User reviews

Hats off to the creators of the 1970's Captain America movies, to get two feature length films out in one year is highly impressive.

This time Cap must take on a villian who intends to hold America to ransom or he'll unleash a virus that causes enhanced ageing in it's victims.

Once again alike the first film this is as cheesy as it gets and has a feel about it that it would have worked better as a television series rather than movies.

The whole thing is very silly and hard to take seriously at all but this is still an improvement on the first film. The story is sound, it's just the execution that is lacking.

I feel they swung above their weight and took on a project that was not only too big for them but too ahead of it's time.

Better than the first but still pretty damn bad.

The Good:

Christopher Lee

The fact it was churned out within less than a year from the previous film

The Bad:

Can't take that suit seriously

Very "A-Team" vibe

I get the impression animals weren't taken good care of on set

Damn cheesy

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Captain America's two main powers seem to be fight avoidance and fleeing

A common american 70's station wagon can outrun a superheroes "Super" bike

We never did get to see Captain Americas painting

Right, well I was not overly a fan of the 1979 movie "Captain America", and thus was in no particular rush to get to sit down and watch the sequel movie "Captain America II: Death Too Soon". But I would eventually get around to watch it, as I never had seen the movie before.

The storyline in the movie was actually pretty straightforward, I will say that much. So writers Wilton Schiller and Patricia Payne actually fared well enough.

I was surprised to see Christopher Lee in a movie such as this. Aside from Christopher Lee, then I was only familiar with Stanley Kamel on the entire cast list. The acting in the movie was actually fair, in all honesty.

The fight scenes in the movie are more comical than action-packed, and it just oozes with a 'made for a young audience' feel.

Captain America's costume is still every bit as hilarious to look at in this sequel, as it was in the first movie. I am especially fond of the motorcycle helmet.

Well, at least if you liked the first movie, then you will definitely also like this sequel, as they are equally campy and goofy.

Nothing particularly outstanding here, though slightly more enjoyable than the first movie. But definitely not a movie that I will be returning to watch a second time.

My rating of director Ivan Nagy's 1979 movie "Captain America II: Death Too Soon" lands on a four out of ten stars.

This is an awful movie, much worse than its prequel "Captain America" from the same year, 1979. The action scenes are ridiculous, the soundtrack is horrible (perhaps the worst I have ever listened, together with Captain Battle's) and acting is as bad as in the previous Captain America TV film.

Besides that, the words "terrorism" and "revolution" are used as synonyms, and the hero attacks workers in the harbor because there is a chance that they are the ones who deal with illegal commodities (but off course it was possible that they were innocent!).

Everything is bad in "Captain America II: Death Too Soon", in spite (or not) of Christopher Lee (yes! he did not act badly) as the villain.

Oh, boy; Captain America vs. Dracula! Sort of. Yes, America's Super Soldier returns, and this time, he has a decent villain. This is by far the best of the two TV movies; and, in my opinion, the best of all of the Cap cinematic efforts (including the serial and "theatrical" film). Christopher Lee rescues this film from complete boredom and makes it entertaining.

This time around, Cap has the right costume (or as close as they could get); unfortunately, it demonstrates how bad spandex costumes look on screen, even on well-built actors. The helmet was a bit much (you would think he would take it off when not riding his bike, but, nooooo!). The abilities are still more Bionic than Super Soldier Formula, but OK.

Connie Sellecca joins the cast, preparing her for her role in the future Greatest American Hero; and Len Birman is back to provide exposition and counteract insomnia.

We get some decent stunts this time, especially the motorcycle jump off of the dam. The story makes a bit more sense, as far as these things go.

My biggest gripe is the shield effect. When thrown, it rotates slowly and wobbles. They could have at least sped up the film to make it look like good! As it is, it appears that all you have to do is take a step to the side and wait for it to pass you by, ten minutes later.

Still, all in all, this was pretty entertaining. Don't expect X-Men or Batman, but it's good on a rainy day.

(Edit-This was written before Captain America: The First Avenger, and CA: The Winter Soldier, so Death Too Soon now ranks as third best. Until the next good Cap film. You get the picture.)

This movie is a great example of why made for TV movies should never have sequels.Actually, they should just completely stop making made for TV movies.This travesty opens like it's a TV show.They play a terrible song and show us the cast and then it's all downhill.The opening scene seems to be the exact same one from the first movie,just from a different angle.I'm not going back to check on that but I am positive that it starts with his old motorcycle on the back of his van.In the first movie the government changed his bike and van,without his permission or knowledge.Sadly the fools who made this couldn't afford to rent the helicopter again to shoot a second opening scene.Weirdly, they did have money to change Cap's costume.This time all the action takes place in Oregon.I assume that was so they could keep the budget under 4 digits.This time the bad guys have taken over a prison.When Cap goes there they constantly blare announcements over the PA yet we never see any prisoners or guards inside the facility.The bad guys have a gas that will rapidly age people and they want a billion dollars for the antidote.Which isn't a terrible plot, just a terrible movie.This time they added Connie Sellecca to even out the ridiculous things that come out of the mouth of the government agent/doctor/scientist.It doesn't work.This is a movie that should never be seen.

It might be a slight improvement over it's predecessor, but it is nowhere close to being a good movie. The plot is always being explained to the viewer through a ton of exposition, the action is boring and the characters are incredibly one-dimensional, resulting in an adaptation that is a waste of good source material, a waste of Christopher Lee's talent and a waste of time in general.

This film essentially begins with a scientist by the name of "Professor Ian Ilson" (Christopher Cary) being kidnapped by a terrorist known simply as "Miguel" (Christopher Lee) to help him in an extortion attempt against the United States of America. In furtherance of that goal, Miguel forces Professor Ilson to create a substance which can increase the aging process in both animals and humans. Recognizing the impact that this substance would have if a large city were to be sprayed with this substance, "Captain America" (Reb Brown) is sent to the last place Professor Ilson was seen to investigate. What he doesn't count on, however, is the hostile reception he gets from the local people of the town once he arrives. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this made-for-television movie started off pretty good but, much like its predecessor, suffered somewhat because of the rather poor fight scenes and basic special effects. That being said, while it wasn't a bad film necessarily, the glaring faults just mentioned were simply too hard to ignore, and I have rated this movie accordingly. Slightly below average.

Reb Brown returns as Captain America/Steve Rogers in another stale and lifeless adaptation of the comic book. Plot is uninspired and forgettable, though again the whole thing is innocuous, so may have some nostalgic value, but "The Incredible Hulk" it is not!(That second pilot film, "Death In The Family" got it right.) Christopher Lee plays the villain, intent on world conquest of course, but this part is beneath him, and he does seem bored by the whole thing; this actor is a horror film legend(Hammer Film studio veteran with Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Mummy to his credit, among many others) so to see him in this is just sad.

Marvel Films would have greater success many years later it seems with Chris Evans!

Well, I agree that this is slightly better than the first, not that that really says much. There's even an exact improvement over the score as this has a 3.9 and the first one had 3.8! Well, this is still a very bad movie. I was hoping that we'd at least get to see more of Captain American in uniform but instead we "still" don't see him in the costume for the majority of the film. Most of this movie once again doesn't feel like a "Captain America" movie at all! I'm so disappointed they still don't have the Red Skull. I honestly think Captain America's the only character from the source material that's in this!

We actually do get an improvement in one area. The villain is played by Christopher Lee, who honestly isn't bad. Of course, he was in literally hundreds of movies so there weren't that many roles he turned down. At least there's a cute cat in this. The film is once again paced badly and the entire story could have been told as like an episode of a TV show. That isn't what I want to see in a movie, not even a TV movie. The special effects haven't gotten any better and it's all pointless. While an improvement, still crap. *1/2

If you're going to make a comic book movie, make a comic book movie. Don't take an established character and recreate him so you can feel you have established your artistic talent. This captain America is unrecognizable to the comics. He wears a motorcycle helmet and slings a see-through plastic shield.

Reb Brown is back as Captain America in this second parter of what was supposedly going to be a TV series. I definitely prefer this one than the first because it has a lot more action, a bigger budget, and it's way more goofier!! Christopher Lee plays a baddie named Miguel(HUH?). That's almost as bad as when he played Fu Manchu. Watch for a thug named Stader who's a dead ringer for Joe Don Baker's Mitchell (MITCHELL!).

I noticed this showcased a more human side of Steve Rogers. He doesn't have to help the elderly with the gangs who are bullying them, but he does. Steve would rather be painting or just chill by the beach. Sure, he dons his red white and blue garb, but he spends a lot of time investigating as Steve Rogers which adds a more likability factor. Steve finds out the truth to the adage 'words may never hurt me, but baseball bats really pack a wallop'. There's a romantic side story here where Reb Brown shows that he's an all around good guy. Don't forget the one liners - they're in the contract!

Much of the entertainment comes from Captain America breaking boxes with his mega punch, bruising up dock workers, performing a banister slide attack, and a hang glider scene rivaled only by Ator's in Cave Dwellers. There's a hilarious forklift scene which was later paid homage in the masterpiece Fugitive Alien (KEN!). During the dam scene, I wonder if the director yelled, 'Cut! Oh, man. See if Reb's alright. MEDIC! We need a medic here!!'

All in a day's work for a superhero from Cali.

Reb Brown stars as Captain America and fights for truth, justice and the American way. An sinister terrorist, Miguel, played by Christopher Lee is trying to blackmail the United States. Unless his demands are meant; he plays on unleashing a dangerous toxin that causing rapid aging on it's unsuspecting victims. This portrayal of the "star spangled avenger" is definitely not the comic book version; but, Reb Brown sincerity and honesty make it work.

A fun television movie. Captain America must uncover a plot by the malevolent terrorist Miguel, who plans to rapidly age the entire city of Portland, OR. Although the Captain's costume needs a bit of help (the helmet is pretty goofy), and the romantic lead is annoying, there's some good super feats and super gadgets evenly distributed throughout the movie. Get some friends who don't mind some comic book camp, and you'll enjoy it.

This 'made for TV movie' was also the 2nd pilot film for a proposed Capt. America TV series, being made at the time that Marvel Comics and CBS TV had a hit in the form of the Bill Bixby 'Incredible Hulk' show.

The creators of the 2 Cap pilots messed around with the Cap legend so as to make the concept work on TV and so as to avoid having to bring in the whole super-team of Avengers who fished Cap out of the arctic ice flow in 1964. All those extra heroes would have been expensive and would have required a lot of back-story.

The new back story created for these 2 movies is not horrible and could have worked. The supporting characters are pretty good…they would have been counter-point to the Hulk, who had no supporting cast. It's good if a hero has other characters to talk to.

Reb Brown, as the eponymous hero, is not horrible but neither is he good. He is suitably muscular, but as a thespian, he makes Lee Majors look like Lawrence Olivier.

There is some fun superhero action in the form of fights and motorcycle stunts. The cycle is clearly a guest-star in this show…but for some odd reason, however, the only way Steve Rogers can put on his Cap suit is to go into his van, change clothes, hop on his cycle, and burst out the back doors of the van in a big puff of smoke. I imagine the creators figured this was a good gimmick, similar to the bat-poles in Batman, but in an ongoing series it would have been pretty darn silly and awkward. Suppose Cap wants to do something that doesn't involve him riding his cycle? Silly.

Speaking of silly, the final showdown is marred by poorly worked shield-slinging FX. The producers really should have hired a good fight choreographer.

The villain is played by Christopher Lee, heaven knows why he took this role, but he does add to the enjoyment.

In defense of this film, I should point out that our Capt. is portrayed as a straightforward, principled guy, not some whiny self-pitying narcissist douche like a lot of the modern superheroes. And generally, this film does not overextend itself…it does not try to blow our minds on the most wild cosmic fight scene ever…that is to say, it stays within its means.

This is modest, somewhat better than average 1970's cheese.

This is probably one of my favorite Captain America movies though I like them all. The costume and motorcycle looks great and the theme song is awesome. It figures- Mike Post was the guy who did it. (he's done lots of other great theme songs, most notably Magnum, P.I., The A-Team, and Quantum Leap) These movies could have been made into a tv series! That would have been cool. They already had a great theme song! Awesome movies! Captain America rules!

OK! Well, this is so bad its funny. First off, this film has nothing to do with the Captain America we all know and love in the comics. Some background from the first movie that I watched but am not going to review: Steve Rogers is a former motorcross racer, now free lance artist and is the son of the original Captain America....(may be the one in the comics). He was in a wreck and was injected with "FLAG" serum by the goverment....Riiiiiiight. Steve rides around in a big blue van...when trouble arises, the back doors of the van open, smoke poors out, and the Captain shoots out on his red, white, and blue motor cylce. He wears a helmet over his traditional mask and his shield is small...very small. Everything on the original design on the shield that was white is now clear. It is a super flimsy piece of work too. it bends and folds whenever he uses it, especially in a seen where he is pushing pack a pack of wild dogs. The story sucks here too. Instead of the Red Skull or Baron Zemo we get the villian from The Man With The Golden Gun. His name is Miguel and he is holding the country hostage. He is spreading an aging formula over cities and he will only provide an antidote for lots of money. Though we get to see a pretty fair amount of Cap in costume, he spends that time riding his motorcyle. I guess the director thought ten minutes of Cap riding his bike to be entertaining...whatever. The fighting seens are also kinda lame. Cap would rather throw a thug into a mud puddle than punch him. Also, every time he uses his enhanced strength or makes a big jump, we hear this supper annoying whistle sound and we hear it a lot. I will say this about the actor playing Cap, Reb Brown, is very big and very built,however, he sounds like a hick when he talks. This movie came out in the late 70s when Marvel comics and this big spread of superheroes on TV. The Hulk, Spiderman, Dr. Strange, and Cap were all planned TV shows. The Hulk and Spiderman both made it past the pilots but only the Hulk would last more than a season. The last try at making a Cap into a movie was in 1990. The movie was supposed to go to theaters but was held back and put on video in 1992. I personally find it to be a much better movie...you be the judge.

An enjoyable sequel, I have the same feeling for this as for the first movie, it was okay!

I managed to catch Captain America II on Sci-Fi a few years back and I couldn't help but feel that at some point during its making, the producers threw in the towel as far as trying to make the movie true to the original work, make sense, and be believable (even on a comic book level). I didn't see the entire film, but the final 40 minutes or so are wonderfully horrible and worth seeing, especially if you're feeling down on yourself and need to see other people failing more miserably than you. Because I didn't see the whole thing, I'll only go through and point out some of my favorite parts instead of reviewing the whole mess. There's no fair way to assess this piece of junk other than to say I couldn't make a better movie (unless I was given at least 45 minutes).

Somehow the 'plot' of the movie leads our hero to Christopher Lee's evil compound where he's holding the girl hostage, or has some death chemicals, or some secret something. Whatever. Steve Rogers needs to get in and he waits across the street in his van (which is like the van the A-Team uses, not a moving van, which would be more convenient for hauling a big motorcycle) for the better part of the day, timing the opening and closing of the gates with a wrist-watch chronograph. I guess digital watches were new-ish then and kind of a big deal, so they make sure we see that his is super-high-tech because it counts up from zero. Notice how he starts and stops the watch. He uses such fiercely exaggerated movements, you'd think he was fighting the spasms caused by the 'Rage' virus in 28 DAYS LATER. I can't remember how much time the doors typically stay open, but they must cycle long enough for Rogers to do the following:

--See the doors begin to open --Get out from behind the wheel to the back of the van --Completely change into his Capt. America costume while maneuvering around the motorcycle stored inside. --Starting the motorcycle and getting it revved up to the level that it creates enough exhaust smoke so as to look cool when he bursts through the rear doors (How did he reach the handle from the seat of the bike and still be able to exit IMMEDIATELY after the doors are open?) --Speed across the street --Avoid the cars exiting the compound --Make it through the gates with plenty of time to spare (or so it seems in slow motion)

Once inside the compound, which is comprised of about 10-20 different buildings, Capt. America races DIRECTLY to the building with the hostage/potion/secret/whatever. He's so confident he's in the right building, he rides the bike INSIDE and goes right to the office he needs to reach. Luck guess, Cap'n.

At some point, he and the bike get separated and he must descend a flight of stairs outside a building. Instead of bounding down the stairs at full speed to avoid the most inaccurate sniper fire from above, Capt. America comes to an almost dead stop so he can awkwardly slide down the metal railing all Tommy Tune-like. Personally, I think it's silly, but I'm not a superhero so I don't know the best, most heroic ways to cover 10-15 feet of stairs.

He gets back to his bike and gets lost in the compound. While he went directly where he wanted to go earlier, his exit strategy is lacking. He rides around and around and around before stopping dead (again) at an exterior wall. He has no escape. He's trapped. Or is he? Cap performs one of the most creative ways of getting around the nuisance of a 15 foot block wall by doing what anyone would do in that situation-THROWING the motorcycle up to the walkway at the top of the wall. Sure it's a riced-out J-bike, but it's still gotta be heavy. Conveniently, the bike lands on both tires and the kickstand equally. Then, before you can catch your breath from such a stupefying event (even for a made-for-network-TV movie), he leaps up and jumps to the bike, or at least the railing for the walkway, in one of the worst examples of a cut-away/visible wire stunt/reversed film sequence in post-Triassic Period history (Why didn't he jump over the railing directly to the bike? Right, because he had to jump off the railing backwards.).

Once on the walkway, he's gotta make an exit because Christopher Lee is escaping. Cap rides full speed to the end of the wall and before going over he hits a button that transforms his bike into a (possibly powered – I can't remember) hang glider that he flies directly to Lee's hideout in the woods. It makes one wonder why he wasted half his day timing the front gates when he could have either thrown his bike over the wall, or, more easily, flown the bike in. Whatever.

There's a final confrontation between Cap and Lee in which Lee shoots at Cap, but the bullets are blocked by Caps trash can lid shield. Cap uses the shield to take Lee out, but instead of throwing it right at him, Cap throws the shield like a boomerang way, way, way, WAY up and around Lee. He wasn't even close. Lee's probably still got some bullets at this point, but rather than use them to gun down Capt. America, he takes the time to watch the shield (obviously on a wire being guided by a boom pole since it teeters like a quarter slowing down after spinning upright) slowly circle around until it makes contact and kills him. Someone touched on this in another review and correctly pointed out that the scenario could have been different if Lee had simply ducked, or had taken a step to one side or the other. Better luck next time, Mr. Lee.

There's some kind of resolution after that, but it's generally a happy ending and typically lame. If you ever get the chance to see it for yourself, be prepared to feel the urge to kick in your TV screen at least once in every scene because of the flaws/cheapness/bastardization of the original material/general lameness of the whole production. However, if you like really bad, stupid movies, this is golden garbage for you.

One additional note: I don't read many comics, but I would imagine Captain America deserves more than being portrayed the way he is in not only the two TV movies, but the 1992 debacle, as well. While the '92 movie was supposed to be a major release, it has moronic scenes like the one with the Red Skull tying Cap to a missile fired from Europe to Washington D.C.. Cap rides the thing all the way across the Atlantic and waits until The White House is in sight (what?) before he decides to kick his heels against the tail ailerons of the missile, thus deflecting it and sending it toward the Pacific Northwest. Fortunately, the rocket still has enough fuel left over to go a few thousand miles more to Alaska or some such area that can be inexpensively represented by shooting in Canada once Cap wakes up 50 years later, completely fine and not brain dead, kinda like a short-term John Lone in ICEMAN. Rubbish.

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.

This is a sequel to the made for television movie "Captain America", which was released later in the same year as the first movie, and things haven't improved that much. True, this sequel has the advantage that it doesn't have to explain the origin of its hero, and it has a bit more action than the first movie, but that's about it when it comes to improvements. Like the first movie, it moves really slowly for the most part, and in the few moments where there is some action, it feels very sluggish and not the least bit exciting. It also has a cheap feeling like the first movie, with obvious shooting on studio back lots and other inexpensive locations. Sometimes it's stupid enough to provoke a few unintended laughs, but for the most part it's tiresome inanity. If you are still curious about the movie because Christopher Lee is in it, be aware that it's obvious that Lee had his limited number of scenes knocked off in two days of shooting at the most.