Product Description

Christopher Reeve not only dons the title hero's cape for the fourth time but also helped develop the movie's provocative theme: nuclear disarmament. "For me, it's the most personal of the entire series," Reeve said. "It directly reflects what Superman should be, and should be doing." Superman does a lot this time around. To make the world safe for nuclear arms merchants, Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) creates a new being to challenge the Man of Steel: the radiation-charged Nuclear Man (Mark Pillow). The two foes clash in an explosive extravaganza that sees Superman save the Statue of Liberty, plug a volcanic eruption of Mount Etna and rebuild the demolished Great Wall of China. Your quest for excitement is over!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25643 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2006-11-28
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Italian, Russian
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 90 minutes

Features

• Christopher Reeve not only dons the title hero's cape for the fourth time but also helped develop the movie's provocative theme: nuclear disarmament. "For me, it's the most personal of the entire series," Reeve said. "It directly reflects what Superman should be, and should be doing." Superman does a lot this time around. To make the world safe for nuclear arms merchants, Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman)

Amazon.com
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

Customer Reviews

A great character... a terrible movie...
It's been many years since I saw the incredibly bad "Superman IV: The Quest For Peace." Years since I was tormented by the vision of Nuclear Man, by the lousy dialouge, amazed by the idea that anyone could find Mariel Hemmingway attractive enough to destroy a city over. Still, since I got the DVD boxed set, I wanted to get my money's worth, and that meant watching S:IV. And was it as bad as I remember?

Oh god, it was worse.

From the bad science (Superman pushes the moon from its orbit to create an eclipse, yet tides are unnaffected? And there's no sunrise on the moon, either! The dark side is always dark and the light side is always light!) to the extra powers (rebuilding the great wall vision, anyone?) to the bad plotting (Superman finds a power plant with an OPEN REACTOR to chuck Nuclear Man into?) to the inconsistent characterization (Superman brings back Lois' memories from Superman II long enough to unburden his soul, then wipes `em out again -- hardly behavior benefiting Earth's Greatest Hero), it was just a bad movie. Why Gene Hackman agreed to come back for this is beyond me.

This is not to say that everything about the movie was bad. There were, in fact, two scenes that I really liked, which save it from a failing grade. The very first scene is Clark back at the old Kent farm, refusing to sell it to some developer, holding out for a "real farmer," very in character, very sweet. And the final scene, where it is not Superman that saves the day but Perry White, was also good -- a great moment of heroism for a character really underused in the Superman movies.

Sadly, neither of these scenes are good enough to counteract the mountains of badness inbetween, which is why the film doesn't fail, but is still way the hell below average.

A weak ending to a great series
I tried to like this movie, I really did. I loved all the Superman movies, even the third with Richard Pryor and all that campy, silly, humor they added into it. But this was just so bad.

It's so hard to like this movie, they were playing on cliches and tired themes from the last three movies. Margo Kidder got older - and looked it! - and was obviously self medicating to compensate for the bad time they were having. Mariel Hemingway costars as the sexy manager who is actually the boss's daughter, who, for reasons we are never quite privy too, prefers Clark Kent over Superman despite his bumbling antics. And not like it wasn't obvious throughout the other movies, but ARE YOU TRYING TO TELL ME THAT THEY REALLY DIDN'T KNOW THAT CLARK KENT WAS SUPERMAN!?!?!?!? The man had an absolutely positively perfect body this side of Morten Harket and they DIDN'T KNOW?!?! Those thick glasses and dorky suits only hid so much!!!

Lex comes back with Nuclear Man, who looks like a rip off of that guy from Greatest American Hero with a relaxing job on his curls. Superman almost dies but is saved, miracle of miracles, by the last remaining crystal from the asteroid pod he came to earth on. Lois Lane has a rememberance of her love for Superman but conveniently forgets again with the magic kiss. And worst of them all, Superman didn't really save the day! He wanted to rid the earth of all nuclear weapons, and didn't! "Make Love Not War" didn't work in the hippie era, it didn't work in the Regan era, and it ain't happening today either! This laid a big fat goose egg and ended the series on a bad note. What a shame it was all down hill for Christopher Reeve after that, otherwise I think he would've had a much more rewarding career in films.

SUPERMAN IV: Moviegoer's Kryptonite
SUPERMAN was excellent. SUPERMAN II was nearly as good, and perhaps even better. SUPERMAN III - nyeh. Not so good. So how about the notorious SUPERMAN IV? Well ... it's notorious for a reason.

Christopher Reeve returns as the Man of Steel. After he receives a letter from a child (Damien McLawhorn) asking Superman to destroy the world's nuclear weapons, Supes sets out to do just that. All seems to be going well - but little does Superman know that his old nemesis, Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman), has recently escapes from jail, and has concocted his latest and "greatest" scheme. Using power from the sun (I think so, anyway - the movie never really makes it clear), Luthor creates Nuclear Man (Mark Pillow), a badguy who happens to have most of Superman's powers and who really wants Krypton's last son dead.

Frankly, SUPERMAN IV: THE QUEST FOR PEACE is not simply a weak film. It's one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Granted, it's not as bad as, say, MANOS: THE HANDS OF FATE, but it's bad. One of the movie's big flaws is its attempt to imitate the original film's charm, which it fails to do. Another flaw: the script. Mario Puzo left after SUPERMAN II, while David & Leslie Newman hung around for SUPERMAN III before departing from the series. Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal are responsible for the poor, cliched script for this film, based on a story by Christopher Reeve. The screenwriters made the mistake of ignoring the comics and creating a new villain, which of course leads to some errors sure to irritate Superman fans. There's even factual errors (since when can people breathe in space?).

Because the film's budget was slashed in half during filming, the effects are pretty weak. The new music, by Alexander Courage, is dull and repetetive; even John Williams' magnificent theme becomes hokey when used in this movie. The cast is looking older and the characters have lost all their shine, though Reeve is still trying his best and it shows. Mark Pillow, who never acted in another film before or after this, delivers the worst performance I've ever seen as the ridiculous Nuclear Man.

While SUPERMAN IV has its moments (particularly the Smallville scene), it makes it painfully clear why the series ended here. It's moviegoer's Kryptonite. Die-hard Superman fans may want to give it a try; anyone and everyone else, stay away!