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Critters 4 (1992)
Tons of potential, but not well executed.
People think the third one was awful, but this one is pretty much on the same level – neither are very good, but both are enjoyable enough. What really hurt this one, though, was its huge scope and seemingly endless potential being completely wasted. The Critters franchise finally returned to space where it truly began, and nothing is expanded on or furthered in terms of development. You would think going back to space, maybe we'd get to see more of the galactic council and how it works, and more of the galaxy overall, but nope. We get nothing. The action is confined to a space station which, don't get me wrong, is a great environment, but it could've been more varied.
The characters are all fairly archetypal: Rick, the asshole; Bernie, the lazy pill popper; Albert, the stern father figure; Fran, the independent female; Ethan, the rebellious teenager. The cast does a good job with the material, especially Brad Dourif and Angela Bassett, but there isn't a whole lot to work with in the first place. None of the characters get enough time to develop except for maybe Charlie. Rick and Bernie are the only victims from the main cast that are killed by the Krites, which is a bit of a letdown and outright predictable. Speaking of characters, let's talk about one of the worst decisions in cinema history.
Ug. Not only did Ug turn into a bad guy seemingly out of the blue, but he was killed on top of it. After being a hero in the first two and still considered a friend to Charlie in the third movie, here he is an outright villain, commanding a pair of Stormtroopers, shouting orders angrily, hitting a woman, killing Albert without hesitation or remorse, and threatening to kill everyone including Charlie just to get the last few Krite eggs. Compare that to the Ug in the first two, who never raised his voice apart from grieving over Lee, risked his life on numerous occasions to save Brad and the others, and opened a line for the humans to contact him in case of more Krite incidents. The difference in personality is completely shocking, and the worst part is that there's no explanation for it other than "people change." The writers seriously couldn't have given some development to Ug and Charlie over this? This is such a huge moment and it's given no justice, especially when Charlie is finally forced to shoot Ug right in the head to save Ethan (albeit that's a great character moment for Charlie). I read on a Critters fan site that according to Don Opper, the plan was always to turn Ug into a bad guy, but I can't find the source anymore and that just sounds bizarre all around. Losing Lee could've taken away Ug's moral compass, maybe, but to leave that completely to the fans' imagination was a little shitty.
As for the Krites themselves, they were probably the biggest letdown. There was only two of them. TWO. They probably had about 5 minutes of screen time in the whole movie, and that's sad when they're the titular characters. The box art and trailers advertised a new breed of Krite, and there very well could have been with one of the advanced machines on the spaceship, but nothing was done with that. We got the normal Krites, so there was quite a bit of false advertising going on there with whoever was in charge of promoting this.
One blatant inconsistency is how long it takes the Krite eggs to hatch. In the third movie, they hatch pretty much within a couple hours, if that. However, in this one, Charlie says they take six months to incubate. Clearly something got mixed up between the scripts. To add to the handy list of cons for this movie, the spaceship the characters dock at is abandoned when they get there, despite being in full operation when they're told that's where they need to go to drop off the eggs. This is also never explained, and it's very irritating because it could've been an interesting subplot.
The atmosphere of the spaceship itself was very eerie and claustrophobic, which aided heavily in keeping the movie from veering off into total dullard territory. The movie itself was dark and not at all like the far more humorous third outing, and I appreciated getting back to a more horror base instead of comedy. But despite the tone being right, there wasn't much else that was. Charlie was the best part of the movie, maturing and making the difficult decisions, and it was nice to see Ug again (until it becomes clear he's not a good guy anymore).
Overall, this is a big step down from Critters, but oddly enough, I can enjoy this more than Critters 2 depending on the day; same with Critters 3. I wouldn't go in expecting anything fantastic, and don't believe what you read on the back of the VHS/DVD case, but it's definitely not an abysmal movie. You'll probably come out of it with a lot more questions than you went in with, though.
Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
I can't decide if it's better or worse than 3.
This sequel was decent, but it definitely didn't come anywhere close to the grittiness and intensity of the first two. The Chinese storyline was incredibly weak and uninteresting; the proposed neo-Nazi terrorist plot from the first script sounds far more intriguing than what we got from the Triad in this, even if Germans/neo-Nazis have been done to death in cinema. There were a lot of characters in this, which can be nice, but then nobody really stands out, which happened in this one. Adding Chris Rock's character "Butters" was completely unnecessary, although I did find a bit of humor in some of the misunderstood gay jokes, admittedly. The tone of the movie was much more light-hearted than the first two, but about on par with the third in that it was more comedic and sentimental than gritty and hard-hitting. The action scenes were great, especially the brutal final showdown, but it takes a lot of doing nothing to get to the good stuff, which is about three big sequences spread throughout the movie (the opening encounter with the pyromaniac at the start, the highway chase near the middle, and the warehouse sequence at the end).
The running gag was Murtaugh and Riggs ("finally") getting too old to do the things they used to, and it works pretty well, but it's also a bit sad to see. Murtaugh was always too old even in the first movie, but Riggs was young and a fearless ass kicking machine in the first three, and in this one he's almost a shell of his former self. He's getting beat up and outpaced by just about everyone around him, and he's no longer the kung fu guy, this time around relying more on a brawling style, which I don't understand how or why that was changed. Sure, you can't move as fast when you're older, but to change an entire fighting style seems unrealistic. That's just one of the downfalls of this sequel, though.
The Chinese sucked as villains. They weren't threatening enough. Jet Li's character was silent fury, sulking in a room until he had to throw down, but that's about it. He was criminally underused, and it seems like his abilities were toned down for the final fight in order for Riggs and Murtaugh to beat him. I could tell Mr. Joshua from LW1 and the Aryans from LW2 meant business. I could somewhat believe Jack Travis from LW3 was psychotic and brutal. I really didn't care about the Chinese villains in this one. Something was really lacking with them.
Overall, this one is pretty interchangeable with LW3, but both are a huge step down from LW1 and LW2. Don't go into this expecting much.
Critters 3 (1991)
For hardcore fans, this is a sure delight.
The Crites are back for the third time, and this time they're terrorizing an apartment building in Topeka, Kansas (although it really does look like Los Angeles) instead of Grovers Bend. This might disappoint some fans, but it's not a horrible change. Really, what else could've been done in Grovers Bend? I feel the change of setting was a bit refreshing.
We're introduced to the main characters: Clifford, the widowed father; Annie, the daughter and main protagonist; and Johnny, the son (who adds nothing to the film overall). They're returning from a trip to the Grand Canyon when a flat tire forces them to pull over at a rest stop. There we meet the young Josh, his "evil" stepfather, and the likable Charlie, who fans will recognize right away as he's the only returning cast member from the first two movies, unfortunately. Charlie gives the lowdown on why he's screwing around in the woods to the heroes, treating us to a nice trailer-like flashback of the first two movies. As the heroes are called back to their vehicles, Charlie gives Johnny a crystal he apparently was given to by some friends (obviously referencing Ug & Lee, the two bounty hunters he used to travel with) that glows green whenever trouble is near, which is never truly explained. It sort of sucks because the crystal is a semi-interesting element that comes out of nowhere and then is just left alone. Anyway, as we leave the rest stop, it's shown that there are a few Crite eggs stuck underneath our heroes' RV.
Clifford and his kids make it home to their rundown apartment building, introducing us to some characters with wasted potential that spout one- liners like they were back in 4th grade – Frank, the obnoxious maintenance man; Marsha, the friend of the heroes; Rosalie, the overweight woman that doesn't serve much of a purpose like Johnny; and the Menges, an elderly couple that takes care of Annie and Johnny while Clifford is away. The Crites hatch and break into the basement of the building. The film then gives us this uninteresting subplot with Frank being in cahoots with Josh's stepfather to get the tenants out of the building so it can be turned into a mini-mall. Soon after, Frank is killed by the Crites who've inexplicably grown to adult size in what seems like a couple hours (by eating nothing apparently). Oh yeah, and in between all the attacks, there's another subplot about Annie trying to get Clifford to stop being depressed and spend time with her and Johnny before going out of town on business again, but it's just meh so whatever.
Rosalie ventures down into the basement next and is promptly attacked by the Crites after they steal her donut. Sadly, she isn't killed; Annie comes to her rescue. That's one of the things I disliked about this movie – it held back on the killing and was basically a "good vs. evil" kind of thing, because only Frank and Josh's stepfather are killed, them two being the only "evil" characters in the movie. Rosalie and Annie go to Clifford for help and soon are attacked by the Crites. They make it upstairs and encounter Marsha, who presumably goes down to investigate Annie's claims of aliens. Anywho, Josh and his stepfather (Mr. Briggs, I forgot his name until just now, haha) arrive and Briggs is soon killed. Josh is found by Marsha and the two high-tail it upstairs as the Crite pursue them.
The humans lock themselves in the Menges' room and try to get help. Unfortunately for them, and how cliché for us, the phone lines and electricity were cut by Briggs before he got the axe, so they're trapped basically. Mr. Menges comes up with a plan to use the elevator shaft to get around "them things," so everybody starts climbing into the attic. The Crites soon arrive through the ventilation system under the sink (at least that's what it appears to be) and an overblown, boring kitchen scene commences with them eating just about everything available to them and then farting it out. Blah, no thanks. I know a lot find it to be a high point of the film, but I've personally seen it far too many times and I'm just about sick of it now, sorry.
Back to the film itself, the humans are now trapped in the attic. Marsha feels the logical way of getting around the Crites – the elevator shaft – isn't very great, so she volunteers herself to climb out the side of the building and walk along the phone lines to get to the pay phone and call for help. Yeah, I understand her intent, but the execution is just stupid. Unsurprisingly, she screws up and falls, only being saved as her foot is stuck in one of the broken lines (and seriously, she could have just unhooked her foot and gotten down, as it was maybe only a 10ft drop at most). This compels Annie to use the elevator shaft where it leads us to Charlie making his arrival to save her from the Crites. The two go back up to the attic, unknowingly followed by the Crites. The Crites attack and are quickly dispatched by Charlie and the Menges. Really, they weren't much to speak of when it came down to it. So everybody gets up to the roof, but one Crite remains and attacks Johnny, so Charlie seemingly sacrifices himself to save him, even though he lives in the end anyway. Oh yeah, I forgot there was a fire growing in the basement started by a dead Crite. Doesn't matter, though, since the humans are saved and everybody lives happily ever after.
The mid-credits scene leads into the boring but much darker fourth film, too, by the way. Overall, it's a fun and campy movie, but nothing to be taken seriously. A lot more could've been done with it.