Way back in 1979 when I was a kid, I watched part of this movie when it was originally broadcast on television. Although I was quite young and didn't have a lot of knowledge of comic books, all the same I confidently said to myself, "This is not Captain America!" Just now I finished rewatching this movie, and having learned a lot more about the comic book character Captain America in the years that have past, I see that this movie is even less faithful to the comic book character than I originally thought as a kid. Despite Stan Lee being listed as a consultant in the closing credits, everything you know about Captain America is thrown out the window and the movie comes with its own origin story. Captain America rides a motorcycle! Captain America has a plastic shield! You have to wonder why the producers of the movie bothered to get the rights to the character if they decided to ignore practically everything established about the character.Well, maybe the movie could still have worked despite betraying the origins of the title character. But it fails in every way you can think of. It looks really cheap, the dialogue is simplistic, the story is lame-brained, and the action (what little there is) is totally drained out of any possible excitement.The only possible reason to see this movie is if you want to see that the 1990 Albert Pyun directed movie adaptation of Captain America is not as terrible as you might think it to be.

Sure, the origin of Captain America is changed a bit for this TV adaptation, but this is a fun little flick all its own.Reb Brown is good and likable as Cap, and seems to have a good time when he has the (revamped) costume on. Other familiar faces are all over this thing, as Cap and his government buddies try to stop the bad guys.Sure, it drags in a few spots, as we get more than one long sequence of Cap riding his very cool super-powered bike, which makes a wild thrusting sound every time he hits the gas and flies through the air. There's a few good stunts with the bike, especially one where Cap rides up a very convenient random ramp to jump his way towards a flying helicopter.It's the 70's, there's funky music, pretty girls, and a decent story. There's no reason why this can't be enjoyed if you don't expect too much, and it is refreshing to see actual real stunts and real action as opposed to CGI everywhere.

Captain America (1979) ** (out of 4) Made-for-TV film has Reb Brown playing ex-Marine Steven Rogers who gets out of the service and plans on taking it easy but instead he learns of an experiment his father was working on. After an attempt on his life, Steve is given this secret serum and soon finds himself becoming Captain America and fighting crime. The Marvel character was previously brought to the big screen in a Republic serial and while I'm not overly familiar with the comic I had heard plenty of negative things about this film. I had heard some call it the worst comic-book adaptation in history while others simply called it one of the worst films of the decade. I don't agree with either of those opinions but I'll admit that this is a pretty silly little movie that has very few "good" things going for it but what makes the film work is the camp level, which is pretty high. There are all sorts of problems with this film and a lot of them can be placed at the feet of the director. For the life of me I couldn't understand why no one could tell how silly this thing was and I really question how several of the scenes are edited together. There are moments where it seems one thing is going on and then out of no where something else will start up without anything in the middle to connect them. It seems like much of the story is happening so fast that little bits and pieces are just missing without any reason. Another problem is that the screenplay contains some of the dumbest dialogue ever. The highlight of the film for me is when Brown is upset that he's been given this serum and he complains to the doctor that he'll have to go through the rest of his life never knowing when it's going to be his turn to die. Umm, everyone goes through life not knowing when it's going to be their turn. Did this guy think he had control of it before taking the serum? A lot of fans hate Brown in the lead but I thought he had the right look for the part but the acting leaves quite a bit to be desired. I thought some of the line delivering was really bad and there were a few moments where it appears like he forgot his line for a split second as there are some strange gaps in between words. The supporting cast really isn't all that memorable but some of the performances add a touch of camp. CAPTAIN America is far from a good movie but at the same time it's not nearly as bad as its reputation would have you believe. I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone except those who like a little silly camp.

To start off with, there's no question that this TV Movie "Pilot" was a failed attempt at Captain America. I give the writers credit for "trying" to make an updated version of the Comic Book Superhero, but frankly, the origin story of this hero doesn't work as an update.If Captain America never existed and this was the first we'd heard of him, it would be a lot more tolerable. But you can't take a legend and then tarnish his history by almost completely rewriting the original origin.That being said, this show owes more to "The Six Million Dollar Man" than it does to Captain America. There are a lot of similarities to that story (as previously mentioned by another reviewer here). Reb Brown, while looking good as the hero, certainly was just too "nice" of a guy to play the part. The hero had no "edge." Squeaky clean doesn't necessarily work for Captain America.Len Birman's Dr. Simon Mills seems to be a combination of both Oscar Goldman and Rudy Wells (both from "The Six Million Dollar Man"). At any rate, I will say that Birman did an excellent job in his part and is the best performance of everyone involved by leaps and bounds. He plays it totally serious and with a conviction that actually made me believe in some of this stuff. He really is a gem in this.My favorite part of both "Captain America" TV movies though has to be the music by Mike Post and Pete Carpenter. They composed a terrific theme that is extremely catchy. It almost seems to foreshadow Post's theme for "L.A. Law," composed almost seven years later.