Woodyanders 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-nude 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.

rp-mccann 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.

Steve_from_Wales This is a film that could have become a cult classic with better editing. Some bits just don't work - in the BBC TV showing these were edited out; if you can, get that version rather than the full version on DVD. If you do have the DVD version watch it once through then just skip the bits that left you cold.The humour is mostly pretty low-brow, with some appalling puns, but there's more than one level; if you're a fan of DC or Marvel comics, watch sci-fi movies or know Australian and American politics and history there are some fine little gags buried in here.There are also some very subtle sight gags - a film to watch the backgrounds as well as the foregrounds...My particular favourite is what Christopher Lee eats in the film; watch the meal scenes and you'll see what I mean.Don't worry too much about the plot - it is there and it makes sense, but it's a comic-book plot not a big story. Also, don't worry about some of the odder characters - they are ALL there for a reason, but if you haven't read/seen the right things you'll never work them out.The songs are generally very clever and, despite the singing not being the best, well delivered. "Drinking Song" is probably the highlight, with Christopher Lee doing what he does best - showing his teeth and megalomaniac glare, although his "singing" is on a par with certain other actors (William Shatner and Telly Savalas come to mind). "Mr. Midnight" is also funny; shot as two scenes; Chris with leathers and whip, surrounded by scantily-clad dominatrices, Alan on a train trying to be anonymous whilst singing and dancing.This is also Terry Pratchett's favourite film - I actually have one of his books signed "to the OTHER person who likes Captain Invincible". So there are at least *four* people in the world who loved this film - granted, the other two are my kids and they may be humouring their old man.

simhaworth 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.