Captain America II: Death Too Soon (1979)

the audience applauded

Strong and Moving!

Fresh and Exciting

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Captain America (well played by the supremely amiable Reb Brown) faces off against wicked terrorist Miguel (the always great Christopher Lee in fine villainous form) and must thwart Miguel's nefarious plot to use a serum that causes people to age rapidly on the city of Portland. Competently directed by Ivan Nagy, with an absorbing script by Wilton Schiller and Patricia Payne, this movie rates as an improvement on the fun, but rather slow fist one: It's got a snappier pace, a more eventful plot, and, most importantly, a whole lot more and better staged action set pieces (Captain America breaking into Miguel's prison fortress and chasing after Miguel on his hang glider motorcycle at the exciting climax rate as the definite stirring highlights). The sturdy acting from a bang-up cast is another real plus, with especially stand-out work by Len Birman as the passionate Dr. Simon Wells, Connice Selleca as the smart and attractive Dr. Wendy Day, Lana Wood as evil hench wench Yolanda, Katharine Justice as spunky single mom Helen Moore, and William Lucking as brutish flunky Stader. Vicent A. Martinelli's slick cinematography boasts several cool helicopter shots as well as a few neat fades and dissolves. The spirited score by Mike Post and Pete Carpenter does the rousing trick. A worthy follow-up.

Just watched this, the second Captain America TV movie from the late '70s starring Reb Brown, on YouTube. Since Cap has more of a presence here that ups the entertaining quotient quite a bit as does the appearance of Christopher Lee as a villain named General Miguel. He wants to hurry-up an aging process on some people in exchange for some money from the U.S. government. There's actually quite some good scenes of a lamb seen already dead from the formula and seeing Lee get his comeuppance at the end was also effective. But the fights are as cheesy as in the last entry and that not-big-enough shield of Cap's is soooo slow to work as an effective boomerang weapon. My favorite campy moment was when he was at that prison trying to escape when he decides to throw his motorcycle up in the air (with the appropriate slo-mo film speed and deliberately weird sound effects) to the sidewalk way up above and makes a perfect landing with it and then jumps way up high for the same effect. That was obviously an inspiration from "The Six Million Dollar Man" which like this film was from Universal. Before I end this review, I have to note that the female scientist played by Heather Menzies in the previous movie is now played by Connie Sellecca-years before she was cast in "The Greatest American Hero"-but unlike there, this doctor doesn't seem to have a relationship with Cap or his alter ego, Steve Rogers. So on that note, Captain America II: Death Too Soon is worth a look.

Oh, boy; Captain America vs. Dracula! Sort of. Yes, America's Super Soldier returns, and this time, he has a decent villain. This is by far the best of the two TV movies; and, in my opinion, the best of all of the Cap cinematic efforts (including the serial and "theatrical" film). Christopher Lee rescues this film from complete boredom and makes it entertaining.This time around, Cap has the right costume (or as close as they could get); unfortunately, it demonstrates how bad spandex costumes look on screen, even on well-built actors. The helmet was a bit much (you would think he would take it off when not riding his bike, but, nooooo!). The abilities are still more Bionic than Super Soldier Formula, but OK.Connie Sellecca joins the cast, preparing her for her role in the future Greatest American Hero; and Len Birman is back to provide exposition and counteract insomnia.We get some decent stunts this time, especially the motorcycle jump off of the dam. The story makes a bit more sense, as far as these things go.My biggest gripe is the shield effect. When thrown, it rotates slowly and wobbles. They could have at least sped up the film to make it look like good! As it is, it appears that all you have to do is take a step to the side and wait for it to pass you by, ten minutes later.Still, all in all, this was pretty entertaining. Don't expect X-Men or Batman, but it's good on a rainy day.(Edit-This was written before Captain America: The First Avenger, and CA: The Winter Soldier, so Death Too Soon now ranks as third best. Until the next good Cap film. You get the picture.)

OK! Well, this is so bad its funny. First off, this film has nothing to do with the Captain America we all know and love in the comics. Some background from the first movie that I watched but am not going to review: Steve Rogers is a former motorcross racer, now free lance artist and is the son of the original Captain America....(may be the one in the comics). He was in a wreck and was injected with "FLAG" serum by the goverment....Riiiiiiight. Steve rides around in a big blue van...when trouble arises, the back doors of the van open, smoke poors out, and the Captain shoots out on his red, white, and blue motor cylce. He wears a helmet over his traditional mask and his shield is small...very small. Everything on the original design on the shield that was white is now clear. It is a super flimsy piece of work too. it bends and folds whenever he uses it, especially in a seen where he is pushing pack a pack of wild dogs. The story sucks here too. Instead of the Red Skull or Baron Zemo we get the villian from The Man With The Golden Gun. His name is Miguel and he is holding the country hostage. He is spreading an aging formula over cities and he will only provide an antidote for lots of money. Though we get to see a pretty fair amount of Cap in costume, he spends that time riding his motorcyle. I guess the director thought ten minutes of Cap riding his bike to be entertaining...whatever. The fighting seens are also kinda lame. Cap would rather throw a thug into a mud puddle than punch him. Also, every time he uses his enhanced strength or makes a big jump, we hear this supper annoying whistle sound and we hear it a lot. I will say this about the actor playing Cap, Reb Brown, is very big and very built,however, he sounds like a hick when he talks. This movie came out in the late 70s when Marvel comics and this big spread of superheroes on TV. The Hulk, Spiderman, Dr. Strange, and Cap were all planned TV shows. The Hulk and Spiderman both made it past the pilots but only the Hulk would last more than a season. The last try at making a Cap into a movie was in 1990. The movie was supposed to go to theaters but was held back and put on video in 1992. I personally find it to be a much better movie...you be the judge.