Captain America â90
Richard Donnerâs Superman movies and Tim Burtonâs Batman (despite being almost 10 years apart) helped usher in what is now the modern age of glossy, non stop, big budget comic book action movies. The irony remains that these early, big budget in their own right productions were both from well known characters in the so called DC Comics Universe, because as we all know now, it wouldnât be until many years later that The Marvel Universe as we know it would start seeing movies getting made from their characters left and right. Why so long? Some have speculated that Superman and Batman are (and remain) the pinnacle of any comic book creations ever and that The Marvel characters are rather small time in comparison while others will state that the Marvel characters in and of themselves are just not all that interesting to begin with (indeed, it took the casting of Tobey Maguire as Spiderman and Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man to finally bring the long desired respectability to those movies) while Supermanâs universal brand name appeal and Batmanâs dark natured war on criminals was actually a lot more marketable than anything which Marvel had to offer. In the middle of all this was the original cinematic fate of one Captain America, considered by many to be the number 1 Marvel superhero and somebody on a decidedly equal plane of popularity to both Superman and Batman. Created through a government chemical experiment conducted during World War II in an attempt to create a serum for a supersoldier, Steve Rogers (as fate would have it) would turn out to be both the prototype and also the only one who would ever undergo the process, thus turning him into a singular hero sent out to fight the bad guys tooth and nail. With the success of Burtonâs Batman, the long in development Cap movie would go into production and finally be released in 1990, albeit straight to video as horrendous test screenings and the inability to get it properly distributed would signal its death knell at the box office. Ironically as a movie itself, itâs actually better than the bumbling, overwrought first âofficialâ Cap movie many years later (âThe First Avengerâ) which promptly went overboard with its bloated backstory and sloppy writing. At least here, thereâs no bones about this being a B movie given the names behind it: the infamous 80s schlock producer Menahem Golan (formerly of Cannon Films) with Stan Lee being credited if nothing else as an Executive Producer and the directorâs chair being taken by the equally infamous Albert Pyun, a guy whose cinematic output became the darling of video store shelves and cable TV broadcasts everywhere but wasnât exactly the stuff of movie theater multiplexes most of the time. The film also boasted what amounts to being a B movie version of an all star cast including Ronny Cox as a blue jeans wearing, good guy President (and who would later say that he thought that the script for the film was the best he had ever read before expressing dismay at how it had actually turned out), Ned Beatty (who was probably cast here because of his connection to the Superman films while playing a best friend to the Cox character with whom he had costarred in Deliverance), Michael (Flashdance) Nouri as a top military man supporting the Captain America project, Billy (Will Robinson) Mumy as another piece of military brass and most strangely of all, both of Ralphieâs parents from Christmas Story (Darren McGavin and Melinda Dillon) are on hand here but not as husband and wife as McGavin plays a rather untrustworthy general and Dillon has a mere cameo as the mother of Steve Rogers. But the biggest risk comes with the casting of the three leads in Cap himself, The Red Skull and Capâs main love interest / girlfriend, all of whom are mostly unknowns (to this day). First off as Cap, we get Matt Salinger (son of Catcher In The Rye author JD Salinger and best known as the third highest ranking member of The Alpha Betas in Revenge Of The Nerds behind Stan and Ogre) who commendably not only plays the younger, weaker Rogers as being a guy with polio, but conveys it successfully through his acting instead of playing it with a horrid looking CGI created skinny wimp physique like Chris Evans did. Now admittedly Salinger is hampered by spending a good portion of his screentime in the movie NOT wearing the iconic Captain America costume (something which a LOT of fans commented on) but it works storywise since a big part of the proceedings requires Rogers to have to go incognito in order to avoid a flurry of assassins sent by The Red Skull. As for The Red Skull himself (long considered the equivalent to either The Joker or Lex Luthor when it comes to Capâs Rogues Gallery), we get Scott Paulin (who?), an extremely little known character actor who nonetheless is covered in the makeup and a thick, fake Italian accent and just gives us a convincing version of the character anyway (while getting ready to launch a missile on The White House and Franklin Roosevelt in 1943, he leeringly asks Cap, âDonât you think that I would make a good President?â) even as the shadow of Hugo Weaving playing the part later on in The First Avenger would be a long one indeed. The biggest surprise is in the casting of Capâs love interest in The 1940s as we get the COMPLETELY unknown Kim Gillingham whom despite her almost total lack of experience at that point is actually not only asked to play TWO roles in the film (both Capâs love interest in The 1940s and her blonde valley girl daughter in The 1990s) but is also given extensive old age makeup in order to play one of those characters having aged 50 years. But at least in blonde valley girl mode (not to mention a loyal sidekick to Cap) sheâs definitely sexy and appealing to say the least which brings up a very positive point about the whole film: It turns out that The Red Skull in this incarnation actually has an evil daughter (Francesca Neri who resembles a young Famke Jansson) who not only is the head of her fatherâs personal hit squad, but also has several hot girls accompanying her on their missions, seemingly upping the hotness factor in the film to some serious levels. However, the film also suffers from some seriously unforgivable technical errors, namely some VERY sloppy editing during a number of key scenes plus we also get to watch Ronny Coxâs President turn into a drooling, overgrown kid when he finally gets to meet Cap (apparently the two of them had crossed paths in The 1940s when The President was just a boy before Cap had gotten frozen for 50 years) all while very presidentally punching out armed bad guys working for The Skull. With the gimmick that Coxâs President and Beattyâs reporter were lifelong childhood friends, that also gives us the chance to watch Beattyâs own actual underage son trying to impersonate his dad while playing his character as a kid. Worse of all, reportedly the producers cut out upwards of 20 minutes worth of footage from Pyunâs original cut, stuff that was said to be vital to the character development of the story (including scenes that were mentioned or referenced in the final film but not shown), thus not allowing for the proper amount of exposition to be shown. The main theme running through all of this is that The Skull (who really was the first to be subjected to genetic experiments like Cap was later on), for all of his vast knowledge and power (including direct references to him having orchestrated the assassinations of The Kennedys and Martin Luther King only to be disgusted at having turned them into martyrs), is really just a tragic, misbegotten creature who never got to choose what he eventually became (The Nazis had forcefully taken him from his home due to his reputedly high intelligence level and killed his family) while Cap was a polio stricken young man who DID get to choose to be a guinea pig in order to overcome his handicap and serve his country in doing so, successfully drawing the contrast between hero and villain which makes the final showdown with them somewhat compelling (if badly edited). Moreso, the compromised artistic success of this film on a lower budget proves that either Cap was ready for prime time sooner than expected but got put on the low budget late show instead or that the so called Marvel Universe possibly wasnât made for the portentious, giant productions that itâs gotten and is really better suited for the lower end, kiddle film treatment like this one gotâŚ
7/10