ogremage12

Every single other comment for this movie has not given it anything more than a 3 out of 10. I can only assume that they watched the movie believing it would be any good.

Superman movies have always been campy (yes, even *before* that lovable hack Richard Lester threw his half-baked lot into Superman II), but people thought Superman III was the ultimate, the final, the only possible depth to which the Superman series could sink. It was unabashedly a comedy and it performed poorly, so the Salkinds left the series forever and handed the producing duties over to Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, two wild and crazy guys from Israel who *just* wanted to illegally funnel funds from Superman IV and cut corners everywhere. They did so, and the film bombed at the box office.

But it shouldn't have. The problem wasn't at all with the script, the acting or the movie itself; the problem was with the people who saw it. They were expecting a serious Superman movie. What they got was the most unintentionally hilarious movies of all time, an understated classic of bad cinema.

There is only one way to watch this movie, and that is to watch it with friends and mock it endlessly. Despite the large-ish budget and well-known character, Superman IV would do very well as an episode of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (a 90s TV show dedicated to mocking B-movies). It has everything: bad eighties hairstyles, completely illogical plot lines and more failed special effects than an episode of the old Doctor Who. Strings are easily visible, a police car magically appears out of thin air, Superman is referred to as "The Dude of Steel" and people seem to be oddly capable of breathing in space, not to mention the dialogue: "You know what I can do with a single strand of Superman's hair?" "You can make a toupee that flies!" If you're not as immature nor as odd as I am, the effect may be replicated by making a drinking game of the movie or inhaling illicit substances, but how it happens is not important. What is important is that this movie should not be condemned as a horrible serious movie, but be respected as a fantastic, if unintentional, comedy.

See you in twenty, indeed.

If you're looking for a deep, interesting and layered fantasy flick which makes sense and has an original story, go rent out the first Conan movie. Conan the Destroyer is pure Hollywood cheese, made because the Conan the Barbarian was such a hit. The studio execs made the story more light-hearted, with sidekicks and magic and the kind of story a thirteen-year-old could watch without getting in trouble.

Oddly enough, it works. While it's light years away from Robert E Howard's original Conan stories, Conan the Destroyer is still great fun, even twenty years after it was made. Arnold Schwarzenegger makes the most of the very silly lines he's given, Tracey Walter proves a capable if somewhat pointless comic foil, and the irony of casting Wilt Chamberlain as a protector of a young princess' virginity is hilarious.

Mako hams it up, Grace Jones takes it all too seriously and Olivia D'Abo makes for a good childlike princess because she was 16 when the film got made. The music's over-dramatic, the lines are laughable ("Some wizard you are! Go back to juggling apples!") and the story's cliché, but for Saturday night viewing, nothing beats Conan the Destroyer.

Possibly Interesting Trivia: This movie was produced by Raffaela De Laurentis, daughter of the famous Dino De Laurentis. She also produced the confusing big-budget epic "Dune". Both Dune and this movie flopped at the box office, and both were filmed in Mexico.