Favorite Fridays: The Jungle Book (1967)

True confessions of a movie nerd: The Jungle Book is my favorite Disney film. Period. The only one that comes close to it is Beauty and the Beast (1991) and, as much as I dig that one, it takes second place. I grew up on The Jungle Book, seeing it in theaters when Disney still re-issued their classics. I had a book and record set of it, which was the story and the soundtrack. It's the only Disney outside of Beauty and the Beast that I've owned on VHS, DVD, and Blu Ray. So yeah, I still dig it.

The Jungle Book, of course, is the story of Mowgli, a young boy found by Bagheera the panther and raised by wolves. When Mowgli turns 10 it is learned that Shere Khan the tiger has returned and is seeking to kill Mowgli before he can grow up. Bagheera is tasked with taking the young boy to a Man Village despite the youngster's desire to stay in the jungle. Along the way, Mowgli encounters lovable goof Baloo the bear, is brought before King Louie, and finally comes face to face with his nemesis.

The Jungle Book is the first real all-star Disney movie. Sebastian Cabot, arguably best remembered for the TV show Family Affair, voices Bagheera. Comedian Phil Harris, who was in the John Wayne airplane disaster thriller The High and The Mighty as well as the 1956 Bing Crosby musical Anything Goes, plays Baloo. The voice of Winnie the Pooh, Sterling Holloway, does the Python who has coil trouble, Kaa. Character actor George Sanders is the villainous Shere Kahn. Sanders had done everything from The Saint to Hitchcock. With his inimitably smooth voice, he's the arguably the best Disney villain ever. J. Pat O'Malley, who appeared on basically ever TV show back in the day and did quite a few other Disney movies, is Colonel Hathi, the pompous elephant leading a weary pack on an eternal march through the jungle.

Then there's Louis Prima. Prima may be the best recognized member of the cast today. His version of Just A Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody--he was the first singer to combine the songs--is a classic. Here he plays King Louie and gets the showstopper song, I Wanna Be Like You. It's the most memorable scene in the entire movie. Oh, sure, The Bare Necessities was nominated for an Oscar, but frankly I always preferred Louie's song.

Interestingly, it is director Wolfgang Reitherman's son Bruce who does the voice of Mowgli. He got the part after the original actor's voice broke during the 3 year filming period.

Part of what makes this work is the fact that the actors aren't just doing voices as the characters. All of the characters in the film take on traits of those actors. Shere Khan is pretty much what you would get from George Sanders as a villain, only animated. And Louis Prima's habit of marching around with his band during a performance is full blown used by King Louie in this.  On top of that, all the characters resemble their voice actors if you pay close enough attention. Interestingly, the original idea was to have The Beatles do the vultures at the end of the film. That's why the vultures resemble the Fab Four. However, legend has it that John Lennon vetoed the idea.

It is well established that The Jungle Book was the last animated film Walt Disney was personally involved in. As such, it is his crowning achievement. 30 years after his (and the world's) first full length animated movie, Disney capped his career off with a breezy, entertaining 80 minutes that might have deviated wildly from Kipling's novel, but did so with style. 

3-D Thursday: Gog (1954)

To appreciate a film restoration, it helps to have seen what the movie looked like pre-restoration. Most restorations have a demo showing the movie in poor condition and then showing it looking nice and shiny and almost new. I have always had a hard time connecting with these demos, however, since I have no recollection of seeing the movies in question looking so bad. The Looney Tunes cartoons, for instance, I only ever saw look horrible in bad PD releases. In that sense, if the restoration demo was of Daffy the Commando and not one of the duck season/rabbit season cartoons, I'd have been impressed since I had only seen Daffy the Commando look like garbage.

I mention all of this because one movie I have seen in lesser form that has been restored is 1954's Gog. For decades, the 3-D version of Gog was considered lost to the ages. As Bob Furmanek of the 3-D Film Archive tells it, the color version was gone, too. It would play in 2-D, black and white, and full frame. A color 2-D version surfaced in the 1980s.When the 3D version finally surfaced in 2003, the left eye print was red as a beet while the right eye had color, though not too vibrant. That's the way I saw it in 3D in 2006 at The World 3-D Film Expo II and while not ideal, it was better than not getting to see it in 3D at all.

So imagine my reaction to the new Kino 3D Blu Ray of Gog. I have just three letters to describe this: O.M.G.

You know how great the Warner 3D Blu Rays of House of Wax and Kiss Me Kate look? Yeah, this looks that good. Not only has the color been restored to the red left eye but the color in general is more vibrant. Anyone who has scene this either in it's poorer 3D version or even the TV version that's shown up can tell you that the color was okay but not particularly vibrant. But if you want a good example of improvement, watch the scene where Richard Egan and Herbert Marshall first meet. The chair Egan sits in is practically Technicolor red!

The restoration, of course, is courtesy of the 3-D Film Archive. And for those of you who are gonna groan "here he goes talking about those guys again!", yeah! I am! I thought the 3-D Rarities disc was their crowning achievement. But this---THIS---is nothing short of a miracle. Watching Gog here was like watching it for the first time ever. This is undoubtedly what the movie looked like upon original release. Maybe even better.

Gog is the third--and by all accounts best--of the Ivan Tors Office of Scientific Investigation trilogy. It starts when two scientists--serial fans will recognize them as Aline Towne and Micheal Fox--are murdered in a freeze chamber in an underground base dedicated to the space race. O.S.I investigator David Sheppard (Richard Egan) is called in to investigate by base leader Dr. Van Ness (Herbert Marshall), Van Ness suspects that there's a saboteur on base but can't find him. Sheppard is assisted by Joanna Merritt (Constance Dowling), another OSI agent undercover on the base already. The suspects are many: the slightly perverted Dr. Elzevir (Philip Van Zandt) and his jealous wife (Valerie Vernon; arrogant scientist Dr. Zeitman (John Wengraf), who theoretically controls super computer NOVAC and deadly robots Gog and Magog; Dr. Burden (David Alpert), who is in charge of the computer pile; and Dr. Engle (William Schallert), Dr. Zeitman's assistant all top the list. The real enemies turn out to be the Godless Commies, who built a powerful radio transmitter and receiver into NOVAC during construction and are now using it and the robots to kill various scientists on base, with the ultimate goal of setting off a nuclear reaction that will destroy it.

Gog is an interesting piece of Cold War paranoia, a peek back at a time when the Red Under the Bed was a threat both real and imagined. Zeitman, for instance, so obviously seems to be the saboteur because he's an arrogant foreigner. The movie knows we'll think this and plays it to the hilt.

Surprisingly, the movie's science isn't as dodgy about space travel as many of it's ilk. Indeed, some of what goes on in the movie is even in use today. For instance, there's a sense involving a centrifuge. Okay, so there's a little goofiness--one character suffers from radiation poison, then is later told she's going to be just fine--but overall this is a pretty smart movie with more science fact than fiction.

Gog was the last movie shot with the Natural Vision 3-Dimension camera system by Lothrop Worth.This was the system used on House of Wax. Like that earlier film, the 3-D is spectacular. There's a great sense of depth throughout despite the limits of the sets. There's also some occassionally fun pop-out effects as there always seemed to be in these things.

According to Greg Kintz of the 3-D Film Archive, every single shot needed no less than 7 levels of correction. As I said, the left eye was red and the right eye was faded and damaged. But you wouldn't know it to see the final Blu Ray. It looks every bit as spectacular as other 50s sci-fi films released to Blu Ray like Forbidden Planet. If you want a good idea of what the film looked like before and after, there's a dandy restoration demo on the Blu. There's an even better demo on http://www.3dfilmarchive.com/gog.

If you're a fan of 50s sci-fi, this is a must buy. Even if you've seen it before and casually dismissed it, you should check it out. As any movie buff will tell you, a large part of enjoyment comes from presentation. And the presentation here is nothing shy of spectacular. Gog may be the 3D Film Archive's finest hour yet.

IMAGES COURTESY OF THE 3-D FILM ARCHIVE

The Shootist (1976)

By the late 1960s, the Western as a popular movie genre was on it's way out and the ones that did get made started to reflect that thinking. Movies like The Wild Bunch and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid dealt with characters who no longer fit into the world, who had to watch the slow but inevitable passing of the Old West. It is perhaps fitting that the most poignant of these movies just happened to be the last movie of what may well be the most legendary Western star of all.

1976's The Shootist opens with a montage of scenes from earlier John Wayne westerns, including Hondo and Rio Bravo. The theoretical purpose of the montage is to tell us the lethal legacy of Wayne's character, J.B. Books. But the montage also serves as a reminder of how dominant an actor Wayne was in the genre.

Books arrives in Carson City on January 22, 1901. He hasn't been feeling like himself so he goes to a doctor (James Stewart) he trusts. He finds out he has Cancer and maybe two months to live. He wants to die in peace, so he rents a room from a widow (Lauren Bacall) and her son (Ron Howard). As people find out not only who he is but that he's dying, the glory seekers and vultures come out. Eventually he decides he'd rather go out in a blaze of glory than screaming in agony.

The Shootist is packed with guest appearances from various friends and costars of Wayne's. Besides Bacall and Stewart, Richard Boone, John Carradine, Harry Morgan, Hugh O'Brian, Scatman Crothers, Melody Thomas Scott, and even Johnathan Goldsmith--the Most Interesting Man in the World himself--all appear. It's a hell of a cast, the type you don't see much anymore. I don't know how many, if any, realized they were going to be in the last movie John Wayne starred in, but they all play up to the part.

Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino seems to have borrowed quite a few things from this. In both films, the protagonist develops a fatherly relationship with a young boy who tries stealing from him. Both films have a man of violence who learns he is dying of cancer. Both heroes decide to go out with a bang instead of a whimper.

But while the film should be a completely sober and depressing piece, Wayne elevates it above the morbid. He's still John Wayne after all. The scene where he turns the tables on greedy Undertaker Carradine and makes him pay for the privilege of burying Wayne is hilarious. But it's his verbal sparring with Bacall that really makes the movie. She loathes him at first, then pities him, then wants and needs to save him. She can't, of course. But watching two old pros like these play off one another is justification enough for the movie. And it's all done without really becoming a love story.

Some may complain that Wayne never really acted, he just played John Wayne over and over. But that can be said of a lot of actors then and now. After all, didn't we like Jimmy Stewart for essentially being Jimmy Stewart over and over? Wayne was a personality performer and like all personality performers, we watched him be him and loved it. He was a forerunner to later action heroes like Sylvester Stallone, only he managed to make some better movies. The Shootist is the last chance we get to see what made him such a great personality and by extension, such a great actor.

Contrary to popular belief, Wayne wasn't dying when he made The Shootist. He had been in remission since 1969. None the less, this does seem to be his way of facing his own mortality. Three years later he would be gone having made no more movies. In that sense, this is his goodbye and it's a beautiful and emotional one.

Gran Torino (2009)

When we first meet Walt Kowalski in Gran Torino, we meet a man who really hates the world. He has nothing but contempt for everyone and everything: his kids, his grandchildren, the priest officiating over his wife's funeral, and anyone who is not the same race, color, or nationality as him. He refers to various characters as gooks, spooks, dagos, Chinks, and micks. He sits on his porch all day drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon and looking at his most prized possession, a 1972 Ford Gran Torino. So naturally when Thao, the Hmong teenager next door, is pressured by a gang to try to steal said Gran Torino, it sets off a chain reaction of events that will change the entire neighborhood.

He chases off the gang--hilariously growling "get off my lawn" in typical grumpy old man fashion though aiming a rifle at them--when they come back to beat Thao up. He also saves Thao's sister from three would be rapists. These actions make him a hero to the neighborhood and--whether he wants it or not--friends with his neighbors. He eventually warms up to them, even while calling them gooks. When the gang not only won't go away but crosses the line, Kowalski knows what he has to do to stop them.

In a lesser actor's hands, Kowalski would be just a bad caricature. Fortunately, Clint Eastwood is playing Kowalski, not as a caricature but as a natural extension of the sort of characters he used to play. Kowalski is Dirty Harry after retirement, still angry and willing to kick ass no matter how politically incorrect that may be. It's as classic an Eastwood performance as they come, sometimes humorous, sometimes sad, always awesome. It's a fascinating performance as he allows Walt to change and grow without seeming to. On the one hand, he spouts racial slurs right up to the end. On the other, he develops a closer relationship to Thao and Sue than to his own family. He becomes a father figure to Thao, trying to help him stay out of the gangs and become someone. And when things go very horribly wrong for the family at the end, he becomes determined to not let Thao ruin his own life.

This is a movie of race and redemption. It is not an action film but a meditation on letting go of prejudice. In Kowalski's case, this doesn't just involve the family but the ever persistent priest who tries his best to reach Walt and get him into confession. It's message, though never preachy, runs through, staring you down the entire time. I suppose that's something that would make some uncomfortable, but uncomfortable truths can sometimes lead to better tomorrows.  It is actually quite amazing--to say nothing of disappointing--that the film received no Academy Award nominations. One of the true mistakes by the Academy.

Ultimately Gran Torino is not dissimilar to John Wayne's last movie, The Shootist. Both movies are about men of violence nearing the end of their lives who find much needed redemption. Gran Torino plays a little less somberly but no less powerfully. It is a chance to see a master actor and director once again prove what made him a legend. It was supposed to be the last movie Eastwood acted in. He did go on to do one more, but this still serves as a fond farewell to a type of character he had done so well over the years.

Mystery Monday: Thank You, Mr. Moto (1937)

After the success of Think Fast Mr. Moto, 20th Century Fox wasted no time bringing Peter Lorre back as the deadly international spy. Released five months after the first film, Thank You, Mr. Moto concerns the search for seven scrolls that will lead to the Tomb of Genghis Kahn. And it's as much a corker of a thriller as it's predecessor.

Moto is in possession of one of the scrolls. After disposing of a would be assassin in the Gobi Desert and eluding the police in Peiping, Moto is invited to a garden party given by Colonel Tchernov. The party is supposed to be in honor of American Eleanor Joyce (Jayne Regan) but is really just a ploy to try to get six of the scrolls from Prince Chung (Philip Ahn). Moto kills Tchernov after he draws a gun on Chung for not selling. Eleanor, however, walks in as Moto makes it look like suicide. This causes her to be suspicious of Moto. Her suspicions grow when Moto is involved in a drive by shooting. But when the real villains go too far, they end up facing the wrath of Moto.

One of the joys of these movies is watching Lorre as Moto. We might know which side he's on, but the way he plays the character, it is completely believable that others may not be too sure of him. He's terrific in these, playing Moto in an almost shade of grey. Certainly, he's unique among the detectives in the movies at that time. Only The Saint seemed to straddle the fence and not quite as much as Moto. It's easy to see why Lorre went on to become such an icon.

Besides Lorre, Thomas Beck and Sig Ruman make their second appearances in a Moto film. Beck is again playing the lovestruck American who falls for the heroine while Ruman is the ill-fated Colonel Tchernov. Character actor John Carradine is a dealer in antiquities trying to sell a counterfeit scroll, first to Eleanor then Moto. But Philip Ahn as Prince Chung is the most notable of the supporting cast. Ahn in appeared in a number of serials in the 30s and 40s before later having quite a TV career. Some may remember him best as Master Kan on Kung Fu. As Chung, he is the most sympathetic character in the movie and his fate is actually heartbreaking.

Once again, Norman Foster keeps the proceedings movie. The Moto movies are probably the best paced B series ever and Foster's direction seems to play a good part in it. No silliness, no songs, just pure intrigue and mystery. It's a shame that all programmers weren't as good.

The next stop for the character was a film intended for one of his rivals. It will be most interesting to see how that one turns out.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

Let's start with the answer to the question on everyone's mind: yes, Star Wars The Force Awakens is a good movie. It is, in fact, the movie you've been looking for. As someone who didn't especially hate the Prequel Trilogy, I do have to admit that this one spanks those three and puts them in a corner shame facedly.

It's 30 years after Return of the Jedi. The Galactic Empire has given way to the equally evil First Order and the Rebel Alliance has become the Resistance. Worse yet, Luke Skywalker has disappeared and everyone wants to find him. The bad guys so that the last of the Jedi can be destroyed and the good guys so they can get his help.

Enter into this  X-Wing pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Issacs). He gets a map to Luke's location and hides it with his droid before being captured. Ex-Stormtrooper Finn (John Boyega) helps him escape and the droid itself is found by beautiful scavenger Rey (Daisy Ridley). Rey and Finn team up with a couple of familiar faces to get the droid back to the Resistance, fighting back the First Order and Big Bad Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) every step of the way.

That's all I'm saying about the plot. To say more would ruin the fun and surprises of the movie and that would be criminal.

The three new leads are all appealing, especially Ridley and Boyega. They get the bulk of the movie's screen time and deservedly so since this is really their journey as heroes. They are this generation's Han and Leia. She's scrappy and resourceful, he's the reluctant hero who manages to come through in a pinch. They're terrific and welcome additions to the mythology.

Speaking of which, yes, the original trio of heroes are here. Harrison Ford slips back into the role of Han Solo in a way that suggests he never left it. Certainly he does better here than in his last Indiana Jones film. Carrie Fisher acquits herself nicely as an older and battle weary General Leia Organa.Other favorites such as Peter Mayhew's Chewbacca and Anthony Daniels' C-3PO likewise show up. They're always welcome to see and they blend seamlessly with the new cast. Ford, in particular, has great chemistry with the newcomers.

This thing zips along, nicely balancing character, humor, and action. One of the things the movie does right is not overstuffing the action at the expense of character development. We get to know everyone in the movie, which better helps us to invest in them and care what happens. The action is as spectacular as ever, but it's not overdone. Some movies have so much action that your eyes tend to glaze over after a while and you wait for something meaningful to happen. This one finds the right balance. As for the humor, it's a merciful return to the wit and dialogue of the originals and not the toilet humor of the Prequels. 

The movie is filled with nods and throwbacks to the Original Trilogy. Some may argue that the film is essentially a beat for beat remake of Star Wars or a Star Wars Greatest Hits collection, but despite that it works in a way the Prequel Trilogy couldn't.  Just like Jurassic World, this movie understands what we want out of Star Wars and gives it to us on a grand scale. It actually feels like Star Wars. The biggest knock on the Prequel Trilogy is that it doesn't seem to be part of the same series as Original Trilogy. This does.  Best of all, it does the one thing that a Star Wars movie should do: it makes us want to see the next film in the series. 

The only bad thing about all this is that Disney didn't see fit to release the 3D version on Blu Ray yet. The 3D version has one of the most crackerjack gimmick shots of all time--a Star Destroyer poking out into the audience. That shot alone makes it worth seeing in the 3rd Dimension. It is possible that Disney will still release a 3D Blu Ray--they claim they will--but for now fans will have to deal with just plain old 2D.

That said,  if you have not already, see this movie you must. Like it, you will.

Serial Saturday: Captain America (1944)

For those of you who aren't yet sick of reading about Captain America, here's one more review for you. If you are sick of reading about Captain America, that's okay, too. This is the last one of his movies I'll be reviewing for quite a while. It also happens to be his first screen appearance.

"That's what you get for saying I'm not Captain America!"

If you are intimately familiar with the Marvel Cinematic Universe Captain America movies and manage to seek out this 15 chapter Republic serial, you may be a little confused watching it. In this version, Captain America is two-fisted District Attorney Grant Gardner, out to stop the evil machinations of The Scarab, who has no connection to Adolf Hitler but is a scientist out for revenge against the members of an expedition that cheated him out of millions. Gardner's assisted by his secretary Gail Richards. He also has no shield or super powers but he does have a gun. He also doesn't really look like Captain America. He has a sweater with a star on it that he wears under his suit (either the city is really cold or he sweats something fierce) and a hood with an A on it. He also wears sensible shoes instead of boots. In short, there's no Army, no Bucky, no Super Soldier formula, and no Nazis.

You may have read the above and thought "wait! What?". I get that. There seems to be two theories as to why the serial is that way. One is that it was planned for a different character, quite possibly Fawcett's Mr. Scarlet. When that comic was cancelled, Republic just rewrote the serial and substituted Captain America. The proof of this some say is a chapter called The Scarlet Clue which has nothing Scarlet in it.

The other, just as likely theory, is that Republic read the sample pages provided to them by Timely Comics (Marvel before they were called Marvel) and decided to do their own thing anyway. There's plenty of precedent for this as just about all of Republic's adaptations pretty well ignored the source material, going right back to Dick Tracy in 1937. The four Dick Tracy serials may be good but they have as much to do with Dick Tracy as I do.

Just another Tuesday in this serial

That said, the question remains of whether or not this is any good. It is, all things considered. Dick Purcell plays the title character and while he's no Buster Crabbe, he's no Myron Healey either. He's acceptable if unexceptional, a decent middle of the road serial hero who fares slightly better than most of the stiffs Republic hired after. As his gal Friday Richards, Lorna Gray is an admitted step up from the ten year old Bucky of the comics. At the least, she's easier on the eyes even if she doesn't get to do much beyond getting captured and tied up.

Sidebar: why did so many superheroes in that era have 10 year old sidekicks? In particular Cap, taking a child into an active war zone seems wildly reckless. I get that it was a different time and the publishers wanted to appeal to children, in particular in the wake of the popularity of Robin the Boy Wonder but still...

Back to the serial.

No snide comment: just a great villain

On the malcontent side, we have screen veteran Lionel Atwill as Dr. Maldor aka The Scarab. Atwill terrorized Fay Wray onscreen and played opposite Erol Flynn in the 1930s but found himself relegated to serials and B movies towards the end of his career. But like fellow villain Bela Lugosi, Atwill was professional enough to give it his best and is just menacing enough to be fun. Serial regulars George J. Lewis and Jon Davidson are his henchmen. They were always worth watching in these things and this is no exception.

A few other character actors pop up during the course of the serial. Serial regulars like Kenne Duncan, Tom London, LeRoy Mason, and Stanley Price do their customary one chapter and done appearances. John Hamilton, Perry White on the George Reeves Superman TV show, is one of Maldor's victims. Also on Maldor's hit list was Hugh Sothern from the serial The Fighting Devil Dogs. But the best supporting part belongs to Edward Van Sloan, best remembered today as Van Helsing in the 1931 Dracula. Here he's a scientist demonstrating a thermodynamic vibration machine or the Dynamic Vibrator for short. This leads to what may be the greatest line in serial history when Gail says "Mr. Merit and Mr. Norton are here to witness your demonstration of the vibrator."

For you prudish people thinking "it's a shame he felt the need to write that", let this be a lesson to you. This is what happens when you apply present-mindedness to 1940s serials. On the other hand, some of you are gonna howl when you think about that line.

"Dr. Scarab I presume?"

In fairness, the Dynamic Vibrator wasn't the only machine in the serial. The serial also gives us such devices as an Electronic Firebolt, a gas that can make someone look like a 3,000 year old mummy, and a device that can--and is--used to raise a dead man. That the dead man turns out to be the head henchman is unfortunate for the heroes, but not for us.

Captain America was Republic's most expensive serial. It came out the same year as Haunted Harbor, Zorro's Black Whip, and The Tiger Woman. As such, it was one of the last of the all original cliffhangers serials. That alone, as well as being technically the first Marvel adaptation. It's also the only Captain America worth watching until the recent trilogy with Chris Evans. It's directed with typical gusto by William Witney's old serial directing partner, John English. English had proven he could do serials on his own quite nicely the year before with Daredevils of the West. This time he gets a bit of an assist from Elmer Clifton, who in the 1930s had directed what is arguably the best of the 3 Stage and Screen Serials released by the Weiss Brothers. That, by the way, says nothing considering the other two were The Clutching Hand and The Black Coin.

"Nope. No War here"

It does seem strange to see a serial about Captain America released in 1944 and not see him doing what he was known for at the time: punching Nazis. Then again, Republic seemed to have decided to stop fighting the war in 1943 as none of their serials from 44 or 45 even make mention of World War II. Columbia and Universal, on the other hand, fought the war right up to the bitter end.

Other bloggers have commented that they are surprised serial fans actually like this. I'm not. Most serial fans, especially the ones who rabidly attest that only Republic made good ones, are willing to take most of these things as they get them. They especially recognize that it does little good to rage against Republic for their lack of fidelity to the comics since that was just what the company did. Maybe in another universe or dimension Republic put out faithful adaptations of comic books with Dick Tracy as a cop battling Big Boy Caprice and rescuing Tess Trueheart and Captain America and a 10 year old Bucky punching Adolf Hitler in the face. But not in our universe. We can choose to accept it or give ourselves coronaries at what we're watching.

I choose to accept it. This is an entertaining serial even if it doesn't have anything to do with Captain America. If you can get past that lack of fidelity, you too may find yourselves enjoying it. Lorna Gray and the villains make it worth spending a rainy Saturday afternoon watching it. There are better adaptations of these characters after all. If I want to watch the real Captain America, I'll slip in one of the MCU movies. But if I want to spend a few hours with fun and familiar character actors, henchmen coming back from the dead, and Dynamic Vibrators, I'll pop this one in.