The Return of Captain Invincible

The US government's latest secret weapon is stolen, and the only man who can find it is an alcoholic ex-superhero. Captain Invincible returned to obscurity in his native Australia after a nasty run in with HUAC...

Captain Invincible is a hilarious, rock-opera parody of DC/Marvel superhero comics. To give away too much of the ridiculously ramshackle plot would be to spoil it, but you suspect this film was inspired by Christopher Lee's lament that he never starred in a musical comedy.

Lee steals the film as the dastardly arch-villain Mr. Midnight, belting out his numbers in a fine bass-baritone, as scantily clad slave girls massage his jodhpured thighs. Unforgettable.

I love this film! Ok, the plot is a little thin, but when you have Alan Arkin playing his part so beautifully (with tongue firmly in cheek) and the marvellous spectacle of Christopher Lee as the evil Mr Midnight, coupled with songs by Richard O'Brian, who cares about a little thing like the plot?! There are lots of throwaway lines, sound gags, sight gags and puns in here which means that I can sit through repeat viewings and still find something new, much as I did with Airplane (sad but true!)and the highlight for me is Mr Midnight taunting Cap with 'Name Your Poison', one of O'Brien's best numbers (behind the Time Warp and the Floor Show from 'The Rocky Horror Show'. If the film has a weakness it's that it can't quite make up its mind whether to be a comedy, a musical, a super-hero story or indeed anything, but it still has a wonderful gentle charm. I just wish I could track down a commercial video of it in England, as my copy taped from the TV is starting to break up!

"The Return Of Captain Invincible" starts with one of the greatest spoofs of a newsreel show I have ever seen in cinema as a pre-title sequence. Funny moments and tragicomic situations follow back-to-back, but the definite scene-stealers are the songs (two of which feature Christopher Lee's voice). How much better can a song about the eductive power of alcohol start than with these immortal lines: "Mai Tai say that I'm Old-Fashioned / Tres vin ordinaire / That I want a fresh Manhattan / With white Anglo-Saxons everywhere / A Black Russian's / No Pink Lady / Give her the Singapore Sling / And Moscow Mule is not your baby / So Highball the Vodka and name your sting"? But I'm digressing: if you have a nostalgic love for old superhero movies, are not opposed to a little parody on the US and Australia alike, and are willing to follow that film in its occasionally whimsy turns, this is your choice for a late night film with friends (and don't forget to "Have a short or a Port or a snort of any sort" while watching)!

The strangest movie I've seen since "Popeye" - part action movie, part fantasy, part comedy and part musical, this movie stars Alan Arkin as a onetime Captain America-type superhero who fell into obscurity after being accused of being a Commie by a McCarthy-like politician. Now years later, a group of scientists, government officials and military types are trying to sober him up and bring him back to superhero trim so he may save the human race from a new peril.

That's the plot in a nutshell, but it's really the songs which make the movie. The President of the USA, annoyed at the bovine excreta being shoveled his way by his advisers, suddenly screams "B______t!", and turns the expletive into a snappy toe tapping tune. If you look carefully, you can see the actor playing the President trying to keep a straight face (and not quite succeeding).

This isn't a consistently good or entertaining movie, but the parts that are good and entertaining are well worth the $10 DVD price.

I just saw the film for the first time tonight, so these are some brief impressions.

This virtually unknown little movie is a weird, goofy, silly, and touchingly sincere experience. The very premise of the film is fascinating, and though we've seen the "old-time hero in the modern world" premise before and since, this is one effort that really delves into the potential of that idea. The script keeps dropping in bits of social satire and commentary; the evil villain's plot is essentially the inverse of "white flight", seeking to "purify" New York by luring all the minorities to the suburbs and then killing them. The implication that he's also the supreme evil force in the universe adds a neat mythic touch. The Captain's quest to re- capture the spirit of America that inspired him to begin with is rather sweet, and Kate Fitzpatrick is charming as the spunky heroine. (Arkin and Lee are great, but aren't they always.) The songs are generally fun, even when predictable- despite being written by a number of different people (including Richard O' Brien!) they've got a nice consistency.

It's a flawed film in many ways- the humor is uneven, ranging from the clever to the silly (often at the same time- though "Amazing Computer Brain is Stuck!" got a laugh from me.) The finale is so abbreviated that I'm convinced there were scenes that were either cut or never filmed. And, this isn't really a criticism, but I do wonder why Australians were making a movie about the American spirit.

Still, this movie doesn't deserve the sheer obscurity it seems to suffer. It's undoubtedly a unique film, and as such provides a truly fascinating experience.