Captain America is busted down to a Private
This is a movie I can see plenty of people not liking for several reasons. Personally, I just didn’t think much of the movie itself, with clumsy dialogue, bad acting or the fact that it’s just a poor attempt at cashing in on an iconic movie, but most will hold it up against the real Easy Rider, and see how transparent a film this really is. I mean, why else make a film in the first place, if not for profit or personal gain. Well, in actual fact, a lot of films are labors of love, whether they contain a message or not. This movie fails on so many levels, and the fact they briefly talk about the troops in the middle east, but then move straight to talk of weed, demonstrates how seriously the filmmaker takes subjects that really matter, and could have turned this movie into something else. A bit of a waste in my opinion. It uses the anti war message in a way that didn’t suit this type of movie, but that is to look deeply at something clearly shallow, and ill-conceived. (Have a look at the trailer to the right of this article)
I admittedly had problems hearing some dialogue, (I had problems with my set-up, the soundtrack was fine on the movie) but really, I tried to err on the side of caution with this review, but I doubt a few more understood lines would have made any real difference anyway. Captain America (Wyatt) was murdered forty years ago, but some of his possessions have survived, and now belong to his brother. Like his famous leather jacket, which brother Virgil brought back and now wears himself. Wearing shades, riding his bike, Virgil does indeed resemble his brother (Peter Fonda), but that’s as far as it goes, because the similarities begin and end there.
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Virgil decides it’s time to take “the ride back,” but we end up meeting an assortment of walking, talking cliches and stereotypes. Like the drug lord who can’t fake sniffing coke, or the one I hated, when Wes Coast (Jeff Fahey) asks for reefer instead of weed. If you’ve been smoking weed for forty years but don’t know that for at least half that time, it hasn’t been called reefer, it isn’t plausible. Believe me, it isn’t. We also flashback on old man William, who suffers from night terrors thanks to the war (the big one), but he is wheelchair bound now and forced to live with his daughter Shane (Sheree J. Wilson), however he isn’t happy about being away from his own home. We find out Shane and Wes used to be an item but it’s more about her struggle living with a father who has PTSD. There isn’t much in this film that anyone who likes the original Easy Rider will like this for, as they are two different creatures entirely. Not being an expert on the first, I can’t point them all out, but I know what I see, and this isn’t one for fans of the real Easy Rider but it is watchable none the less.
Grade: D
Review by E. Blackadder, special to Influx Magazine
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