Customer Reviews

Fantastic Four (1994) [IMPORT]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Literally thousands of people have seen bootlegs of this Roger corman film from the early 1990's. Yes, it is a basically cheap film, produced by Mr. Corman and it shows. BUT, for a film done for less than 2 million dollars, what they accomplishes was pretty impressive. When shown the final product, it showed several people what could be done with the F.F. on a shoe-string budget and gave many hope for what someone could eventually do with a BIG budget. Although nowhere near as good as the recent blockbuster, this film does have a few advantages. It's Doctor Doom is in the right outfit and the Thing looks pretty darn good too! Give it a try.

The intended never-to-be released '94 version of `The Fantastic Four' produced by Roger Corman is finally available to hardcore comic book fans in this import DVD. For those who are familiar with Roger Corman productions let me assure you that this movie delivers everything you've come to expect from a Corman production; low budget production values, laughable special effects, cheesy soundtrack, comic book dialogue and sub-par acting.

Despite all the negatives there is a spirit to the film that eventually captured my interest and kept me watching until the very end. Whether that "spirit" aforementioned is something to be attributed to Corman for infusing into the film or something nostalgic residing within myself is uncertain. Since the Fantastic Four was one of my favorite comics growing up it's probably the latter.

This is definitely a film that can only truly be appreciated by Marvel comic book fans.

From they Clearly painted on hair wings to the blatent use of rubber costumes this is everything you never want a comic book film to be and yet you cant take ur eyes off of it for all its HAMMED UP GLORY.i dont want to ruin this for anyone brave enough to actually sit down and watch this Go Forth and embrace the Cheese. FLAME ON HA HAH HAH HAH !!!yeah right !!!!

i have one of the poor copys.
i loved the show myself.
sure it could of been made better as far as f/x but its still a good show.
old shows dont have great f/x but there still great storys.
to me the f/x is not all that bad for what they had to work with.
i for one will be the first in line to buy this.
i just hope the prints are still around to do so.
if not i guess ill have to live with my poor copy.
please release this show.

This movie is cheesy, campy and fun. Even with negligible production values, it is more entertaining than the new Fantastic Four movies, and the story is actually better.

One warning however, the copy I got was a computer burned DVD-R (purple disc) and I could not play it with my DVD player or computer. My PS2 for some reason was able to play it, though it skipped.

Until a few years ago, I didn't know what an ashcan movie was. Apparently it's a movie produced purely so someone can hang onto publication rights.

And one of the most infamous examples of this is Roger Corman's "The Fantastic Four," a movie that was made to lie on the shelf gathering dust. But let's be honest. It might have ended up that way anyway, since the acting is absurd, the special effects are silly, and random stuff happens just to further the plot. The Jeweler, anyone?

Ten years ago, college students Reed Richards (Alex Hyde-White) and Victor Von Doom (Joseph Culp) try to harness the power of Colossus, which is a.... I don't know. They don't really explain it. But Victor is horribly injured during the experiment and apparently dies.

Now Colossus is returning, so Reed and his buddy Ben Grimm (Michael Bailey Smith) are going up in a spaceship to study it, and for some reason they decide to bring along their landlady's now-grown children Sue (Rebecca Staab) and Johnny (Jay Underwood). But because some weirdo named the Jeweler has stolen a giant diamond from them -- don't ask -- they crash-land back on Earth.

However, they now have superpowers -- Reed stretches, Johnny generates fire, Sue is invisible, and Ben has grown a stone skin. And soon they're captured by the mysterious Doctor Doom (yeah, guess who he is), who wants their Colossus-spawned powers for his own.

Corman's "The Fantastic Four" was slapped together for only about a million-and-a-half dollars, and while it was obviously made with a lot of love, it also wasn't made with a lot of competence. This movie has countless weird performance, strange unexplained stuff (Ben randomly turns back into a normal human FOR NO REASON) and ... things that just don't work (WHO IS THE JEWELER? He's a walking plot convenience!).

And the director is in weird form here. Corman was usually a pretty consistent schlock-peddler, but there are a lot of HORRIBLY cheesy and/or uncomfortable scenes in here. For example: a bizarrely creepy scene where Ben greets Mrs. Storm, which left me wondering if they had some sort of weird Stepford-Wife affair. And the special effects are pretty groanworthy, even for 1994.

So do the actors help it? Uhhh... no. Hyde-White gives a pretty low-key, pleasant performance, and seems to be the only one with a handle on his character. The others... well, Staab is a creepy Barbie doll, Underwood is a hyperactive child, and Smith's character is never really defined. And Culp's overacting magician hands and muffled voice are pretty darn weird. Was it so expensive to just dub over his speaking voice?

But despite its countless flaws, "The Fantastic Four" does have a goofy, hilarious "bad movie" quality that does make it fun to watch. Not good, but fun.

"The Fantastic Four" was never given a fair chance from the very beginning, but honestly I doubt it would have succeeded anyway. Good for a "bad movie" night, but otherwise skip it.

this is a great movie that should of came out when the other 2 movies came out. a nice little box set. the uniforms are great from the 60's cartoon's and comic's. it would of been great to have seen this as a tv series live action. this would be a great asset to any marvel or fantastic 4 fan.

This is not a bad film. A big chunk of the budget must have gone to the Thing but it is entertaining. Available outside Amazon for about $15 less postage. A side note, no one making this (besides the producer) knew that is was only made to keep the rights and never intended for release.

Fantastic Four (1994) [IMPORT]The Fantastic Four is an unreleased low-budget feature film completed in 1994. Created to secure copyright to the property, the producers never intended it for release ' although the director and other creators were not informed of this fact. It was produced by Roger Corman (famous for his low-budget productions) and Bernd Eichinger (who also produced another Fantastic Four movie in 2005). The film was based on the popular comic book by Marvel Comics and featured the origin of the Fantastic Four and their first battle with the evil Doctor Doom and a mysterious Mole Man-like creature. Seems to be very expensive here, try to google search "Fantastic Four 1994" and see if you can find it there.

Ok, maybe not. But they did get Doctor Doom right. Plus the backstory on this movie is legend. A movie made, that was never intended for release. Just to keep the film rights! And the cast and crew never knew it! Incredible. Only in America. You've heard the stories. Now see the movie.