Les aventures de Captain Zoom

One of my favorite movies! Such great typecasting using Ron Perlman to play an egotistical, sexist male whose cowardly essence get's tested when thrown amidst warring factions. His avoidance to battle, his denial of being the "Chosen One" is all but erased when prophecy lifts it's ugly head in the form of his likeness scrawled upon a cave wall. Using wit and as much courage as could be mustered he stands up against the "Evil forces" and defeats them. I am looking forward to getting a copy on either VHS or DVD. When will it be released? Anyone rating this movie poorly has little or no sense of humor and should stay with watching war documentaries!!!! An over all fun experience!!!!!! that kept me laughing throughout!!

Well, I should have suspected it, but this turns out to be a smug and totally inept spoof of "Captain Video and His Video Rangers", television's first space drama which ran on the Du Mont Television Network from 1949 to 1955. In fact, "Captain Zoom" is set on the Du Mont network in 1955. The premise is that aliens are receiving "Captain Zoom" program transmissions and believe that the Captain really does exist as some sort of super Earth hero, so they abduct the actor who portrays him, for their own purposes. The way this film handles that concept is adolescent and almost totally unfunny. A shame, because it could have been pulled off, had they tried less hard to keep reminding us that they were joking about a long-gone TV series. Precious few remember much about the original "Captain Video" series anyway, as only a few episodes survive. You'll do better to spend the time viewing the remaining CV originals, especially the later ones which were done on a fraction of the budget of this bomb but always played fair with its audience. Anyway, "The Adventures of Captain Zoom in Outer Space", which was planned to be a series, faded after this one-shot pilot film. And that's merciful.

The second I heard the plot to the movie GALAXY QUEST, this TV movie jumped into my mind. It uses the same premise: A hero from a cheesy science fiction TV show is recruited by the inhabitants of a distant planet when they see the episodes and think that the good Captain is an actual space hero. The "Captain", however, proves to be all TOO human as he uses his celebrity to have sex with some of the beautiful babes on the planet. However, taking into consideration how long it supposedly takes for a TV signal to go from Earth to the far reaches of the universe, these aliens picked up the signal rather quickly. Maybe they're even more advanced than imagined. For the most part, CAPTAIN ZOOM is moderately funny. I could see how it would work as a movie but not as the subsequent (and short-lived) TV series that it spawned.

A fifties sci-fi TV series star suddenly finds himself in space, with people who believe he's a real hero. That's about as much plot as you need to apply to "Captain Zoom." It pays homage to the old serials and movies, with the characters buzzing around in spaceships with tail fins and red tail lights, and Ron Perlman doing a take off on "Ming the Merciless." Geared for the kids, but adults can enjoy it too, just check your brain in at the door.

I'd rate watching this similarly to watching "Stay Tuned" or "Mom and Dad Save the World", not ground shaking, but a nice, fun, family friendly comedy!

The film starts out with your typical 30s era TV star, a la Buck Rodgers, on screen, dashing and heroic, off screen, egotistical and pampered. On a different distant planet the watch the exploits of Captain Zoom, as if it were reality TV (much like Galaxy Quest). Their world is tormented by an oppressive ruler, their only salvation, building a device to bring Captain Zoom to their planet to save the day! Comedy ensues...

I hope it gets to DVD soon so I can grab it!