Product Description

Jessica Alba, Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis head a sexy, star-powered cast in this explosive adventure about a quartet of flawed, ordinary human beings who suddenly find themselves with extraordinary abilities.After exposure to cosmic radiation, fou

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2644 in DVD
• Brand: TCFHE
• Released on: 2006-11-14
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Subtitled
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 106 minutes

Amazon.com
Marvel Comics' first family of superherodom, the Fantastic Four, hits the big screen in a light-hearted and funny adventure. It begins when down-on-his-luck genius Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd, Horatio Hornblower) has to enlist the financial and intellectual help from former schoolmate and rival Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon, Nip/Tuck) in order to pursue outer-space research into human DNA. Also on the trip are Reed's best friend, Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis, The Shield); his former lover, Sue Storm (Jessica Alba, Dark Angel, Sin City), who's now Doom's employee and love interest; and her hotshot-pilot brother, Johnny Storm (Chris Evans, Cellular). Things don't go as planned, of course, and the quartet becomes blessed--or is it cursed?--with superhuman powers: flexibility, brute strength, invisibility and projecting force fields, and bursting into flame. Meanwhile, Doom himself is undergoing a transformation.

Among the many entries in the comic-book-movie frenzy, Fantastic Four is refreshing because it doesn't take itself too seriously. Characterization isn't too deep, and the action is a bit sparse until the final reel (like most "first" superhero movies, it has to go through the "how did we get these powers and what we will do with them" churn). But it's a good-looking cast, and original comic-book cocreator Stan Lee makes his most significant Marvel-movie cameo yet, in a speaking role as the FF's steadfast postal carrier, Willie Lumpkin. Newcomers to superhero movies might find the idea of a family with flexibility, strength, invisibility, and force fields a retread of The Incredibles, but Pixar's animated film was very much a tribute to the FF and other heroes of the last 40 years. The irony is that while Fantastic Four is an enjoyable B-grade movie, it's the tribute, The Incredibles, that turned out to be a film for the ages. --David Horiuchi

The Fantastic Four at Amazon.com

Comics and Graphic Novels	Disney animated series	The classic comic book
Movie tie-in graphic novel	The Xbox game	Fantastic Four Soundtrack

The Fantastic Cast

Jessica Alba as Sue Storm	Michael Chiklis as The Thing
Ioan Gruffudd as Reed Richards	Chris Evans as Johnny Storm

Stills from Fantastic Four (click for larger images)

From The New Yorker
If you prefer your cataclysms free of terrorist overtones and your superheroes unburdened by Freudian subtext-sometimes a comic book is just a comic book, after all-you could do worse than this flick. Four scientists and their corporate sponsor (guess who's the bad guy) are conducting experiments on a space station when they're hit by an unexpectedly powerful blast of solar radiation, altering their DNA and giving them freakish powers that cleverly reflect their personalities. Playing the characters created by the Marvel Comics master Stan Lee, the actors Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, and Michael Chiklis inhabit their dual identities gracefully; they're superheroes without being superstars. It may not have the emotional sweep of "Superman" or "Spider-Man," but "Fantastic Four" glides along free of the dark, pretentious weight of some recent superhero films. The director, Tim Story ("Barbershop"), tells his tale with clarity and wit. It's a simple popcorn movie-not fantastic, but fun.-Ken Marks -Ken Marks
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker