Eric’s Bad Movies: ‘Superman IV: The Quest for Peace’
Remember how I told you last week that I’d be writing a column for Film.com every Thursday called “Eric’s Bad Movies”? Well I wasn’t kidding! The second installment, addressing the 1987 debacle “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace,” is now available for your reading pleasure.
(Available for your viewing pleasure is the accompanying photo of Nuclear Man, the film’s “villain.”)
April 10th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Man, I honestly don’t recall Superman IV being that bad, but I guess it was. But I was only ten or so at the time anyway, so I’m gonna blame it on that.
April 10th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
My wife and I decided to have a Superman movie marathon a few years back. If I recall, the badness of Superman IV pales in comparison to that of Superman III.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
This was a really, really funny column. I’m glad you’ve started this feature, Eric.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
I really envy both of you, Turkey and Dan Smith. How nice it would be to not recall Superman IV being a bad movie or worse than Superman III. You were somehow put into a coma-like state while watching the movie and were able to bypass the affect of its utter terribleness.
On a related note, what I don’t understand is why people like the first two films. Both are really quite bad and make little to no sense if you look closely enough at them. There’s never a time in any of the films that explains any of Superman’s motivation or abilities, why he works at the Daily Planet, why he hides as Clark, why he’s in any way attracted to Lois, why he has any super power he wants whenever he wants it. There’s nothing that explains Lex Luthor either. It’s like all these people existed in the comic books and since people were supposed to know them already, the movie never bothers to explain.
On another related note, Superman Returns was pretty awful as well.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Love it! (The column. Not the movie.)
April 10th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
I actually prefer Superman IV to Superman III. I dislike them both equally, but Superman IV is about 30:00 shorter than its predecessor, so it’s better.
April 10th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
“On another related note, Superman Returns was freaking awesome.”
There, fixed that for you.
April 10th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
I had an involved email discussion with someone once who legitimately believed that Superman IV was a superior movie to Superman Returns. Such is the rich variety and diversity of human life.
April 10th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Yeah…Superman III is horrific. I barely remember Superman IV, but I know I saw it because I remember Jon Cryer.
Superman III… GOOD GRIEF!
April 10th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
I LOVE the first two movies in the series, and to this day, I cannot talk about Houston without throwing “the planet Hooston” in there somewhere.
April 11th, 2008 at 7:21 am
Superman III is clearly better than Superman IV, but that’s like saying that it’s better to die of skin cancer than colon cancer.
Superman Returns is the best movie about a creepy stalker deadbeat dad superhero I’ve seen so far. Would’ve been nice if it had been about Superman, though.
April 11th, 2008 at 8:41 am
“Superman Returns is the best movie about a creepy stalker deadbeat dad superhero I’ve seen so far. Would’ve been nice if it had been about Superman, though.”
You got that too, Heli? Then I wasn’t the only one.
April 11th, 2008 at 10:11 am
I thought “Superman Returns” was about a guy who was with a girl, left her without warning, and then stalked her when he got back and she didn’t want much to do with him anymore. Then when he found out he had some responsibility for his past actions, he said “oh, sorry, gotta go save the world now.” What a wonderful message to send to men all around the world. If you shirk your responsibilities, someone else will pick up the slack for you. All is well if you help people. Firemen, doctors, and policemen now have carte blanch to shirk their responsibilities not related to helping strangers. Huzzah!
And Eric’s review of Superman IV reminds me of what I would have expected from his review of SW I: Phantom Menace. Ships landed! Races were had! Meetings were held! What a riveting story!!1!
April 11th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
This movie was so boring that I think I DID enter a coma-like state while watching it. It made no sense whatsoever, but it was, on occasion, rather hilarious. Enjoy this clip (as it actually was spoken in the movie by poor, poor Christopher Reeves and whoever played Nuclear Man:
NM: Tell me where she is, or I’ll HURT PEOPLE!!
Superman: No! Don’t hurt THE PEOPLE!
What’s more funny is how Superman just stands around, looking helpless, while NM blasts a whole bunch of passers-by into oblivion.
April 12th, 2008 at 12:09 am
Put me in the GWGumby camp on the Superman franchise. I always thought of “Superman Returns” as a chick flick with Superman in it. You cannot cast someone like Kate Bosworth as Louis Lane and then try to claim your movie wasn’t a chick flick, so grats all you chick flick lovers.
You know what I hate most about the Superman movies though? Now that Christopher Reeve (who was apparently the hero of the bleeding heart Hollywood liberal camp) is dead, the franchise will never be free of his smarmy portrayal of Superman. Every possible sequel and rebooting of the franchise will be forced to pay homage to him and his crappy version of Superman because his spirit must live on through these movies or some bosh like that.
Thank God for the DC Animated Universe, where the portrayal of Superman has always been competent, entertaining and 100% Christopher-Reeve-free.
April 12th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
My favorite part about the (awful) Superman Returns was Kevin Spacey character’s nefarious plan to take over the world. He was going to (DUN DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUUN) invest in real estate! OH THE HORROR!
I could NOT keep a straight face when he explained his theory about people will always need land, or whatever. It reminded me of those silly fliers I get from sham real estate investors encouraging me to “learn their secrets” because “LAND is REAL and even after all the people on the earth have died, the LAND will live on.” (That’s what the last one said.)
April 13th, 2008 at 11:55 am
The funniest, and cruelest, review I ever read of this movie stated, simply, that the reason Christopher Reeve later became a paraplegic was only karmic justice for his making Superman IV.
April 13th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
What a scathing review! Surely, I haven’t seen such a literary display of acrimony since the review of Madonna’s own “Cast Away,” or whatever it is purporting to be titled. At first glance, your caustic remarks seemed refreshing, as well as, necessitated by the lackluster effort constantly being giving by studios through the years; however, upon review of this linked site it seems a bit contrived and just a proverbial gimmick for you in the world you call film critiquing. Nevertheless, a rather accurate depiction of a movie neglected on a worst superhero movie compilation once typed. By the way, tops on that list: Batman & Robin. One name: George Clooney….as Batman?! Oh yeah! Some no names can act. Neither adjectives nor nouns: Mos Def is definitely exceptio to your rule!
April 17th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
notJoeKing,
The one I read said Christopher Reeve was so ashamed of this movie that he tried to commit suicide by jumping off a horse.