The Return of Captain Invincible

source: The Return of Captain Invincible

Saw "Captain Invincible" last week at a Bad Movie Night event and it was the worst -- and funniest -- musical I have ever seen. This movie makes "Plan 9 from Outer Space" look like "Citizen Kane"! It's meant to be a spoof and is purposefully bad, but I don't think the makers of this film intended it to be quite as awful as it really is. The musical numbers are completely lame, plenty of gratuitous nudity a la Benny Hill, there are evil punk rockers with half-mohawks, bondage clad new wave hooker chicks, attack vacuum cleaners, crazed Nazis with Yoda-like sidekicks in bad prosthetic makeup. What more could you want? Oh, yeah, a discernible plot might be nice and actors who could sing and dance would be a real bonus. If you want to throw a boffo Bad Movie Night, I highly recommend "Captain Invincible" -- it will have your guests in stitches and explains why we're glad the 80s are long past.

This is a movie I've been looking for for over a year now but it's impossible to find almost anywhere. Thankfully I got my chance just recently. Reading some of the reviews I was worried that it wouldn't appeal to me at all, but when I finally got around to watching it I thought it was pretty good. The plot centers around a washed up superhero from World War II times named Captain Invincible. In the peak of his career he's accused of being a communist by the American govt. and disappears off the face of the Earth. Unbeknownst to him he flies all the way to Australia where he spends a good thirty years drinking away his sorrows. But when a hypno- ray is stolen from the Australian govt. and the President of the U.S.A. is called in he suggests they call upon Captain Invincible. Eventually a policewoman named Patty finds him and convinces him to put on the cape, clean up his act, and save the world. So basically think something along the lines of Watchmen and Hitchcock but a lot less serious. The source of the trouble is the Captain's old enemy Mr. Midnight. And he's got something big planned for the minorities of the world. The plot isn't much but it's not trying to be groundbreaking so it's not too cheesy. The film takes a more satirical look on the Superhero genre and is kind of ahead of its time. It was released two or three years before Watchmen and long before The Incredibles. If it were released today it might have been a success. But I can see why people aren't that big on the film. The pacing is a little slow and the plot sort of resolves itself without any real conflict and there are a few stereotypical jokes in there but nothing outright racist or hateful. But the jokes that work really do work. Granted the movie never reached 'laugh out loud, fall out of my chair hilarious' status but I was chuckling for a good eighty percent of the film. Two scenes that stand out are a scene where the Cap and Patty go investigate a Vacuum shop. No joke, the vacuums come alive and start trying to kill them. It's hilarious seeing them fight the things and even the obvious "this sucks" joke is pulled off pretty well. Another is when they're at the Deli and the patron literally takes a fish and starts shooting bullets out of it. The following duel is glorious to behold. Unusual for the genre this movie is one of the only Superhero-Musical films. And the songs are pretty good. While some of them are too short to be really memorable they're all pretty catchy and have a nice tune to them. The best is probably a song sung by the main villain titled "Name Your Poison." Really... that song is what made me watch this movie. It is that epic. Alcohol jokes and visual gags galore in this spectacle of a number. Really if nothing else watch the movie for that one scene. The two main actors, Alan Arkin and Sir Christopher Lee each give a respectable performance as Captain Invincible and Mr. Midnight respectively. They're both very talented singers and each bring charm into the movie. To me Christopher Lee is epic in whatever he does but his performance in this movie is reminiscent to a James Bond villain (and he did play one actually). Alan Arkin also does a good job portraying a guy at the end of his rope trying hard to believe in old fashioned American values. And the supporting cast are all pretty good too. Overall this film won't please everyone. If you're into tongue-in-cheek movies then this film will probably appeal to you but if not you should probably skip it. But after searching for it for a good year and more I can honestly say it wasn't a disappointment for me. It's not the best film ever made but its catchy songs, cheesy gags and Christopher Lee will keep me watching again for a good while.

Who will save the world? The now drunken, down and out former superhero who used to be the saviour of the world (the first seven minutes of the film are told in clever black and white newsreels) whose powers have lost him? Finding him in Sydney, he is brought back to combat the evil Mister Midnight (Christopher Lee). A significant portion of the film has him eventually drying out and regaining his strength. The film is partially a musical in the "Rocky Horror" vein. The film is definitely not for children, it has some parts not suitable for them. A big plus is the always watchable Alan Arkin as Captain Invincible. A lesser actor would have sunk this role, but he is lots of fun and, as usual, puts in a great performance. If you think you'll like a crazy film about a washed up superhero who is wanting to save the earth, and like that it is played for laughs, then enjoy. Its a great Saturday afternoon film. Check it out.

The Return of Captain Invincible It seems a law of nature that a certain percentage of movies just don't age very well. Some can be viewed decades later and still impress the first-time viewer, others you have to had seen during it's time in order to appreciate it later. Unfortunately, "The Return of Captain Invincible" belongs to the latter category. It's not a bad film, by no means. "TRoCI" comfortably between Superman-spoof, musical satire of the US- / Australian way of life but unfortunately it's also a little too 'harmless' for most (modern) viewers. A little less slapstick and a little more grittiness / realism could have made "TRoCI" a comedic predecessor of Zack Snyder's "Watchmen". Like with most of his roles, the performance of Alan Arkin is beyond criticism. He remains the world's most funny unfunny man. He seems to conjure up comedy as through magic and almost unexplainable. And as what is commonly known as a "Christophile", an ardent fan of Sir Christopher Lee, I consider it blasphemous ever to write a negative word in the same sentence. Indeed, "Citizen Cain", "The Godfather" or "The Seven Samurai" are all good pictures, which only have one fault: neither of them stars Christopher Lee. Thinking what directors like Robert Altman, Blake Edwards, Jim Abrahams or David Zucker could have made from this material, the films weakest link remains the director. Philippe Mora seems more at home with schlock-horror flicks, rather than either comedy or musical. On the comedic side, his direction is restraint while there seems an almost desperate attempt to be the next "Rocky Horror Picture Show" – it isn't; by the standards of a musical, it's "Shock Treatment" at best. The songs are simply neither strong nor memorable enough, with the exception of "Name your Poison", performed by his highness Sir Christopher himself. The line "There's nothing sicker in society than the lack of liquor and sobriety" is worth an Oscar itself and makes one dream: what if Richard O'Brien had written the songs, what a musical it could have been. I have to admit, I have a hard time giving a film that features either his eminence Sir Christopher Lee or Alan Arkin a bad rating – an old habit that I have broken only for "Star Wars II – The Clone Wars". That said, the 7 out of 10 points I'm giving should probably been a 6 or 5 ½. Oh well.

Washed-up, disgraced, and disillusioned superhero Captain Invincible (an excellent and engaging performance by Alan Arkin) comes out of self-imposed retirement to prevent his evil arch nemesis Mr. Midnight (marvelously played with lip-smacking fiendish relish by Christopher Lee) from using his hypno-ray and giggle gun to racially purify New York City. Unfortunately, Captain Invincible not only has to surmount his alcoholism, but also has to relearn how to fly and regain his magnetic powers before he can get down to the business of saving the day. Director Philippe Mora, working from a witty and outrageous script by Andrew Gaty and Steven E. de Souza (the latter writer went on to pen such 80's action classics as "Commando," "The Running Man," and "Die Hard"), relates the kooky story at a constant brisk pace, maintains a blithely campy tone throughout, cheerfully pokes fun at vintage old superhero serials (the use of stock footage and moldy black and white newsreels is especially inspired and effective), and tops everything off with a genuinely eccentric, but often uproarious sense of off-the-wall humor. The wacky musical numbers are positively sidesplitting; watching Lee joyfully send up his own sinister persona by singing a couple of songs in a rich booming baritone while sexy half-* female minions dance all around him is truly something to behold. Moreover, the enthusiastic cast have a ball with the loopy material: Arkin and Lee are both terrific in the leads, with fine support from Kate Fitzpatrick as spunky rookie police lady Patty Patricia, Michael Pate as the hearty and irascible Australian President, and Bill Hunter as the ramrod Coach. Better still, this film is done with a winning surplus of verve and affection that's impossible to either resist or dislike. Mike Molloy's polished cinematography offers a wealth of striking widescreen visuals (the sweeping aerial shots in particular are simply breathtaking). William Motzing's robust and rousing score hits the spirited spot. An absolute hoot.

I first saw this film as part of my ongoing plan to (eventually) see every work of Christopher Lee, and I must admit that I was utterly baffled. Moments are truly fantastic, and genuinely funny, but the plot generally is exceptionally weak and in places drags quite monstrously. The poor token love story does little to help, and one cannot help but wonder if it was merely added to pad out the film to a more respectable 90ish minutes. Although both the humour and the film generally appealed to me, I could understand that if you were not a fan of any of the actors or the general "cult" genre, you could be in for one of the most taxing evenings of your life. Despite being supposedly the most expensive film ever made in Australia in 1983, the special effects are decidedly dodgy, and it is really only the increasingly bizarre musical numbers which bring this film back from the edge of catastrophe. The DVD box claims "It's a comedy .. it's a fantasy ... it's a musical ... it's an action adventure"; I would simply say that it's entertainment.

The Return of Captain Invincible tries too hard to be something really wacky and crazy and subversive as a spoof on super heroes, but it doesn't (ahem) fly. Some of it may just be my fault, that the film reminded me just too much of other films (the opening newsreel, for example, is so much like The Incredibles as to boggle the mind thinking Brad Bird may have even watched this for inspiration, and don't get me started on the flying scenes with Invincible). But some of it falls on the director, Philippe Mora, and even on Alan Arkin. I usually enjoy Arkin a lot in his performances, and can be very funny and affecting in roles. Here he's not given a whole lot to make Invincible worth trying to make likable (an ex-drunk brought back into service and is a big-ass magnet who can sometimes but not always fly) or worth a damn. And, a bigger problem, he's just not that funny in the part. True, little things do make up for it... or make that one big thing, and that's Christopher Lee. As Mr. Midnight, a diabolical villain with a deformed creature as his minion and with lots of baddies and other mass weapons at his disposal (and a bad-ass cave with diagrams of New York City to boot), he steals the show. This is putting it mildly, perhaps, since there isn't much show to steal from him. Mora tries to build around his two leads with a lot of awkward pacing and jokes that fall flat (the 'Bull-s***' song by one of the generals in the war room is overreaching), and at other times dialog is just off-balance alongside the directing. Another problem is this: if you have a kooky comedy-musical, make good songs, that's it, or at least have interesting musical numbers. The song cues that come up here are just badly staged and not clever or entertaining... that is, except for the ones where Christopher Lee shows up. This isn't simply a case of favoritism, though Lee is amazing when given a small opportunity. He somehow gets the material better than even the director does, and when he puts on those two numbers in his cave (or one and a half if you count the one where he and Arkin split the number), one of which near the end and all about making fun of Invincible for being a drunk and tempting him, it's brilliance! If you must, if nothing else, do watch his scenes on Youtube; perhaps someone will do everyone a favor and edit together Lee's scenes, which is worth stopping doing whatever it is at any moment of the day to watch and absorb. The rest of the film, sadly, is kind of a bust. It's too dull, lifeless, and Mora, for all of his little tricks with the camera (a dutch angle here and there, some intentionally silly green-screen effects) can't overcome the material being so wobbily and uninteresting. If you have to watch a comedy about a drunk superhero, just watch Hancock - or (if you're reading this post 2014) Birdman.

This is my kind of movie, I had never heard of it before, and only found it due to a purchase I made from Amazon, noticed this title as well. I am in chronic pain, and take advantage of any distraction from reality to take my mind off it. This movie did just that! On par with Attach of the killer tomato's, killer clowns form outer space, rocky horror picture show. Just as corny as any of them, This is well worth enjoying, laughing over, and forgetting your everyday worries and care for awhile. God Bless Mr Arkin to not have any pride when he made this film (I don't see how he could have, such a big gamble) But then again I had not heard of it until a couple weeks ago. Mr Allen Arken does provide his high quality of humor to this film. As usual his humor has again occurred before its time.

Christopher Lee is, apart from a demigod of horror and an amazing human being altogether, a very strange and unpredictable individual… Not that long ago I saw a film called "Meat Cleaver Massacre" and Lee allegedly wanted to sue the producers for using footage of him that he wasn't aware of. He wanted to go to court because he didn't know he starred in a not even that bad film, yet he voluntarily starred in THIS totally bonkers and jaw-dropping flamboyant Aussie flick?!? What the hell kind of career-swings are these? Anyway, "The Return of Captain Invincible" is one gigantically delirious and extravagant cinematic conglomeration of Sci-Fi, comedy, musical, superhero-action and satire. I probably never would have known this movie existed if it wasn't for the recently released documentary "Not Quite Hollywood: the Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation". I swear, I've stumbled upon a lot of crazy and obscure Aussie stuff since the fine day I watched that film, but this puppy is undoubtedly the craziest of them all! The set-up of "The Return of Captain Invincible" is a lot more clever and original than you might think, actually. One could even claim that it's a forerunner of such popular films like Pixar's "The Incredibles", "Spiderman" and "Hancock", as this movie was the first to depict the powers and responsibilities of a superhero more as a burden rather than as a blessing. The film opens marvelously with a series of newspaper clippings and black-and-white flashbacks illustrating the glorious rise and immediately subsequent fall of superhero Captain Invincible. He saved the world from Nazi terrorism but then the media soiled his reputation linked him to a communist network. The disappointed Cap retired from New York to Sydney and spent many years drinking and drifting around. Now the world desperately needs him again, as the evil Mr. Midnight plots to take over New York, but Captain Invincible is reluctant to save the hypocrites that exiled him and – moreover – he forgot how to fly "The Return of Captain Invincible" is the prototypic example of a 'hit- and-miss' film. Many of the conceptual ideas are terrific and several sequences are both very creative and downright hilarious, but at the same time the film suffers from numerous defaults. Practically every great scene and/or moment of ingeniousness is followed by an irrelevant and dull scene or a needlessly mushy musical interlude. The film is very uneven in its set-up, exchanging absurd jokes and singing evil masterminds with moments of sentimental romance. It sometimes even feels like you're watching two entirely different films; especially when you're watching stoned like I was… The biggest entertainment value of "The Return of Captain Invincible" lies in the smaller details. Christopher Lee's sidekick, for example, looks like an evil version of Yoda with a Fu-Manchu mustache. The undeniable highlight is, as a matter of course, owned by Lee himself when he sings a hymn glorifying evil activities. Lovers of offbeat musicals might be very interest to know that nearly all songs are reminiscent to the soundtrack of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". Overall, this definitely could have been a much better film if certain parts were cut and others had been more elaborated, but it's nevertheless a unique and strangely exhilarating film. Thank you, crazy Aussie people, for yet another wondrous piece of cult legacy.