Review: Knight Rider
Did you actually watch this? I admit, that I randomly discovered it about 30 minutes in and about 10 minutes after that was kinda watching it and kinda working on the computer. Its case was not helped by commercial breaks every 5 minutes.
But for real. This was awful. Unrelentingly awful. Were there any 2 consecutive minutes that wasn’t a cliche? Even a melodramatic conclusion with the Hoff guest starring couldn’t save it. Ok, I did like it when he turned KITT into an instant roadblock, and KITT itself looks pretty good. But that’s about it, I really don’t think there’s one even potentially good thing about this show. Wow. I guess it was a perfectly terrible show. Did I miss something?
Oh. I weep for Val Kilmer.
UPDATE 3: Sigh. Well, it scored the gigantic Nielsen ratings last night. “racked up the best demo score for a movie on television in nearly three years” We’ll see how the series does.
UPDATE 2: Well, io9 seems to pretty much agree with me, but in much more detail. Heh and here’s Jalopnik’s live blog of the show. Man, I would’ve enjoyed it much more if I’d been reading that!
UPDATE: Well, honestly, I just can’t be bothered to write up what I didn’t like about the show. It’d be too long - I wrote what I did like about the show above. But if you must see what people liked about it (and people definitely seemed to dig it more than I did…) here’s a random sampling from the top of Google blogsearch. Screenrant’s. TVJab’s. 2012movies.net’s. Psyc3d’s.
February 18th, 2008 at 11:59 am
I liked the car. Unfortunately, that they showed its bulletproofness and morphing powers twice each while eluding the bad guys was one time too many. I was surprised that the inventor was still alive but besides that, everything else was as expected. The conversation between the new Mike and the old Mike was HORRIBLE. “I’m Michael Knight and I’m your father.” WTF? Was no Empire Strikes Back moment. The CGI effects weren’t bad. I would’ve loved if Will Arnett could have remained the voice of KITT (snarky!) but oh well. Overall I’ll give it a “Eh. *shrug*” I may watch a few more eps to see how it goes. I don’t remember much of the original besides enjoying it back then but since it was a campy 80s show it couldn’t have been THAT good.
February 18th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
The show was sort of just like an old episode of Knight Rider. And as you suggest, that isn’t a complement. Cheap 80’s writing, stale plot… man. They seem to have not gotten on the re-imagining for the 21st century kick that everyone else is on.
Also… is the dad guy totally type cast in your brain, too? I kept expecting him to turn into fish guy and then melt away. Not his fault, but that’s all I see when I seem him now.
February 18th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
I agree with ronin, the cool parts of the car were overused by the first episode? I don’t think the car is cool a all though. I am kind of a car person and to take a Shelby Cobra and do those things to it, sad! At least a Trans Am was an essentially worthless car to begin with. Thats why it was so cool. It was like putting GPS on a Radio Flier. This is a Shelby Cobra! It already took it’s path to coolness, don’t much it up! Kitt would have been better off as a Lancer or the new Camaro or something. Not that it matteres because the rest of the show sucked. You had to figure that if they messed up the car to begin with.
February 19th, 2008 at 8:23 am
Hey man. The original Shelby Cobra never had no materializing spoiler, I’ll tell you that much. And you’re showing your NJ colors there recommending the ol’ IROC-Z. :)
February 20th, 2008 at 10:45 am
I just watched the show and it wasnt as bad as i had expected. Thats not to say it was good by any means; it just met my (admittedly lowered) expectations. They actually got a few small things right, although most the big stuff they did not. The Hoff looked really bizarre and out of place and Val Kilmer as KITT?? strangley, that actually worked for me.
So let me get one thing straight, KITT can make himself look like anything, as long as its a 2008 mustang? Like he can be a purple 2008 mustang or a sliver 2008 mustang? Arent his enemies gonna catch onto this?
February 20th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
If it was only the color change then yeah, the enemies would catch onto it. But he also changes his license plate and the rear spoiler too. Cause every bad guy knows that if the license plates don’t match then it can’t possibly be the same car.
February 20th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Great point Ben. Totally forgot that KITT has a full 3 (count em, THREE) levels of spoiler: No spoiler; single spoiler; super duper double spoiler.
February 20th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Now if they were serious about this shit, what they would have done is A) given KITT spinning rims and B) nano-flourescent lights underneath the car that he also can change the colors of. oh and C) a mammoth subwoofer in the trunk. oh and lcd screens all over the place and an xbox.
February 20th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
I just hope that KITT’s features and AI can be integrated into my electric toothbrush. Plaque wouldn’t stand a chance!