"Critters 4" has the best cast out of all the "Critters" films, with the perennially weird Brad Dourif, a pre-stardom Angela Bassett and her awesome-looking arms, and that guy who played the abusive husband-cum-catatonic in "Twin Peaks"! Unfortunately, it is also the worst film in the series. You may well fall asleep before the Critters even appear (it happens at the 35th minute), and even then they are at their stiffest and their appearances remain sporadic. There is one cute idea (the computer that does the opposite of what it's told), and some terrible ones (the worst: turning Ug bad for no reason at all). "Critters 4" bites. * out of 4.

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.

This movie was a joke. Everything about it was a joke. From the awful acting to the stupid annoying characters, this was a joke. Let me give you a brief summary of this movie. Charlie gets sent in a pod, up to a space ship full of morons with the last few Krite eggs. Anyways, that's pretty much all you need to know. Why don't we start off with the space ship crew. Let me introduce you to Rick, a creepy weirdo who later walks in on Fran in the shower. Bernie, a really annoying guy. Albert, a drug addict. (or was that Bernie) And then of course, whiny little Ethan. The only person i liked was Fran. The acting sucked in the third movie, but this was much worse. Nobody here did a good job, and i mean nobody. Anyways, it's really sad to see how Ughs character has changed, now he's just a jerk who tries to kill the whole crew. He makes me want to say Ugh. (ha ha) Welp, hope you enjoyed my rant on critters 4, hope i changed your mind on watching it.

Critters 4 looked like it would be the best of the franchise. The poster showed the critters overlooking a moon or a comet or a planet or something, but it had that "Lost-in-space-no-one-can-help-you" feel and you hope for a movie that is a lot like alien. However the critters are not seen that much and they don't do a lot of eating in this film. In the third film, Charlie was instructed to place the 2 remaining eggs in a pod, which would be launched into orbit. Charlie messes up, and ends up locking himself in the pod along with the eggs. In 2045, 54 years later, a space ship study crew finds the pod and takes it onto their ship. And take it to a space station who supposedly "lost it". Arriving at the station, they find it abandoned, and out of greed and curiosity, the captain opens the pod, releasing the critters and Charlie from their cryogenic nap. The critters then run around the ship, and set a course for earth. The crew try to wait them out, but encounter several problems with the station. Ug and a group of stormtroopers show up and search the ship to destroy the critters. Unfortanately, the critters had more eggs, which, using scientific technology, cause the eggs and the babies to hatch and grow at a speedy rate, and then they breed and do it over again. So now we have a lot more critters, which devour the storm troopers, but are later locked in a room. Ug is now a complete jerk, only wanting to get the last few eggs, going as far as threatening to kill some of the crew. In the end, all of the eggs are destroyed, Ug is killed by Charlie, and the crew escapes from the station on the ship Ug came in. The station is blown up due to a nuclear reactor meltdown, and the critters are all destroyed. This was weak writing, and the series could have continued after this if it had been written better. But the critters are well done, and fun to watch and seeing Angela Bassetts butt compensate for a mediocre film. If you're a fan, it's worth seeing, but just so you know, it's not as good as the others...