I wasn't expecting much from this attempt by "Universal" in making a feature length pilot of the superhero "Captain America." My initial doubts have been more than justified! Where do I begin? Who ever thought that the leading man could actually act must have been on another planet. Reb Brown is the worst or one of the worst so- called performers in the entertainment industry. All he is, is just some dumb beefcake who couldn't project any depth or emotion to save his life. Alarmingly poor. The rest of the cast I won't mention. The plot really drags along and it made little sense. It shouldn't have taken so long for Steve Rogers to don the familiar "Captain America" costume but this doesn't occur until about 65 minutes into the television film for goodness sake! Even then, the costume looks completely wrong and bears little resemblance to the one designed for the comic book. There is no reference to the Second World War because that was when Captain America's origin story began. Why wasn't the villain the Red Skull not included in this television film? He is synonymous with Captain America, just like Batman and the Joker, Spiderman and the Green Goblin etc. The action scenes are very lame and instantly forgettable.

With a cool motorcycle, blue uniform, and the boomerang shield made of see-through plastic, Captain America reigns: more of a bionic Evel Knievel than the traipsing comic book icon.But first he's Steve Rogers, a budding artist fresh out of the Marines, cruising the coast (in a 1970's van) for good old fashion leisure, but the bad guys want him dead and the good guys want him… super.Reb Brown's a big guy to begin with, so the transformation is nothing like the original, which morphs a skinny wimp into a muscular stud. And Brown's performance is surprisingly monotone given energetic turns in BIG Wednesday, UNCOMMON VALOR and CAGE.But he looks the part, and this TV movie builds up the plot… about a Militant's threat to detonate a neutron bomb… and takes forty five minutes for our hero to assume his identity and kick into gear.Yet the best scenes involve Cap riding that motorcycle around, dodging bullets and beating up thugs. It's that simple... So don't expect anything more and you'll do fine.For More Reviews: www.cultfilmfreaks.com

At the time, Universal had success with the "Incredible Hulk" starring the late Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno as "The Hulk" (the latter had both cameos on the 21st century versions by Ang Lee and Louis Leterrier...), and seeing that another studio produced "Spiderman" on TV, they wanted to try a modern version of Captain America.As I remember, while the version presented showed Cap riding his bike, wearing an helmet instead of the cowl mask and a transparent shield, I was rather deceived as I thought that they would revived a "Six Million Dollar Man" clone instead of a superhero series.The story had only limited action, but only at the middle and the end of the TV movie. The rest was overly long, focusing on why Steve Rogers had to follow up this strange agent all along the story.I don't blame Reb Brown here, he did what he could. For just 2 TV movies.At least this version was OK over the 1991 version, but not compared to 2011 version which caught the essence of Cap.

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.