Captain America

Hats off to the creators of the 1970's Captain America movies, to get two feature length films out in one year is highly impressive.

This time Cap must take on a villian who intends to hold America to ransom or he'll unleash a virus that causes enhanced ageing in it's victims.

Once again alike the first film this is as cheesy as it gets and has a feel about it that it would have worked better as a television series rather than movies.

The whole thing is very silly and hard to take seriously at all but this is still an improvement on the first film. The story is sound, it's just the execution that is lacking.

I feel they swung above their weight and took on a project that was not only too big for them but too ahead of it's time.

Better than the first but still pretty damn bad.

The Good:

Christopher Lee

The fact it was churned out within less than a year from the previous film

The Bad:

Can't take that suit seriously

Very "A-Team" vibe

I get the impression animals weren't taken good care of on set

Damn cheesy

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Captain America's two main powers seem to be fight avoidance and fleeing

A common american 70's station wagon can outrun a superheroes "Super" bike

We never did get to see Captain Americas painting

A fun television movie. Captain America must uncover a plot by the malevolent terrorist Miguel, who plans to rapidly age the entire city of Portland, OR. Although the Captain's costume needs a bit of help (the helmet is pretty goofy), and the romantic lead is annoying, there's some good super feats and super gadgets evenly distributed throughout the movie. Get some friends who don't mind some comic book camp, and you'll enjoy it.

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.)

This 'made for TV movie' was also the 2nd pilot film for a proposed Capt. America TV series, being made at the time that Marvel Comics and CBS TV had a hit in the form of the Bill Bixby 'Incredible Hulk' show.

The creators of the 2 Cap pilots messed around with the Cap legend so as to make the concept work on TV and so as to avoid having to bring in the whole super-team of Avengers who fished Cap out of the arctic ice flow in 1964. All those extra heroes would have been expensive and would have required a lot of back-story.

The new back story created for these 2 movies is not horrible and could have worked. The supporting characters are pretty good…they would have been counter-point to the Hulk, who had no supporting cast. It's good if a hero has other characters to talk to.

Reb Brown, as the eponymous hero, is not horrible but neither is he good. He is suitably muscular, but as a thespian, he makes Lee Majors look like Lawrence Olivier.

There is some fun superhero action in the form of fights and motorcycle stunts. The cycle is clearly a guest-star in this show…but for some odd reason, however, the only way Steve Rogers can put on his Cap suit is to go into his van, change clothes, hop on his cycle, and burst out the back doors of the van in a big puff of smoke. I imagine the creators figured this was a good gimmick, similar to the bat-poles in Batman, but in an ongoing series it would have been pretty darn silly and awkward. Suppose Cap wants to do something that doesn't involve him riding his cycle? Silly.

Speaking of silly, the final showdown is marred by poorly worked shield-slinging FX. The producers really should have hired a good fight choreographer.

The villain is played by Christopher Lee, heaven knows why he took this role, but he does add to the enjoyment.

In defense of this film, I should point out that our Capt. is portrayed as a straightforward, principled guy, not some whiny self-pitying narcissist douche like a lot of the modern superheroes. And generally, this film does not overextend itself…it does not try to blow our minds on the most wild cosmic fight scene ever…that is to say, it stays within its means.

This is modest, somewhat better than average 1970's cheese.

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.