Marvel’s Captain America: Winter Soldier opened this weekend to rave reviews and a huge box office take. There doesn’t seem to be any stopping to the Marvel / Disney movie machine. It’s unfortunate that Marvel’s bigger name characters aren’t controlled by Marvel Studios.
When Marvel went bankrupt in the late 1990’s they licensed out Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and the X-Men. So while Marvel can make an excellent Captain America movie they have no control over what Sony is doing with Amazing Spider-Man 2 which looks dreadful or what Fox is doing with X-Men: Days of Future Past (both films will hit theatres next month). Which brings me to today’s Sunday Matinee.
Dev 3 Adam (1973) aka 3 Giant Men is an unauthorized Turkish action adventure comic book movie. Turkey in the 1970’s was under a military coup and copyright protection was the least of their concerns. As a result quite a few cheap movies were made that infringed on many a copyright. For anyone who thought that copyright protection was solely for keeping the original owners flush with cash these films are a prime example that artist integrity needs to be protected too.
The movie features a diabolically evil Spider-Man whose costume looks like it was made in an counterfeit clothing warehouse by crippled and blind seamstresses. Spidey it seems doesn’t have his normal powers or web-shooters but instead has a knife and some really bushy eyebrows that poke out of his mask’s eye holes. Spidey has an evil gang and they are in Istanbul counterfeiting money, stealing statues, burying people in the sand and sticking boat propellers in their faces and torturing people with guinea pigs. In comes Captain America and Santo the Mexican luchador wrestler. Cap seems to be missing his shield but he has a girlfriend who is willing to work undercover and Santo isn’t the real Santo, this one takes his mask off (something the real Santo would never do) and likes to stick important evidence into his pants.
To say the movie is bad is an understatement. The music is ripped off from James Bond (from Diamonds are Forever I believe) and the budget is miniscule. Logic, continuity and acting seem to be an afterthought. People who enjoy watch bad Turkish movies may recognize Captain America actor Aytekin Akkaya who also stars in the film fondly known as Turkish Star Wars aka The Man Who Saves the World.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvX2JNobSXA
