Captain America

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.

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.

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.

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.

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