Captain America II: Death Too Soon

Captain America II (1979)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

This sequel has Captain America/Steve Rogers (Reb Brown) going up against a bunch of thugs who pick on old women as well as a mad man (Christopher Lee) who has created a way to speed up the aging process and he plans to use this to wipe out cities unless he is paid. It's funny but the first film is considered one of the worst superhero movies ever made but I liked it's campy and silly charm. This sequel is considered by many to be the better of the two films but I actually thought there were a few too many problems to fully enjoy it. I think the biggest problem is the screenplay, which offers us up a rather neat idea but never really ever gets done with it. We keep hearing about this deadly chemical yet we never get to see it in full action and by doing this the viewer gets to know that it's not going to happen so there's never any real drama or tension that something bad is going to happen. Another problem is the dialogue, which once again is pretty laughable at times and what makes it worse here is that much of it takes itself so serious that you can't help but roll her eyes. Even though this film is shorter than the first I found it rather hard going at times because some of the pacing was just way too slow and there are many sequences that really go no where and contain very little entertainment. There are a few good things here and one is the performance of Lee. No matter what you think of the man, and I think little of him, he at least gives it his all even when appearing in something such as this. I thought he delivered another fine performance and really sold himself in the part. Brown doesn't turn in a "good" performance but I thought he was quite a bit better here than in the first movie. I also enjoyed most of the action scenes and the added bang given to Captain America when he exits his van was a plus as was the final fight between he and Lee. With that said, CAPTAIN America II still has way too many weak spots to be a complete success. It's worth noting that both Brown and Lee would appear in HOWLING II: YOUR SISTER'S A WEREWOLF.