When Capt. America Throws His Mighty Shield...

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER-2011-Marvel' s famous WW 2 hero is finally given the big budget Hollywood treatment.

Steve Rogers (Chris Evans from THE LOSERS) is a patriotic wimpy guy who tries several times to join the army but always comes up 4-F. His best friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) makes it easily and goes off to war. Eventually a German doctor (Stanley Tucci) picks Rogers to be the US army's test subject in their "Super Soldier" experiment. Hugh Weaving is fine as Johan Schmidt aka The Red Skull who with his Nazi based group Hydra plans to destroy the world. He's assisted by Dr. Armin Zola (Toby Jones from HARRY POTTER AND THE DEADLY GALLOWS) looking a lot like Truman Capote.

Tommy Lee Jones is the skeptical Colonel Phillips and Hayley Atwill (the recent THE PRISONER remake) is the out of place English female officer Peggy Carter. Dominic Cooper is Howard Stark. Cap also gets help from the un-named Howlin' Commandos (Timothy McDonough as Dum Dum, Derek Luke as Gabe Jones, Kenneth Choi, JJ Feild and Bruno Ricci).

Of course it's a great action film and Evans is good in the lead role especially in his handling of the pre-super soldier Rogers. The weird twist ending features Samuel Jackson as Nick Fury. Co-executive producer Stan Lee has a cameo. Great closing credits!

Strange that this well done adaptation was made by director Joe Johnson (HONEY I SHRUNK THE KIDS, JUMANJI) after the overly gory THE WOLFMAN. Whoa! I can't wait for THE AVENGERS!

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TV Cap and A Bank Robbery In Korea

CAPTAIN AMERICA-(1979)-Ok, yeah, there were two TV movies made based on the Marvel Comic Book character Captain America. All around movie dud Reb Brown played the super soldier in both. I couldn't care less about either of them really. In the '80's Albert Pyun made a very bad big screen version for Cannon. In fact, I don't think it ever even played in the theaters. As I remember it I think Cannon went bankrupt and eventually it went straight to video. The weirdest part for me about that version is that Cap is played by Matt Salinger, the son of "Catcher In The Rye" author J.D. Salinger!

But anyway, what was I saying?

Oh yeah, CAPTAIN AMERICA 2 made for TV in 1979 is pretty forgettable except for the fact the bad guy is played by none other than Christopher Lee himself! Lee is an international terrorist named Miguel holding a scientist (Christopher Cary from TV's GARRISON'S GUERILLAS) hostage in a US penitentary. He wants the formula for an aging compund so he can blackmail America! Brown is pretty boring as the cowled patriotic super dude but he does have a boomerang shield, rocket powered cycle and wings on his head. Actually the whole freakin' story is boring! Much of it concerns Cap's relationship with a widow and her son in a small town Miguel is going to use as a test run......

TV stalwarts like Connie Sellecca, Len Birman and Ken Swofford help out. Well, they try to help out Cap, not the movie itself....I think Natalie Wood's sister Lana is also in this. I can't remember...(can you blame me?)

The first adaptation of Cap on film however occured in 1944 when Dick Purcell played the shield swinging super dude in a serial produced by Republic. Oh and CAPTAIN AMERICA 2 was directed by Ivan Nagy who made lots of other TV movies and the horror flick SKINNER.

Marvel Comics film studio has promised a new version in 2010!

Read an old Captain America comic by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby instead unless you are a Chris Lee completist.

And '79 was a busy year for him! He was in the Spielberg bomb 1941, CIRCLE OF IRON with David Carradine, THE PASSAGE with Anthony Quinn & Malcolm McDowell and ARABIAN ADVENTURE. He's slowed down a little in recent years.....



JAKARTA-2000-Clever bank heist movie from Korea that starts off with a rather unlikely plot that three groups of thieves rob the same bank on the same day. Strange things happen, people are killed and everything’s a bit confusing. But that’s only the first half. The second half is a flashback that explains what led up to the triple robbery and all is not as it seems. Very well done with some dark humor and good performances.

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