Captain America

In the words of the Oldsmobile commercials, "This is not your father's Captain America!" (well, at least my father). Shield-slinging, two-fisted Super Soldier battling Nazis? Nope, this is a pudgy DA battling ordinary criminals, with a revolver!

First off, let me preface this by saying there is a big difference between watching a serial in weekly installments and watching the whole thing on video. The repetition was necessary to recap the previous week's chapter. On video, it gets tiresome by the third chapter. Still, that's what the fast-forward button is for.

Poor Cap! He never got a break in 50 years. He's an orphan, 4F, Bucky is killed by Baron Zemo, the Red Skull just wont die, Nixon, Rob Liefeld, and September 11! On top of it all, he has never been done justice on the silver screen or the tv screen. Captain America should have been great; you have two-fisted action, that cool shield, Nazis, the Red Skull, and a great costume. So where is all of that in the film? The fights are there, but the rest of the package is missing. And these fights don't measure up to those in Spy Smasher, Masked Marvel, or the Adventures of Captain Marvel.

Republic's adaptation of comic book heroes were vastly superior to Columbia's, but this one just doesn't quite work. There's no hook to pull you into it. Still, it's better than "theatrical" effort, nearly 50 years later.