Critters 4

This final Critters movie changes a lot of what has been the formula for the three first. Where 1, 2 and 3 relied on humour and gore with the occasional scare, this last movie instead goes for a dark and for the most part serious mood. It rips off the original Alien, which kind of works at times, but the silly presence of the crites ruins the otherwise gloomy feeling. The film had been better by sticking to one atmosphere, and not both.

Those pesky critters are now in space to munch on some new victims. I've said it once and I'll say it again. Anytime a franchsie moves the playing field to outer space, you know it is heading for trouble. While this wasn't the one to kill the series, part three was, it isn't any better then the other Alien clones on the market. Angela Bassett adds some heightened presence to it and it's moderately entertaining for what it is.

Rated PG-13; Violence and Profanity.

What I like about the movie is that the Critters are back in this supercharged sci-fi space adventure! But these are no ordinary Critters they've a super strain of genetically engineered mutants designed to take over the universe. This time they've hungry to conquer the galaxy, with an appetite for mankind that's out of this world. There are scenes where a malfunctioning computer traps a character in an elevator, characters are nearly jettisoned into space from a garbage disposal, malfunctioning doors force characters to climb through access panels, there's an attempted rape from a drunken ship captain, the lingering threat of a nuclear core meltdown… even the climax of the film fails to account for the Critters, as the big moment is a standoff between Charlie and Ug.

And can you believe how many "good" actors have appeared throughout the Critters franchise? Everything from popular voice actors (Scott Grimes) to scream queens (Dee Wallace) to niche personalities (Eddie Deezen) to Broadway superstars (Terrance Mann) to talented character actors (Brad Dourif) to motherfucking Leonardo DiCaprio. And that's not even getting to Billy Zane, M. Emmet Walsh or Angela Bassett, all of whom have offered celebrated performances in their time. And even the actors who didn't go on to become big names are all highly competent; there really isn't a performance in any of these movies that made me want to pull my hair out. Call it an act of providence, but the Critters series is more than solidly cast from beginning to end and that's.. that's just phenomenal, considering the material we're discussing.

Anyhow, Critters 4 had the resources to be a good Critters movie, but it didn't want to be a Critters movie, so it wound up just sort of amounting to nothing. There are good moments sprinkled about the film and I enjoyed the stuff with Charlie and Ug, but most of it is just boring and frustrating.

Overall rating: 4 out of 10.

Angela Bassett and Brad Dourif join Leo DiCaprio in the short list of Oscar-nominated actors to have played second fiddle to the Chiodo Brothers' crap Critter hand-puppets; in this fourth outing for the voracious extraterrestrial fur-balls, Bassett and Dourif play part of the crew of a deep space salvage craft who retrieve a cryogenic pod containing the last two surviving Krite eggs (and Charlie the bounty hunter, once again played by Don Opper). When the pod is opened, the eggs hatch and the aliens go on the rampage.

Krites causing chaos in outer space could have made for a lot of fun, but rather than continue with the camp, B-movie spirit established over the first three Critters films, this effort goes for a much more sober style—something akin to Ridley Scott's Alien (but on a much lower budget).

This approach results in countless scenes of characters wandering down dark corridors littered with ducts and vents from where the toothy creatures might launch an attack, but while this might work wonders when the monsters are truly the stuff of nightmares (like H.R. Giger's genuinely terrifying xenomorph from Alien), the effect isn't anywhere near as effective when the threat is from dumb looking hedgehogs with naff glowing eyes. In the end, Critters 4 is far from scary, never funny, and ultimately very tedious.

During my childhood time I have seen the first three "Critters" movies and enjoyed 'em.They were fun and entertaining horror comedies perfect for adventurous horror loving kids.I have never seen "Critters 4",so I finally decided to check it out.My verdict:forgettable and pretty bad flick with strikingly low body count.The script by Joseph Lyle and David J. Schow is both predictable & clichéd,the plot rips off "Alien" and "Star Wars" and the sets look bland and murky.The tone of the film appears to be deadly serious throughout making it slow and dull."Critters 4" was apparently so low budget that the filmmakers couldn't afford any optical effects;the ones taken from "Android" look seriously dated.4 out of 10.One to avoid.