FilmFreak94 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.

MisterWhiplash 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.

Mike Sh. 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.

jonathan.eaton 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!