Excellent but underrated film

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

A recipient of an experimental body enhancement chemical retaliates against his would be killers as a star spangled superhero. Even if you're someone that loves Captain America A.k.a Steve Rogers nothing can prepare you for the ultimate junk that Captain America (1979) is, if you thought that Captain America (1990) with Ronny Cox was bad? Well think again. In this god-awful 70's film Steve Rogers gets injected with super strength and jumps like a kangaroo, rides a bike and for some reason even wears a giant helmet that makes him look like a goofball, this film doesn't understand what made The Incredible Hulk tv show great and even tries to take itself serious. (0/10)

As a long-time comics fan I recall this little, inoffensive, unchallenging Reb Brown late-70s pilot-shot of the star-spangled superhero.Any TV-flick where the hero is menaced by a thug bearing a silenced **revolver** can't be taken seriously, especially in a Rocky-inspired knock-off meat-locker scene where the side of beef strikes back. (And I don't mean, the actor Brown.) Come to think of it, the sides of beef almost out-act Brown, who otherwise comes across as a likable-enough person.When I was a teen, before my own military career, I missed such absurdities as a Marine quoting from a statue's inscription at West Point, instead of Annapolis, although the idea of a civilian helicopter cavalierly invading the air-space over a military classified-weapons testing installation had me guffawing 37 years ago as did the idea that a two-week separated Marine could grow that full a head of hair that Steve Rogers sported at the beginning of the film.For continuity sake, in the Marvel comics at the time, Steve Rogers was traveling around the country as an artist.For fans of banality, this is one of the 70s best examples: a nearly actionless action feature in a time of America's cultural nadir when the likes of "BJ and the Bear" with its upshifting rigs reflected the sort of faux excitement trickled out to mind-numbed viewers.A C- for California Comics Casual, with an A for aesthetics for both Heather Menzies for the guys and, I suppose, Reb Brown for the ladies.

I watched this out of pure curiosity, after seeing Spoony's rant about it.Now, I'm not going to hold the age, the bad acting, the low budget or the ridiculous costume against the movie. Those are the least of the problems. What I do have a problem with, is that it's way too slow. Don't get me wrong, normally I don't mind slow paced movies, it all depends on the genre, really, but when it's supposed to be a superhero movie, that won't work. Too much talk, scenes about nothing, and very, VERY little action. Not to mention that it takes way over an hour before we finally see Captain America in full costume. Today it wouldn't be a problem, since superhero movies of today are about 2,5 hours long, but when it's only roughly 15 minutes left, you feel ripped off.It's not the worst movie I've seen in general, and as a crime/drama movie it's slightly entertaining, but as a superhero movie, it fails miserably.

I basically went into this movie thinking, "Ooof. This is going to be really bad." I felt that way mainly because of the motorcycle helmet Captain America wears, although the rest of the suit seems pretty faithful.It looks like this movie did what the Hulk series did: Change the story of the comic to fit the parameters of a television budget. And for the most part, it did this very well.It's hinted that the Captain America from the comics is basically the father of the star of this film. Although this sounds like a very cheesy and very bad idea, the actors and the dialogue convey this point in a believable and credible fashion. So this is definitely one of the film's strong points.The story involves the death of a friend and the detonation of an atomic bomb, but those are more like entertaining plot devices since I found the story to be mostly an origin story, showing how Steve Rogers is slowly led to his destiny to become Captain America. The film wisely focuses on this and the interaction of the actors, and this is where the film's strength lies.Reb Brown is a good Captain America, but for me, I found it a pleasure to watch Len Birman as Simon Mills, the government official who assists Captain America. To my knowledge, this Simon Mills character does not exist in the comics, (though I can't be sure since I never really read the Capt. America comics), but I really enjoyed watching Len Birman's sincere performance. He was the most interesting character in the movie, and he could be the reason I enjoyed the film so much.The first 15 minutes of the movie are kinda laughable. You might find yourself wondering why you're watching this, but I think it will reward the patient (and forgiving) viewer. You'll have to wait for a few minutes before the movie settles into its own.It's not as good as the Hulk pilot, but it's in the same mold. Or if you've seen the live-action Spiderman TV series, you get more of an idea of what to expect.Worth a look for comic fans.