Sorry, this movie sucks

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The acting in this movie is really good.

After the Nazis have developed a process to turn an innocent boy into a super human entity, the Americans likewise experiment on average American youth Steve Rogers (Matt Salinger), who has polio. Steve develops incredible strength and resilience, is given a costume and shield, and is rechristened Captain America. The Cap fails spectacularly in his first mission, which is vanquishing Red Skull (Scott Paulin), the adult version of that Nazi experiment. He ends up frozen in Arctic ice for 47 years, reemerging in 1990 to do battle with the Red Skull once again.It may be that this initial feature film vehicle for the legendary comic book hero (after two TV movies in the 1970s) will appeal more to casual viewers than longtime fans of the character. As it is, it lacks the spit and polish of major American product, and it will come off as cheesy and tacky to many viewers. Also, the scenario requires Steve to spend more time in civvies than in costume.But this viewer didn't find it completely worthless; it's not without some amusements. Like the sight of the President (Ronny Cox), who'd glimpsed the Cap as a child, engaging in fisticuffs with various bad guys. Paulin is not a truly great villain, but he's a mild hoot anyway, and his minions include some very sexy (if inept) female assassins, including Red Skulls' own daughter (Francesca Neri). The action scenes won't blow the audience away, but they're adequate.The main draw is a remarkably sincere Salinger, who makes for an appealing hero. Kim Gillingham, who gets an "introducing" credit, plays both Caps' lady friend and her daughter, and comes off better as the older lady. A variety of familiar faces - Ned Beatty, Michael Nouri, Darren McGavin, Melinda Dillon, Bill Mumy - are kind of wasted here, although McGavin at least gets a chance to be somewhat funny (it'd be a shame if he didn't).Kids will likely be less judgmental than their adult counterparts, and might have some fun with it.Five out of 10.

During WWII, Steve Rogers (Matt Salinger) volunteers for a government experiment to become the ultimate super solider, Captain America, and finds himself facing the evil Red Skull (Scott Paulin). After stopping a missile launched at the White House, Rogers is frozen in ice for fifty years. When he's thawed out, he discovers the Red Skull is still around and causing trouble, although now part of a conspiracy involving mafia and military industrialist types who want to stop the President because he's an environmentalist. Oh, brother! This is the kind of crap comic book movies used to be, with a few notable exceptions. It's directed by schlockmeister Albert Pyun, probably best remembered today for the Jean-Claude Van Damme "classic" Cyborg. Pyun made a lot of low-budget garbage over the years. You can count on one hand the number of times he made something approaching good. And I'm talking about a hand with several fingers missing. Anyway, Pyun directs this with his usual lack of talent. The cast is poor, led by wooden Matt Salinger (son of author J.D. Salinger) who has the unfortunate duty of trying to act while dressed up in a costume that appears to be made of rubber, complete with padding and fake abs. Scott Paulin plays the Red Skull (an Italian fascist here instead of a German Nazi, for some bizarre reason). He treats the role as camp and plays it up as the joke that it is. His accent is a mix of Super Mario and the Count from Sesame Street. The Red Skull's mask is slightly less embarrassing than Captain America's costume but only because it looks like something left over from a horror movie rather than something true to the source material. He spends a large amount of the movie without the Skull mask because he had plastic surgery to hide who he is. He still looks grotesque and I found it hard to believe he could fool anybody looking like that. The rest of the cast includes familiar faces like Ned Beatty, Ronny Cox, Darren McGavin, and Michael Nouri. McGavin and Nouri both use hammy Texas accents because they're generals and all cornball movie generals sound the sameThis stinks, plain and simple. Several times in the movie Captain America, our big hero, uses the "feets don't fail me now" approach to battle. In other words, he runs away like a scared little girl. The action scenes are unexciting. The script was written by someone recovering from brain surgery. The direction and editing are inept. The music score is forgettably generic. The whole production is laughably cheap. It does have camp value and some appeal as a curiosity for comic book fans who might want to see how far we've come. Just prepare yourself for the awfulness.

I remember watching this movie once when I was a kid, it was on TV and I "watched" while playing. Some days ago I was looking for something to watch on Netflix and found this movie, so I decided to re-watch this. I wasn't expecting much since some years ago I watched a negative review of this movie, but it was actually worse than I thought it would be.The script is weak with the story having a lot of inconsistencies. The villains can travel really fast from one location to another and always know were to go. Captain America's powers seems to be almost nonexistent and he fails a lot in the movie. Also most of the action scenes aren't very good.With that said, this movie is at least watchable. On the positive side the Red Skull make-up is very good and the Captain's uniform is very accurate to the comics.

(38%) Just before the days of mega budget, effect ridden, super blockbuster Marvel comic book movies, the world had this, and compared to the brilliant Batman movie released around the same this is pretty weak. What this rather forgettable movie does show though is how far these movies have come in quite a short period of time. The most notable aspect of this is how old and dated it looks. Its release was delayed and it really shows as this feels more like an early 80's movie than an early 90's one. Matt Salinger as the title role gives a dull performance throughout, particularly for a man that not only was given super powers, but frozen in time for decades, as he may as well be doing his taxes. Couple that with a plot that is very loose around the edges and your left with a movie that can only be enjoyed as a curiosity piece and nothing more.