1990 was supposed to be a big year for Captain America. To celebrate the super soldier’s 50th anniversary B-movie director Albert Pyun (The Sword and the Socerer, Cyborg) attempted to bring Steve Rogers to the masses with the “big-budget’ feature film aptly titled Captain America. Working from a screenplay by Stephen Tolkin (Legend of the Seeker) the film starred Matt Salinger (J. D. Salinger’s son) as Captain America and Scott Paulin (The Right Stuff) as Red Skull. But Pyun’s film never actually made it into American theaters. Instead the film received a direct-to-video release in 1992 and passed into obscurity soon after. In the wake of Captain America: The First Avenger MGM debuts Captain America officially on DVD for the first time as part of their Limited Edition Collection. Whether or not that’s a good thing is still up for debate.
The film begins in Fascist Italy in 1936 where a young boy is kidnapped and used in an experimental program intended to create super soldiers. One of the scientists, Dr. Vaselli, objects to the use of a small boy against his will and flees to America where she continues her research in a more ethical environment. Seven years later Vaselli is able to create a single soldier, Steve Rogers, before being assassinated by a Nazi spy. The world is now under the threat of the Nazi empire and a diabolical monster known as the Red Skull. The Red Skull is threatening to launch an attack on Washington D.C. and Rodgers, code named Captain America, is sent to stop him. He doesn’t exactly succeed seeing as he ends up strapped to the missile as it rockets towards the White House. At the last moment Rogers is able to redirect the missile and crash lands somewhere in Alaska where he is frozen in a block of ice until he is discovered by researchers1990.
In Captain America’s absence the Red Skull has masterminded the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy and now his sights are set on the U.S.’s current leader, and environmentalist, President Kimball. The plot goes on and on and on and gets more and more ridiculous as it meanders to its absurd ending.
Despite having reportedly cost 10 million dollars, Captain America looks like a made-for-television film from the early ’80s. The script is mind numbing, the special effects are ineffective, the production design is cheap and the performances leave a lot to be desired. Luckily Captain America is terrible to the point of being unintentionally hilarious (unless you’re easily offended by the mistreatment of superheroes) and that might justify picking it up out of pure curiosity. I’m just thankful that it hasn’t been converted to be in 3D.