Snark, Critic and Pop!

Sure, there may be a big budget Captain America movie opening on Friday. Sure, it actually looks like it might be pretty good. But is that any reason to forsake the REAL Captain America, Reb Brown? He didn’t need molded plastic to improve his physique!

Yes, back in the 70s, there was a made-for-TV Captain America featuring former football player turned former actor Reb Brown. To say the Captain America of 1979 sucked is being generous.  (Think Charlie’s Angels without the babes or the sharp acting and writing. *shudder*)  But it is the wonderful kind of suck that we here at SnarkCriticPop enjoy sooooo very much. It lives on in cheesy glory, and those glory days will ride again this weekend on the SyFy Channel, starting Thursday night! Fire up the DVRs, my friends!

Other than Captain America and a role in the Gene Hackman movie Uncommon Valor, Reb Brown is best known for the amazingly low-budget science fiction film Space Mutiny. Space Mutiny is one of my favorite films ever featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000. It featured special effects lifted from the original Battlestar Galactica. It featured Reb Brown as the ultimate, meat-head Buck Rogers type, who the MST3K gang labels with innumerable generic super guy names (“Blast HardCheese!”). Brown screams like a little girl during the climactic battle sequence on little space go-carts. And I didn’t mention the space captain who looked like Santa Claus. Enjoy!