jonathan_k80
If you have had the misfortune of seeing any of the live-action Saturday morning kids' shows from the 1970's (or if you were unfortunate enough to have grown up in that time period), then basically you have seen this movie.It's all been done before. A mysterious mystical guy is searching for the descendant of a long line of "Puma Men" to guide him in the ways of the puma, which include flying and a type of red-tinted psychic night-vision. This must be an educational film, as I did not know pumas could fly. He finds his subject, who is reluctant to assume these powers and spends the remainder of the movie whining and complaining. I guess I would whine too, after realizing all the good superhero powers were already taken, and I was left with this.The rest is predictable. PumaMan masters his ability conjure up a lame background theme song every time he flies. His take-offs and landings are enhanced with 1970's video game sound effects. And he completes his training, just in time of course, to take on Kobras, an evil villain who is determined to... guess... control the world. I didn't see that coming.The movie includes a limited disco-garbage soundtrack and special effects that are truly ground-breaking (for the 1940's). Donald Pleasence (who must have been exhausted after pursuing Michael Myers and needed an easier adversary), as the evil Kobras, constantly pronounces "PumaMan" as "Pew-ma Man." Think of it as "phew - this movie stinks."Because it truly does.
Anders Twetman
I can't believe that this film was made in 1980, it has the look and feel of an action movie from the 60's or maybe the 70's. It looks like it was made on a low budget too, because so many things, like the cars, the stereotypical south American guy, the mustaches, the soundtrack and the special effects all look dated, or extremely cheap, or both. What I'm trying to convey is that this film is of really poor quality in most aspects, which makes it kind of funny. The biggest problem however, which seems to be very common in older, low budget action movies, is that the whimsical concept (in this case, a man having ancient mystical puma powers) is not enough to drive the story forward. Instead, the hero ends up dealing with some rather mundane threat, in a not at all exciting way and the end result is a film that is dull and uninteresting.
zxgerard
In France, when a movie is so bad he becomes funny (unintentionally, it's important) we call it a "NANAR".And there's a real audience for this kind of movie (Ed Wood like). These movies are treasures because they become rare. Nowaday, the bad movies have at least decent SFX, decent editing, the directors have all followed a formation... But during the 60-70-80's absolute incompetent directors could make movies. So there is a bunch of them, but a limited bunch, and this one is famous.So if "Puma man" made me laugh and spent a good time, I must give more than 1 or 2 stars. And I must recommend it.My favorite quotes : Boss ! This man is FLYING like... Like ?.. ... like a PUMA !(Because, as everybody knows : the pumas fly.) LOL !;-))
atogcheese
We're all familiar with this old chestnut. Somebody finds a magic amulet, or discovers that they are descended from aliens or gods, or has an accident involving radioactive material, and they become transformed. They are granted fantastic powers and transformed into a super-human. The can choose to become a hero, an altruistic paragon making the world a better place, or they can take up their will to power and use their superhuman might at the expense of all others.Or, they can become Puma Man. Whiny, pathetic, cowardly, unintelligent, and above all woefully incompetent, Puma Man doesn't represent a single character so much as a statistical inevitability. Not every person who happens to have a great-grandfather from Asgard or parents from Alpha Centauri or a run-in with a radioactive arthropod will be inherently a cunning mover and shaker with the will to effect change in the world. Many people, if given the power of telekinesis, would just fetch the remote and expose certain people's underwear. No amount of physical or supernatural might can replace good old fashioned dedication to a cause, and not everyone has the guts to risk life and limb to battle for supremacy of the world.To find out "What would happen if your mooching, high-school drop out older cousin became a superhero", I direct you to watch "Puma Man".If you want to actually see somebody who isn't overshadowed by his vaguely ethnic faithful companion, leave this film alone.
AD
