Capitán América

Oh, boy; Captain America vs. Dracula! Sort of. Yes, America's Super Soldier returns, and this time, he has a decent villain. This is by far the best of the two TV movies; and, in my opinion, the best of all of the Cap cinematic efforts (including the serial and "theatrical" film). Christopher Lee rescues this film from complete boredom and makes it entertaining.

This time around, Cap has the right costume (or as close as they could get); unfortunately, it demonstrates how bad spandex costumes look on screen, even on well-built actors. The helmet was a bit much (you would think he would take it off when not riding his bike, but, nooooo!). The abilities are still more Bionic than Super Soldier Formula, but OK.

Connie Sellecca joins the cast, preparing her for her role in the future Greatest American Hero; and Len Birman is back to provide exposition and counteract insomnia.

We get some decent stunts this time, especially the motorcycle jump off of the dam. The story makes a bit more sense, as far as these things go.

My biggest gripe is the shield effect. When thrown, it rotates slowly and wobbles. They could have at least sped up the film to make it look like good! As it is, it appears that all you have to do is take a step to the side and wait for it to pass you by, ten minutes later.

Still, all in all, this was pretty entertaining. Don't expect X-Men or Batman, but it's good on a rainy day.

(Edit-This was written before Captain America: The First Avenger, and CA: The Winter Soldier, so Death Too Soon now ranks as third best. Until the next good Cap film. You get the picture.)

I managed to catch Captain America II on Sci-Fi a few years back and I couldn't help but feel that at some point during its making, the producers threw in the towel as far as trying to make the movie true to the original work, make sense, and be believable (even on a comic book level). I didn't see the entire film, but the final 40 minutes or so are wonderfully horrible and worth seeing, especially if you're feeling down on yourself and need to see other people failing more miserably than you. Because I didn't see the whole thing, I'll only go through and point out some of my favorite parts instead of reviewing the whole mess. There's no fair way to assess this piece of junk other than to say I couldn't make a better movie (unless I was given at least 45 minutes).

Somehow the 'plot' of the movie leads our hero to Christopher Lee's evil compound where he's holding the girl hostage, or has some death chemicals, or some secret something. Whatever. Steve Rogers needs to get in and he waits across the street in his van (which is like the van the A-Team uses, not a moving van, which would be more convenient for hauling a big motorcycle) for the better part of the day, timing the opening and closing of the gates with a wrist-watch chronograph. I guess digital watches were new-ish then and kind of a big deal, so they make sure we see that his is super-high-tech because it counts up from zero. Notice how he starts and stops the watch. He uses such fiercely exaggerated movements, you'd think he was fighting the spasms caused by the 'Rage' virus in 28 DAYS LATER. I can't remember how much time the doors typically stay open, but they must cycle long enough for Rogers to do the following:

--See the doors begin to open --Get out from behind the wheel to the back of the van --Completely change into his Capt. America costume while maneuvering around the motorcycle stored inside. --Starting the motorcycle and getting it revved up to the level that it creates enough exhaust smoke so as to look cool when he bursts through the rear doors (How did he reach the handle from the seat of the bike and still be able to exit IMMEDIATELY after the doors are open?) --Speed across the street --Avoid the cars exiting the compound --Make it through the gates with plenty of time to spare (or so it seems in slow motion)

Once inside the compound, which is comprised of about 10-20 different buildings, Capt. America races DIRECTLY to the building with the hostage/potion/secret/whatever. He's so confident he's in the right building, he rides the bike INSIDE and goes right to the office he needs to reach. Luck guess, Cap'n.

At some point, he and the bike get separated and he must descend a flight of stairs outside a building. Instead of bounding down the stairs at full speed to avoid the most inaccurate sniper fire from above, Capt. America comes to an almost dead stop so he can awkwardly slide down the metal railing all Tommy Tune-like. Personally, I think it's silly, but I'm not a superhero so I don't know the best, most heroic ways to cover 10-15 feet of stairs.

He gets back to his bike and gets lost in the compound. While he went directly where he wanted to go earlier, his exit strategy is lacking. He rides around and around and around before stopping dead (again) at an exterior wall. He has no escape. He's trapped. Or is he? Cap performs one of the most creative ways of getting around the nuisance of a 15 foot block wall by doing what anyone would do in that situation-THROWING the motorcycle up to the walkway at the top of the wall. Sure it's a riced-out J-bike, but it's still gotta be heavy. Conveniently, the bike lands on both tires and the kickstand equally. Then, before you can catch your breath from such a stupefying event (even for a made-for-network-TV movie), he leaps up and jumps to the bike, or at least the railing for the walkway, in one of the worst examples of a cut-away/visible wire stunt/reversed film sequence in post-Triassic Period history (Why didn't he jump over the railing directly to the bike? Right, because he had to jump off the railing backwards.).

Once on the walkway, he's gotta make an exit because Christopher Lee is escaping. Cap rides full speed to the end of the wall and before going over he hits a button that transforms his bike into a (possibly powered – I can't remember) hang glider that he flies directly to Lee's hideout in the woods. It makes one wonder why he wasted half his day timing the front gates when he could have either thrown his bike over the wall, or, more easily, flown the bike in. Whatever.

There's a final confrontation between Cap and Lee in which Lee shoots at Cap, but the bullets are blocked by Caps trash can lid shield. Cap uses the shield to take Lee out, but instead of throwing it right at him, Cap throws the shield like a boomerang way, way, way, WAY up and around Lee. He wasn't even close. Lee's probably still got some bullets at this point, but rather than use them to gun down Capt. America, he takes the time to watch the shield (obviously on a wire being guided by a boom pole since it teeters like a quarter slowing down after spinning upright) slowly circle around until it makes contact and kills him. Someone touched on this in another review and correctly pointed out that the scenario could have been different if Lee had simply ducked, or had taken a step to one side or the other. Better luck next time, Mr. Lee.

There's some kind of resolution after that, but it's generally a happy ending and typically lame. If you ever get the chance to see it for yourself, be prepared to feel the urge to kick in your TV screen at least once in every scene because of the flaws/cheapness/bastardization of the original material/general lameness of the whole production. However, if you like really bad, stupid movies, this is golden garbage for you.

One additional note: I don't read many comics, but I would imagine Captain America deserves more than being portrayed the way he is in not only the two TV movies, but the 1992 debacle, as well. While the '92 movie was supposed to be a major release, it has moronic scenes like the one with the Red Skull tying Cap to a missile fired from Europe to Washington D.C.. Cap rides the thing all the way across the Atlantic and waits until The White House is in sight (what?) before he decides to kick his heels against the tail ailerons of the missile, thus deflecting it and sending it toward the Pacific Northwest. Fortunately, the rocket still has enough fuel left over to go a few thousand miles more to Alaska or some such area that can be inexpensively represented by shooting in Canada once Cap wakes up 50 years later, completely fine and not brain dead, kinda like a short-term John Lone in ICEMAN. Rubbish.

It might be a slight improvement over it's predecessor, but it is nowhere close to being a good movie. The plot is always being explained to the viewer through a ton of exposition, the action is boring and the characters are incredibly one-dimensional, resulting in an adaptation that is a waste of good source material, a waste of Christopher Lee's talent and a waste of time in general.

OK! Well, this is so bad its funny. First off, this film has nothing to do with the Captain America we all know and love in the comics. Some background from the first movie that I watched but am not going to review: Steve Rogers is a former motorcross racer, now free lance artist and is the son of the original Captain America....(may be the one in the comics). He was in a wreck and was injected with "FLAG" serum by the goverment....Riiiiiiight. Steve rides around in a big blue van...when trouble arises, the back doors of the van open, smoke poors out, and the Captain shoots out on his red, white, and blue motor cylce. He wears a helmet over his traditional mask and his shield is small...very small. Everything on the original design on the shield that was white is now clear. It is a super flimsy piece of work too. it bends and folds whenever he uses it, especially in a seen where he is pushing pack a pack of wild dogs. The story sucks here too. Instead of the Red Skull or Baron Zemo we get the villian from The Man With The Golden Gun. His name is Miguel and he is holding the country hostage. He is spreading an aging formula over cities and he will only provide an antidote for lots of money. Though we get to see a pretty fair amount of Cap in costume, he spends that time riding his motorcyle. I guess the director thought ten minutes of Cap riding his bike to be entertaining...whatever. The fighting seens are also kinda lame. Cap would rather throw a thug into a mud puddle than punch him. Also, every time he uses his enhanced strength or makes a big jump, we hear this supper annoying whistle sound and we hear it a lot. I will say this about the actor playing Cap, Reb Brown, is very big and very built,however, he sounds like a hick when he talks. This movie came out in the late 70s when Marvel comics and this big spread of superheroes on TV. The Hulk, Spiderman, Dr. Strange, and Cap were all planned TV shows. The Hulk and Spiderman both made it past the pilots but only the Hulk would last more than a season. The last try at making a Cap into a movie was in 1990. The movie was supposed to go to theaters but was held back and put on video in 1992. I personally find it to be a much better movie...you be the judge.

Right, well I was not overly a fan of the 1979 movie "Captain America", and thus was in no particular rush to get to sit down and watch the sequel movie "Captain America II: Death Too Soon". But I would eventually get around to watch it, as I never had seen the movie before.

The storyline in the movie was actually pretty straightforward, I will say that much. So writers Wilton Schiller and Patricia Payne actually fared well enough.

I was surprised to see Christopher Lee in a movie such as this. Aside from Christopher Lee, then I was only familiar with Stanley Kamel on the entire cast list. The acting in the movie was actually fair, in all honesty.

The fight scenes in the movie are more comical than action-packed, and it just oozes with a 'made for a young audience' feel.

Captain America's costume is still every bit as hilarious to look at in this sequel, as it was in the first movie. I am especially fond of the motorcycle helmet.

Well, at least if you liked the first movie, then you will definitely also like this sequel, as they are equally campy and goofy.

Nothing particularly outstanding here, though slightly more enjoyable than the first movie. But definitely not a movie that I will be returning to watch a second time.

My rating of director Ivan Nagy's 1979 movie "Captain America II: Death Too Soon" lands on a four out of ten stars.