Not So Fantastic

THE FANTASTIC FOUR-1994-Scientists Reed Richards (Alex Hyde-White) and Victor Von Doom (Robert Culp's son Joseph) are conducting an experiment involving a passing comet but the experiment goes awry and Victor seems to die. Years later Reed and his big former college buddy Ben Grimm (Michael Bailey Smith) decide to test a new type of spacecraft just as the comet is going by again. They take along the sister/brother duo of Sue (Rebecca Staab) and Johnny (Jay Underwood)) Storm who's mom runs the boarding house Reed lives in. The mission goes haywire due mostly in part because a decrepit guy called The Jeweler (Ian Trigger) steals a diamond from the ship. After being bombarded with cosmic rays the group find they have acquired amazing powers. Reed can stretch his body (a really terrible special effect), Sue can become invisible, Johnny can emit flames and Ben turns into the brick like coated The Thing (stuntman Carl Ciarfallo). They also discover that Victor is still alive, now resides in a suit of armor and calls himself Dr. Doom bent on getting revenge on Reed (who he blames for his disfigured face) and his pals. He also wants the stolen jewel but The Jeweler has other plans: he wants it as a gift for "his queen", a captured blind sculptress named Alicia Masters (Kat Green). Needless to say the bad guys are stopped. Ben saves Alicia, Reed disposes of Doom and The Human Torch stops the comet from striking Earth (this scene looks suspiciously like the ending of the first 1941 Superman cartoon by The Fleischer Brothers!).

This low budget adaptation of the famous Marvel comic has nothing going for it. Everything is sub-par: the acting, the special effects, the sound, the direction, you name it. The Thing isn't bad and Doc Doom is ok except you can't understand most of his dialogue....

It seem German producer Bernd Eichinger somehow acquired the movie rights but couldn't get anyone interested in an adaptation. When he realized his option would run out unless he made a movie of it, Eichinger contacted Roger Corman who agreed to help produce the film using mainly TV actors and a music video director named Oley Sassone (though he had made a few other movies before this including BLOODFIST 3  with Don "The Dragon" Wilson). Needless to say it was never released but has been available as a bootleg for years.

Eichinger's stunt must have paid off because he produced the big budget Hollywood version (with not much of a better story line) in 2005!

Warning! At the time of this writing a new "re-boot" is in post production!

Thanks for reading!