Captain America

I will not hear a word spoken against this fine movie. It's great for watching when getting together with your sarcastic friends. You know the ones I mean. The kind that rent a schlock horror movie simply so they can make fun of it.

The production values may lag, the acting may make you wince, and the origin of Captain America is shattered into a million zillion pieces.There is, however,one thing that makes it the greatest Captain America movie of all time: The Captain America movie from 1991! That one makes this one look like Citizen Kane. Plus, this one has a motorcycle!

Yes folks, if terrorists ever force you to choose one Captain America to watch at gunpoint, make it this one.

You have to wonder why the producers of this T movie bothered to make it at all, since it has almost nothing to do with the Captain America of the comics. This Captain America is apparently the son of the original Cap, and is given the super-solider treatment after being seriously injured by bad guys looking for secret documents involving his old man. As if this plot isn't bad enough, the new Cap wears a loose variation on the real Cap's uniform, including a motorcycle helmet in place of the winged hood. He also carries a tiny, see-though plastic shield that looks like it wouldn't hold up in a storm, never mind stop bullets. Cap ride around on a motorcycle, righting wrongs and catching up with a bunch of bad guys. Hunky Reb Brown is an OK Cap, but the movie is a dog. A followup effort from 1990 with Matt Sallinger is only slightly better, but that Cap spends most of the flick in street clothes, and comes across as a poor man's James Bond as he pursues the Red Skull. Except this Red Skull is not the Red Skull of the comics. Yeesh.

Oh, boy where to begin? Ok, Marvel Comics, until recently, seemed to be cursed with horrible adaptations of their characters. The lone stand-out was the Hulk, but it was more Fugitive than "Hulk Smash!". Following its success, though, we got this movie. Poor Cap, he should have stayed frozen!

The movie suffers badly from budget, with effects that were bargain basement even then; and a script that sounded like Snoopy wrote it on top of the dog house. Reb Brown looked good physically, but he was about as wooden as an oak. Still, he was better than Matt Salinger. Steve Forrest had starred in SWAT, not long before this; but watching him here, you wish he had taken a bullet in that series.

The motorcycle was cool (at least when I was 13, in 1979) and the shield/windshield was at least creative. The costume, oh man, the costume! According to Mark Gruenwald, the late editor of Cap and other Marvel Comics, the production changed the costume and Marvel had to beg them to change it back. The final scenes in the film show Cap in a close approximation of the original costume. The funny part was, the commercial breaks would display line art of Cap in his traditional costume.

Cap was given abilities closer to Steve Austin (the Bionic Man, not Stone Cold) than Steve Rogers, but it worked OK; there just weren't any spectacular stunts to make it interesting.

Ultimately, the film proved successful enough for a sequel, but not well enough for a series. Still, I'll take it over the Matt Salinger film any day! (An Italian Red Skull? Uggh!)

Marvel films are some of the most popular films being released today. But interestingly enough, this was not the first time that Marvel films were being made and being put on to the big or small screen. The 70's saw the first rise of Marvel films being made for television. Throughout the decade we saw The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, and even Captain America, subject of todays review. 1979 saw the release of not one, but TWO Captain America TV Movies. The TV Movies were no doubt meant to follow what The Incredible Hulk did earlier by releasing two TV Movie pilots, which in the Incredible Hulk's case spawned a television series. As we all know, this did not work out for Captain America. The first film was directed by Rod Holcomb (ER, Lost, and Numb3rs). The film stars football player Reb Brown (Yor: The Hunter From The Future, CHiPS, Space Mutiny) as the titular character and Len Birman (Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, and Days of Our Lives).

Steve Rogers has just gotten out of the Marines and becomes all tangled in a conspiracy involving a neutron bomb. Learning that his father was a crime fighter, he also learns that his father has developed a super serum known as FLAG. Scientists believe that the serum would only work in Steve, but he declines. Steve gets into an accident and is saved by the serum and now he is Captain America and he must stop the conspiracy that he has been all tangled up in.

You know, I knew that this was not going to be great. But I figured, oh it will be cheesy and cheesy can be entertaining, right? Well, 1979's Captain America is not cheesy and it is not a whole lot of fun to watch. If you have seen any of my reviews for superhero related media, you may know that I am not an avid comic book reader. But I am smart enough to realize that this film takes way too many creative liberties. Captain America in the comics was a soldier who is given powers in WWII and fights Nazis and is then frozen in an iceberg and is reawakened in the present day. Well, in here, we some random dude who does not really appear to want to be a superhero, become a superhero and fight bad guys who work at an oil company. Lameeeeeeeee. Now granted, I can assume that the idea was to do something a little more ambitious (something close to the source material) but it was the 1970's and if you had a TV movie, you had next to nothing in terms of budget which in this film, is very evident. We have a big brute of a former football player in the role of Captain America and well, as you would possibly suspect, he is not very good in the role. Sure, he has the physicality of a crime fighter/superhero, but acting is most certainly not something Reb Brown is proficient in. Not only does the actor playing Captain America suck, but so does Captain America. Viewers will have to wait for over an hour or so to see Steve Rogers don the costume and even then there are two maybe three scenes total that he wears it. Plus, the costume is somewhat lame but that was the 70's for you. Either you hated it or loved it. The character of Steve Rogers is fairly whiny and lacks any likeability. He does not even want to be a superhero and muses about how is going to live the rest of his life like this. YOU ARE A SUPERHUMAN!!!! Another problem with this film is how boring it can truly get. I am convinced that this film was short of it's running time and so they threw in filler scenes. Scenes where it would be long drawn out bits of silence. Whether it be a helicopter flying or Steve Rogers driving around in his cool looking van. It is those scenes that just make this film drag onnnnnnn. And this is supposed to be a superhero film. A type of film that should be fast paced at least. The special effects are bad, but literally the least of anyone's problems here. What good that does come out of this film is the film's musical score which I actually liked. It is pure 70's funky type music and it adds a little bit of charm (which is pretty much all of it's charm).

Captain America is a poor TV film. I think I could look past the whole "not being faithful to the source material" bit but if you do that, you find this film to have more and more problems. And the sad thing is, is that there is a sequel. I wonder how that will work out for me.

Stan Lee, shame on you! This is the true origin of the Cap!

Reb Brown..I've previously judged you solely by Space Mutiny, but I began to see the light of realization that he's done other movies providing amusement and entertainment. Unfortunately, Captain America comes up short in that department, but the whole 70s made for TV look gives it charm in a B grade good kind of way.

On the plus side, Reb plays Steve Rogers as a laid back, good hearted guy from Cali. Add hilarity points for the very haphazard process for how Steve becomes his alter ego. Sheesh, the guy is an artist who loves to drive up and down the coast. Look at the can of worms you've opened up you baddies! The first half involves Steve reasoning (a lot) with Simon and dealing with a bizarre twist of events. The second half includes semi-action scenes including the testing of Cap's new toys and finally taking a stand against these bullies who've been giving Steve trouble from the get go.

Ignoring the fact that this was a pilot for a canceled series, and if it's not taken too seriously, this is an enjoyable romp where sides of beef and oil slicks have never been deadlier. Come to think of it, if Reb wasn't in this one, then you really would have yourself a real stinker. Thankfully, there's a second helping of Captain America goodness in 'Death Too Soon'.