there and will be introduced, eventually! Mr. Piper and Mr. Polonia - you're in the clear, no one went into this hoping for a perfect plot scattered with originality. That we know these things from miles away doesn't hurt the movie one bit.

What "A Nymphoid Barbarian In Dinosaur Hell" (I keep coming back to this one) lacked was entertainment values other than the dinosaurs, and comedy. Luckily "Muckman" packs a crapload of fun, quirky moments that will either have you laughing or face-palming yourself delightfully. Some characters are introduced simply to make it more fun - I'm talking to you, inbred redneck brothers! Because the movie was written in such a unique manner by having Brett Piper and Mark Polonia write two different screenplays and then mashing them together, the comedy is very varied and that's a great quality for a movie like this to have as it keeps us from getting bored with it.

I'm very surprised to say that the film definitely lacks in terms of body count, but it's proof that the movie was entertaining when I never once stopped and wondered "Why aren't people dying?" during the actual movie. I was entertained even when the Muckman wasn't on screen, and especially enjoyed the Asia Buchanan character. But the real star isn't A.J. Khan, or even the very cute and clearly talented Alison Whitney. Not even Muckman is the star. Nope, the star of this film, the one thing that made me go "Hell yeah", was... Wait for it.. Pipermation! Yes, Brett Piper's stop-motion animation effects are introduced late in the movie, but holy hell what a joy it was! I would've wanted to see way more of it, though, but since I hadn't expected any big monsters in the one I was thrilled. It's one of those things that will make any Brett Piper movie worth watching. As long as his stop-motion is in there, it'll be fun in one way or another.

This review of "Muckman" might be surprisingly positive, but it is a flawed movie. You just have to understand what kind of movie you are going into with this one. It's a stupid movie and not once does it excuse itself, or ridicule itself, which is exactly why it entertains me. It's an honest film by people doing what they love, and what they love is cheap, fun creature films of yesteryear. My biggest issue with the film has to be the ending, which seems a bit weird. Maybe it was their way of doing something differently, and it doesn't really change what I thought of the film overall, but it ends a bit too quickly. If you love your monsters in suits and stop-motion rather than CGI, then "Muckman" might actually be for you. It's way more entertaining than any other film released by Chemical Burn, and very likely more entertaining than you expect it to be as well. More reviews can be found at FilmBizarro.com