 | |
List Price: $19.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 89919
Released: May 1, 2001 |
| Our Price: $1.67 |
| Used Price: $0.65 |
|
MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
|
Editorial Review:
SUPERMAN TRIES TO RID THE WORLD OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS, BUT THE EVIL LEX LUTHER CREATES NUCLEAR MAN.
Description of Superman IV - The Quest for Peace:
The law of diminishing returns: It's the law--obey it! Someone should have posted that sign on the set of this, the third sequel to the film based on the DC Comics superhero. The "IV" in the title refers to medical supplies needed to resuscitate this anemic retread. This one reportedly was a pet project of actor Christopher Reeve, whose career seemed to flounder whenever he tried a role minus the blue underwear and red cape. Before agreeing to don the suit one more time, he insisted on a script that preached nuclear disarmament. So, in this film, Superman rounds up all the missiles and warheads and flings them into outer space. Which still leaves him to contend with Lex Luthor, who has a secret weapon: Nuclear Man. Yawn. Having pushed the envelope of special effects in the first film, it seemed as if the filmmakers simply stopped trying with this one. --Marshall Fine
Superman IV - The Quest for Peace Reviews:
One of the worst movies of the 80's 
2009-09-28 - The original Superman told a great story of how the legend began. It was watchable from beginning to end and the villain was intriguing. Superman 2 was a fantastic movie and is one of my favorite movies of all time. The story was very engaging and the villains were even more interesting than Lex Luthor was. Superman 3 was a letdown but it wasn't terrible since Richard Pryor played a sympathetic character and his sense of humor saved the movie from oblivion. Superman 4 is a downright bore. In fact, this is the one movie that I recommend to anybody having sleeping trouble. This time, Clark Kent has a love interest, the stunning Mariel Hemmingway character (in the 80's, she was considered a sex symbol). It's nice to see that Clark has a love interest, after all, he is a man with a good heart and looks out for other peoples' interests. Of course, those muscles that Clark has doesn't hurt either. Hemmingway's character seems to be more attracted to what she sees than what a guy's personality is like, since we all know that Clark doesn't have the best people skills in Metropolis. Trust me when I say that her attraction to Clark is the nicest thing about the movie. Lex Luthor once again tries to stop Superman but this time he does it with the help of his nephew who bails him out of jail, a weasel played by Jon Cryer. With his nephew's help, they conjure up Nuclear Man, one of the lamest villains in cinema history. The actor who plays Nuclear Man does such a horrible job of overacting that you just can't wait for him to die (I will try not to give away what happens, should you have trouble sleeping one day). At first, Nuclear Man gets the best of Superman and you think Superman finally met his match. Nope. Of course, Superman recovers from the evil clutches of Nuclear Man and Earth once again is a safer place. This movie is especially notable for the parts where Clark is sick and Lois Lane comes to visit him. These scenes are absolutely dreadfully boring. Maybe a better word would be "abysmal" because there is nothing about these scenes that grab your attention whatsoever. Superman's monologue at the end of the movie is fitting; it is boring and lame like the rest of the movie. Consider the monologue to be the icing on the worst piece of cake you have ever tasted. If you are having trouble at all sleeping, this is the movie for you. If you are interested in captivating storylines and stellar acting, stay away. D-
Had Potential 
2009-09-22 - By the time Superman IV was made, the Salkinds had given up and thought the film series had run its course with both the flops of Superman III and Supergirl. They instead turned to television and produced the Superboy series. When Golan-Globus picked up the rights, all they had in mind was for Reeve to reprise the role again. But if he was going to do it, he insisted that he be involved in the story of the film, thus the plot for nuclear disarmament was created. The idea sounds good on paper but when you think about, Superman taking away the world's nuclear weapons, the character comes off as a dictator, because if Superman inexplicably became evil (like in the animated series), the world would be left powerless to stop him (though they can't kill him, I'm sure the armies of the world would give it the old college try). At least they tried to go back to the quality of story that the first two films were. The acting is sub-par in this film. The regular cast of characters (Reeve, Kidder, McClure, Cooper and Hackman) are perfect as ususal, in this case its the supporting players. A very young Jon Cryer plays Luthor's nephew and I don't think they know which way to play the character; a bumbling idiot like Otis from the first two films or to make him an insane genius like his uncle. They allude to the genius of Luthor in the character (being able to help with the creation of Nuclear Man and being able to spring his uncle in the beginning) but they pretty much stick with the idiot side-kick aspect. Mariel Hemingway, who actually looks more attractive now than what she did in 1986-87, is a flat, boring character. She's not that attractive (though by this time Kidder wasn't much the looker either) and I ponder as to why any character would find her attractive. At least they finally gave someone to pine after Clark instead of Superman. The flat, boring character arises again in Sam Wanamaker. He's your usual "evil" tycoon out to make a buck. And Mark Pillow, can't say much for him as all he does is pantomime, his voice being dubbed by Hackman, so I can't say a lot on his acting. The character however is pretty interesting (though they should've stuck with the comics and used Bizarro instead) and is an equal match for Superman. Now for another history lesson, but for those who know this can skip over it; this movie originally had a budget of $40 million. But because Golan-Globus had so many projects going on at the same time, the budget was slashed to $17 million. That doesn't leave a lot for which to use. If you'll notice the special effects are the weakest aspect of the film (the first film being nine years older had better). The same flying shot of Superman is used repetitively, the wires show in more scenes than in Superman III and, I guess the budget ran out at this point, they forgot to give Mariel Hemingway a space suit for when she's in space. I guess when you're with Superman in space, a protective energy field is formed? And then when they screened the film for a test audience, it got horrible reviews. So they slashed away at the film (along with most of the continuity), resulting in a 90 minute film from what was 2½ hours. Most of the deleted scenes (which amount to around 30 min.) are featured on this DVD but I think they should've touched them up and put them back into the film, which would make it more cohesive (like Nuclear Man's inexplicable interest in Hemingway).
Sucks & Rocks All In One Film 
2009-09-20 - Superman IV is the end of the Superman franchise, but still, no one can play a better Superman since Christopher Reeve. The crappy second half of the storyline turns me off. Even though it may not worth the buy, who cares. Got it for the sake of Christopher Reeve's Superman.
It would have been better had the cuts been kept 
2009-09-18 - What I said in the title says it all. I would rather see this in a edition where all of the cut scenes are put back into the film in their proper order. About the only thing good about this is Reeve as Superman. Although the film itself is not as good as it should have been, he was still endearing.
Superman flops
2009-08-22 - I kind of liked this movie but it was the worst of the five Superman movies. If Christopher Reeve hadn't starred in this film like he originally planned, it would've been the crappiest movie ever made.
Warner Bros. gave Golan-Globus 40 million bucks to make this movie but they only used 17 million. The special effects weren't as good as in the other Superman movies. If the Salkinds had made this film, it would've been much better.
It really made me mad when Nuclearman took Lacy Warfield into outerspace and she didn't die. That was the stupidest thing that was in any of the Superman movies.
Another thing that was stupid about this movie was that Golan-Globus cut 45 minutes out of it. This caused parts of it not to make sense.
This film failed a South California screen test and this made Golan-Globus freak out. That's why they cut out the 45 minutes. If the missing footage hadn't been cut out, this film would've been better but not much. At least it would've made more sense.
On the moon scene you can see wires on Superman and black curtains around the set. I did like it when Nuclearman beat Superman into the ground.
This movie only made twenty-three million at the box office. That's probably why it took them 19 years to get around to making a fifth Superman movie. This wasn't a great film but I have seen worse.
