The Weekly Planet - The Fantastic Four 1994 Extended - Caravan Of Garbage

Episode Date: March 26, 2020

The first genuine shot at a live action Fantastic Four movie didn't come in 2005 but with Roger Corman's The Fantastic Four 1994. After completion and without the knowledge of the director, actors and composers the whole project was buried, never to see the light of day. Until it was leaked in the early 2000's. Anyways it's bad but not all bad? This is our Caravan Of Garbage review.Help support the show and decide on episodes at Patreon ► https:// patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesSUBSCRIBE HERE ►► http://goo.gl/pQ39jNVideo Edition ► https://youtu.be/Dvdxzy0zrJAJames' Twitter ► http://twitter.com/mrsundaymoviesMaso's Twitter ► http://twitter.com/wikipediabrownTWP Itunes ► https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-weekly-planet/id718158767?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4TWP Direct Download ► https://play.acast.com/s/theweeklyplanetTWP YouTube Channel ► https://goo.gl/1ZQFGHPatreon ► https://patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesAmazon Affiliate Link ► https://amzn.to/2nc12P4T-Shirts/Merch ► https://www.teepublic.com/stores/mr-sunday-movies#FantasticFour #Marvel #MCU Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

FX's The Veil explores the surprising and fraught relationship between two women who play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from Istanbul to Paris and London. One woman has a secret. The other, a mission to reveal it before thousands of lives are lost. FX's The Veil, starring Elizabeth Moss, is now streaming on Disney+. Will you rise with the sun to help change mental health care forever? Join the Sunrise Challenge to raise funds for CAMH, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, to support life-saving progress in mental health care.

From May 27th to 31st, people across Canada will rise together and show those living with mental illness and addiction that they're not alone. Help CAMH build a future where no one is left behind. So, who will you rise for? Register today at sunrisechallenge.ca. That's sunrisechallenge.ca.

This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates. It may feel like a mistake that we're touching on this movie, Mason. But the people demanded it, right? People demanded it. We threw up a poll on Patreon. We said, hey, what do you want to see? What would you like us to do?

We were hoping for something good, but we're doing this, aren't we? Yeah, and we said, please don't make us suffer. But, you know, you can't say that in this day and age because people will make you do that. That's exactly right. So we're watching Fantastic Four from 94. That's right. You remember watching it in the theatres?

Remember having a grand time in the theatres with Fantastic Four 94? No, 94. That's right. You remember watching it in the theatres? Remember having a grand time in the theatres with Fantastic Four 94? No, wrong. That's right. It wasn't released ever, right? It wasn't released, but this has been released. So because of that, you should give it a like for one. Also, we're running polls on Patreon all the time if you do want to check it out. We would love that.

Yeah, so what do you know of the history of this movie? To the best of my understanding, which is limited, the rights to it were picked up from Stan Lee for a very small amount of money by a production company and then they shopped it around but nobody was willing to pay the amount of money it would take to make a good Fantastic Four film. So they went to schlock movie producer Roger Corman

who was willing to make a bad film for significantly less money. But also the most money that they'd ever spent on one of their films before. Huh. Yeah. And doesn't it show it? It looks incredible. It looks slightly worse than like a TV show of the same era.

You know? I want to get to why that is. Okay. The budget was about $1 million to $2 million. But I think you can't talk about this movie without talking about the documentary from 2015 called Doomed! The Untold Story of Roger Corman's Fantastic Four.

And I'm so glad I watched this documentary after I watched the movie because I had so many questions and nearly all of them were answered in this documentary. I'm like, why does this look like shit? Oh, what's this? Oh, I recommend that. It was mostly about bad stuff and bad sets, right? Yeah, pretty much.

Bad costumes. Well, it's not only that. It's the story of how it was all covered up, who actually made away like a bandit at the end of it all right because this for reasons which i assume we'll get to at some point was never released to cinemas no and was never intended to but the thing is as well the people working on it on the production side of things they must have been well clued into that right well no because they would have put in way less effort and i know it looks like less effort, but watching this documentary, there is heart and effort and a real kind of team bonding experience with the actors and those

involved to make it something. Would you say that everybody involved really kind of tried their best? Yes. Well, let's make fun of them then. Let's do that for 10 minutes. The thing about this as well, before it was leaked, and I should point out the version that has been leaked is not an official version. It's not the film version. That version is still missing, possibly destroyed. This is like a VHS copy.

So if you've got the footage from the original trailer, which was released to Comic-Cons and various things at the time, it looks much better. It's still very low budget, but it doesn't look like it's filmed on your dad's camcorder you know which is what it looks like marvel though before it was leaked they kind of denied this existed they were like no no there's no there's never been a fantastic four movie what are you talking about until it was released the thing is though the thing the thing that's right i think it's fantastic no mr think it's... Fantastic. No. Mr. Fantastic.

It's bad. Oh, like a storm. I think it's more accurate. It might be the most accurate on-screen representation. Yeah. It just looks like shit. Right. The costumes are right, but they don't look good.

The thing, it's a fair effort. Apparently, the most amount of money was spent on that suit. The lips look good. Yeah. Well, that was... It's a different actor for the guy who plays Ben Grimm and then the thing, because he actually gets smaller, and if you notice that

the thing is significantly smaller. Ah, the Doctor Doom costume looks pretty good. I agree. But just poorly made. Just poorly made. Looks like a terrycloth bathrobe over his head. I think it's more accurate though than the one in the 2005 version. It is, yeah. Yeah, which we will get to. Yeah, and I mean that like plot-wise,

it's quite similar to some very early issues of the Fantastic Four. Yes. But the problem there is a lot of the time translating an old comic book to the screen directly, it's a bad idea. Yeah, absolutely it is. Also, I don't know if you've seen Michael Bailey Smith, who's probably the most well-known actor from this because he went on to be in Charmed and do a bunch of other stuff.

Now he just looks like the thing, like in real life. There you go. He just looks like regular thing Ben Grimm. He could do it. You could put him back in that role now and it would work. Yeah. He was also in Goodfellas. He was the guy who had his head in a vice.

He's like, don't squeeze me in this vice, Joe Pesci. And Joe Pesci's like, I'm going to squeeze you. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. Anyway, this movie's weird, isn't it? Which part? The part where Ben Grimm knocks over a blind woman statue and then lifts her off the ground and she's like, what are you doing?

And he physically picks up the person. He's like, it's okay. I'm here to help you while I lift you up and you have no idea what's happening. Yeah, that's weird. It's weird that the two main characters fall in love, not with each other, with women or girls girls like in the first five minutes yes uh i mean you know some would say there's nothing weird about a man living in like a house with some children that are not related to him and one of them's in love with him yes i would say it is weird she's 12 and he's 38 maybe

all right but i guess she is eventually 20 or whatever the passage of time is in this movie. Yeah, uh-huh. It's still strange. So Reed Richards lives with the Storm children. Yes. Right? As a man. As a man, as a grown man. It's never really explained why.

Has he fallen on hard financial times? We don't know. I don't really know. I was confused until I saw the documentary of why is there a leprechaun stealing a diamond for a lot of this movie? What's with that? It's the jeweler. The jeweler. I looked it up.

I'm like, who's the jeweler? He isn't anyone. I know. And it had a wiki and I went there and it's like, only appearance. Fantastic Four 1994, never released. Yeah, so he's more confusing, I think. Look, right from the top, why is he called the jeweler?

I mean, he's wearing a jeweler's loop on his eye. Yes. But he's just, he's the mole man. Exactly. He's the mole man and he lives in the sewers no no other element about him suggests him being a jeweler beyond that he wants to steal a big diamond which is i guess what jewelers do yeah that's what jewelers do they want to steal big diamonds they have plenty of diamonds but their lust for diamonds can never be satiated so they want to steal more diamonds exactly but the reason why he's not the mole man that's who they wanted to use.

But Marvel were very much, you have the rights to these specific characters. You've got Fantastic Four, you've got Doctor Doom, you've got some other bits and pieces. You don't have the Mole Man, you can't use him. Okay. So that's why they were not on board for this at all. Right. Yeah, the entire time.

The other thing, did you notice that a lot of Doom's lines were muffled? Yeah, I've written that. I wrote that down as a note because rather than recording his dialogue by a voiceover ADR or anything like that, he's just talking through a muffly mask. Yeah, it's like Darth Vader before, I don't know if you've heard that, before they dub him with James Earl Jones. It's absolute nonsense.

Sometimes you can hear it and other times it's just... He's also, he loves loves a little joke this version of doom he's like welcome to latveria take your take your family for a vacation ha ha ha ha my favorite part is where after all his minions attack the fantastic four and he comes back in and he's like let's see what's happening here oh they're gone they've defeated all my minions and they've left yes but the actor who played dr doom the idea was that they were going to come back and re-record the dialogue and he was like please give me another shot of this you cannot leave it in this current state i'll do it i'll come in and i'll do it but they barred the doors they wouldn't let him back

in they were like no it's a roger corman production you'll get muffled dialogue or nothing there was no after they filmed it there was no money for post-production. That's why all the special effects look terrible. There were special effects? The bit where Johnny Storm

goes full flame on and he's racing a laser and then he gets hit by the laser and he's just spinning around. Spinning around. Flip it over. It looks atrocious

but that's why. But you notice though there's also a lot of choices behind the acting intentional things. You know how Doom is very emot's also a lot of choices behind the acting, intentional things. You know how Doom is very emotive with his hands? They based it off Mussolini. They were like, do what Mussolini did. So that's why it is the way it is.

And that's why all the trains run on time in that movie. Nobody is caught out by a late train in the movie Fantastic Four, 94. I didn't even notice that. So what actually happened- You never notice smooth running public transport. That's true. That's so true. Isn't it though?

Yeah. So a trailer was made. Oh, yes. The cast and crew were touring different comic events. Okay. In 1993. And presumably in costume. Some of it, yeah.

Like they bought the thing's head. Yeah, right. But the thing is as well, they were doing this promotion for free. So they were like, well, this is going to be a big break for us we believe in this film we believe what we've done we haven't seen the final product as of yet but we're hyped for this and we want this to go places so the actor who played ben grimm michael smith he ended up paying 12 grand in total for him and other people to fly to different events yeah right and they paid for their own publicists all of that stuff yeah until they got a cease and desist on promotion from who james so this is the point where they found out that this movie was always got to be in the bid yes

right obviously no one on the creative side knew that but fox basically wanted to work on a bigger budget version with chris columbus who was very interested. In discovering America. He was, yeah, he wanted, well, discovery, it's a loose standard. Isn't it though? Yeah, sorry about that. But it was suspected that Bernard Eichner, who was in charge of this production, took a big check from Fox on the proviso that they never released this film. Big novelty check.

Exactly. And you can't hide that from people, can you? That's right. You've taken a bribe because it's a big check. The work print was then taken People involved in it Tried to recover it They went to the storage facility

Where they thought it was They were like We're going to bust it out Oh yeah It wasn't there It should be a movie based on that That's right And Roger Corman got a

One million dollar cheque For shelving it So basically His butt? Just the Maybe You'd have to speak to him Right Those film cans are pretty big I don't know if that's worth A million dollars I don't know mate Just the... Maybe. You'd have to speak to him.

Those film cans are pretty big. I don't know if that's worth a million dollars. I don't know, mate. When you're hard up for cash, you do what you gotta do. That's true. I mean, and also that's seriously though, the million dollars he got is about the same as it cost to make the movie. So that's a great deal for him.

Absolutely it is. Because that money, believe it or not, as some people sometimes think it should work this way in economics, it's supposed to trickle down, isn't it? Yeah, that's right. But no, that didn't happen at all. A lot of the higher ups took really big checks to kill this. Wow. But it's suspected, and I didn't realize this, this is from the documentary, Avi Arad did this. So you might know him from producing a lot of the Fox X-Men stuff, the Spider-Man films.

from producing a lot of the Fox X-Men stuff, the Spider-Man films. He was in charge of a lot of the MCU for a time being until Kevin Feige kind of sidestepped him and he's responsible for ruining Spider-Man. A lot of good stuff, but then ruining Spider-Man. Yeah, right. Yeah, I heard, this may even be on the Wikipedia page, I heard that he personally purchased

some of the prints of the movie and burned them. Yes. Like personally burned them in his backyard in an oil dryer. That is the rumor. Because what he wanted to do, he was in charge of the X-Men on TV at the time, which was around the same time as this, a very popular show. So he wanted to do that for films.

And so to transition, he didn't want this brand to be tarnished before the films even got off the ground. So at the same time, what he did ended up resulting in better Marvel properties in the long run. And better Fantastic Four properties. Just kidding. They're all about the same. Yes.

But I think this movie wouldn't have necessarily hurt the Marvel brand from coming out. I think it probably wouldn't have been as remembered if it hadn't have been this kind of folklore behind it and build up. So I should point out a lot of guys involved in this did get work off the back of this none of them are destitute living in the streets yes a lot of the people involved went on to do other things some of the people involved in the production who took money actually offered up other projects for people in this which was which was really nice but then of course in the early 2000s bootlegs of this started appearing did you ever did you seen this before no i've never seen it before now. Yeah. And I love it, just to be clear.

Some stuff that I love about this movie, let's see, so Reed and Doom, they're best friends in college and then Doom is mysteriously, he's killed in an accident when he performs

an illegal science experiment for reasons that are not, are never clearly explained. He's electrocuted for three to four minutes. That's exactly right. And then years later,

Reed Richards meets a mysterious masked man named Doom. Who is it? And it takes him 15 minutes of screen time because I timed it for him to figure out that it's actually his friend, Victor Von Doom. This guy Doom that knows everything about him

and knows all his skills and weaknesses. It's his old friend, Victor Von Doom. And he only figures it out because Johnny Storm's like, hey man, the only other person who knows all your science stuff is your old friend, Victor Von Doom. He's like, what? Doom?

And so, but it's also, it's 15 minutes of screen time, but it's actually in the run of the movie. It could be days. I think it's days. I'm pretty sure it's days. And Johnny Storm of all people figures it out. That's exactly right. Unbelievable.

Another good thing about this. Yes. There was an orchestra rented, a 40-piece orchestra, the composers David and Eric Wurst. They paid for it themselves, $6,000. And I think the soundtrack of this is quite good. That comes through, I think. Yes.

But that is a result of not the production company. No, that's true, yeah. That's people going out of their way to, you know, wanting this to be a big break and wanting to make it the best version that they could. So six grand for nothing, essentially. James, what else did you love about this movie? I mean, they're using their powers, aren't they?

They sure are. They sure are. Sue does maybe one force field. She does, inexplicably, and it's never referred to ever again. Okay, so I think the producers of this movie kind of confused invisibility with intangibility. Because there's any number of times when like two thugs are running at her from opposite directions she turns invisible and then they collide with each other and then it turns out that she turned invisible and and ducked

but i mean yeah you could have just ducked you could have just ducked well they fired it they fired guns at each other and shot each other. And she ducked. Just duck. Would have worked. I could have done that. You could have, yeah. What do you think of Reed's stretching powers? I mean, bad, obviously. Yeah, bad.

But I think there's like a fun kind of hokiness to it. Yes. I love the bit at the end where he's got a big, waggly arm at the top of the car. Oh, when they get married at the end. Just waving away. When every member of the Fantastic Four gets married at the end. They all get married. They don't all get married, but they're all there for the wedding,

except Sue is the only one who changed her clothes. Everybody else is just in their Fantastic Four uniform, so that's fine. Get up. Terrific. What's with the thing, if you're nice to him and he's in love, he turns back or something? Not really explained, honestly, no. That's okay, though, isn't it?

He definitely gets bigger, though, doesn't he? Yes. When he's a man. Okay, so here's a thing that I enjoyed very much in this movie. It's just a little scene. But obviously, pre-Superpowers, the Fantastic Four fly up into space and the accident takes place. They careen back down to Earth.

First thing that I really enjoyed is that when they crash down to Earth, they all wake up separately. They get up and find each other. And at no point are they concerned that Sue Storm is alive or dead. No, Johnny's like, yeah yeah we're all alive all of us all three of us we're all heroes and they're like we are all heroes it's great stuff and then then sue shows up and they're like oh that's right the fourth person was with us this time around second thing that i love about the crash is that they land in latveria yes they don't they're not

aware of this but america thinks they've died, and so they order someone. I don't know. The city orders a statue of them to be built in their honour as rogue scientists who went up to space to perform an illegal experiment. So that's great. The task of making that statue is down to Alicia Masters, who's a blind sculptor, and what arrives at her workshop is a bunch of busts of their heads,

but they're bald. So is she going to put wigs on these statues? Is that how statues work? Who made the busts? I don't know, but apparently they were cast out of their helmets. That's what the guy delivering them says. Oh, they were cast out of their helmets. So how did you do their faces?

None of this is how sculptures work. Well, they made the statue, didn't they? I guess they did. You're not in the art community. You don't know. Do you consider this the art community? Because you shouldn't. No, absolutely not.

What I also love about that crash is they explode in space and fall from space, and then they land in Latveria all about 20 feet from each other. That's fine. Don't even worry about it. Pretty cool, right? Yeah. But again, it happened, didn't it? I can't deny that it didn't happen because it did.

Got some alternate casting here though before we wrap things up. Mark Ruffalo auditioned for the role of Doctor Doom. My goodness. Yeah, and Patrick Warburton for Ben Grimm. There's some famous names thrown into the mix and I have to mention this because if we don't we'll get the comments, but Arrested Development.

Arrested Development. Fantastic four. Arrested Development. Fantastic four plot. Put it in there. Arrested Development. We remember. We saw it. We saw it and we know it. Yeah, we know it.

That was a segment of the show called, we mentioned that thing that you might want us to talk about. Because we saw it and we know it. Yes, that's right. So there it is. But, of course, off the back of this, things are a bit different in the world right now, aren't they? Yes.

I mean, it depends on when people are listening to it. Yeah, that's right. So we had a bunch of Caravan of Garbage stuff planned, including things for Black Widow and Milan and some upcoming movies. That's all shelved for the moment, Mason. Oh, yes. Yes. The regular way.

On a shelf. Well, that depends on how you define the regular way, doesn't it? That's true. So we're going to be doing the Fantastic Four movies. Yes. All four Fantastic Four movies. So come back next week. So we're going to be doing the Fantastic Four movies. Yes. All four Fantastic Four movies. So come back next week. Now, that's what I call a Fantastic Four.

Set of movies? Yep. Great. Oh, wait, they're not fantastic, though, are they? No, not really. That's what I'd call an average four. Yeah. A bad four.

A bad four. Why are we doing this? We're re-watching. Maybe there's some life in these. Well, I've watched two already, and let me tell you, they're not. We're on zero for two, let me tell you, ahead of time. All right, so we'll be back next week for that. Also, of course, we have a podcast called The Weekly Planet

where we talk movies and comics and TV shows. You might be going a bit stir-crazy in the house. I know we are, so just listen to us. I'm doing fine. Dr. Doom's got an incredible laugh in this movie. Doesn't he just? Yeah. So good.

He's one of the best. So yeah, that comes out. He wants to destroy New York with a big laser. That's what they do. Right? Notice also the laser goes up in the air and then it goes somehow diagonally back down. Well, yeah, and it's slower than the speed of light. I noticed that, certainly.

Does he just want to destroy the university that flunked him out? I think so. Because he died? Because he died. Which he didn want to destroy the university that flunked him out? I think so. Because he died? Because he died. Which he didn't. He did it himself also. He was like, I need to stay at this computer console. Oh, the other thing is, the people involved in this would like the original print to be discovered

so it would get leaked online and people could fix the special effects. Oh, yeah. You know, with somebody with a laptop at home, they'd be able to make something of this. Yeah. Just on a bloody dime, yeah. You know, with somebody with a laptop at home, they'd be able to make something of this. Yeah. Just on a bloody dime, mate. In fact, whoever's editing this has done an incredible job souping up all the special effects. Well done, Ben.

Good on you, Ben. Thanks for putting in the extra time, for free, I might add, to make this really something. You've really gone above and beyond the call of duty for free. All right, we'll see you guys next week. Grabbed our jam, you guys. We'll see you later. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. free all right we'll see you guys next week grab that jimmy guys we'll see you later this podcast

is part of the planet broadcasting network visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates i mean if you want it's up to you fx is the veil explores the surprising and fraught relationship between two women who play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from Istanbul to Paris and London. One woman has a secret. The other, a mission to reveal it before thousands of lives are lost. FX's The Veil, starring Elizabeth Moss, is now streaming on Disney+.