Captain America (1990)

1990 Columbia TriStar Home Video
Directed by: Albert Pyun; Written by: Stephen Tolkin
Starring: Matt Salinger, Ronny Cox, Scott Paulin, Ned Beatty, Darren McGavin, Francesca Neri, and Michael Nouri
MPAA Rating: PG-13; Running Time: 97 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 3/10

In the Fascist Italy of the mid-1930's, a brilliant young boy is kidnapped from his family and subjected to gruesome experiments that turn him into a mangled-faced supersoldier named Red Skull. Several years later, America gets wind of this and decides, since they're the good guys, to have a volunteer partake in a similar experiment. Enter the polio-crippled Steve Rogers, who wants to fight for his country in WWII. Similar experiments are done on Rogers, resulting in increased strength and intelligence, but no mangled face. Lucky Steve. He's then given the codename, "Captain America," sent to Europe to fight Red Skull, promptly defeated, and strapped to a rocket that's then fired at Washington, D.C. Steve is able to pull the rocket into the Arctic, where he is then frozen for 40 years. Flash forward to the early 90's, and Red Skull is once again up to no good. Thankfully, Steve is thawed out just in time to face off with his old foe--and the very fate of America hangs in the balance. I feel like I just made this movie sound way better than it actually is.

1990's Captain America cost three million dollars to make, but there are many times it looks like it cost much...less. The plot here is just normal, silly, comic back stuff, and not really at fault for any of the film's issues. The issues are the film's look, camera movements, editing, acting, costuming, and choreography, which all feel like they're a part of an early 90's, CBS made-for-TV movie. As Captain America, Matt Salinger is blandly decent, feeling deserving of a better movie, but at the same time, never transcending the bad one in which he's found himself. As Red Skull, Scott Paulin is just a cackling caricature, which would be a lot more fun if the movie surrounding him was. 

Over the years, a small contingent of fans have come to Captain America's defense, praising its earnestness and good nature. 1990's Captain America certainly has those things, but the fact of the matter is, the film is just not well-made. Reports say that director, Albert Pyun, had his original vision meddled with by the studio (there is now a director's cut of this available), but that can't make up for this film's low production values and general, overwhelming silliness. Then again, if overwhelming silliness is what you enjoy, especially when it's done with no winking whatsoever, this film is for you.