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Reviews
Team Knight Rider (1997)
A valiant effort!
TKR was a good show with lots of potential. Many people judge it harshly, but I believe that the voice acting of the vehicles and the acting on the part of the drivers was good. I believe if they had been given another season to work through, the actors could have grown into the roles more and the relationships with the vehicles would have developed further. Fans who wanted the KITT/Michael relationship were bound to be disappointed since this was NOT a show focusing on KITT and Michael. These were *new* personalities, and to me that was its charm.
The vehicles themselves were awesome, and I do hope they are safely stored away somewhere to be shown off at some future time. It was nice to see the two motorcycles damaged and rebuilt. It was also great to see why there was now a TEAM and not just ONE hero. There was continuity between the two shows and it was nice to see them move away from the KR 2000 timeline and just work a new one in.
I believe this show deserved at least another season to prove its worth.
Knight Rider 2010 (1994)
Not as bad as some believe...
Believe it or not, I've watched this KR at least ten more times than KR 2000. It's not because the movie is a masterpiece, but it really does push the envelope on the KR legend and tries to do something interesting with it.
Jake McQueen is a cool character since he's not a pure good guy, quite frankly, the guy was a criminal and ultimately winds up serving justice, not just the law. He is in essence a "young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless and the powerless".
The supporting cast does their jobs well and seeing a pre-Xena Hudson Leick is refreshing. Beach does a good job at being a sheriff who walks the straight line and finds that always doesn't get the job done.
I honestly believe that this movie had great ideas, but should have taken things further. The car should have been built up over the course of the movie rather than only appear in the last half hour or so (a mistake that KR 2000 also made). The post-apocalyptic setting is cool, but the villains should have been fleshed out more. Having them be "cowboy era types" was not a problem, but they should have also been cybernetically augmented, much like their leader. The theme of humans and machines living side by side as opposed to united was interesting as well.
I always regret this show was not turned into at least a mini-series or series of movies like "Tekwar" was. It would have been interesting to see if they advanced the storyline more. Overall, a nice try.
Knight Rider 2000 (1991)
Return to a familiar place...- Contains Spoilers
KR 2000 was a movie that I actually was so excited about, I marked the calendar and spent two days before the premiere preparing to spontaneously combust in anticipation. I read the TV guide article about it ahead of time (which gave a look at the new car and its abilities) and was thrilled to hear it could have been a springboard to a new series.
At first, the movie felt like a futuristic version of the original series. Having Edward Mulhare and David Hasselhoff back was fantastic. But I think towards the middle of the movie my disappointment level grew. From all the anticipation (and the TV commercials) I had hoped that the movie would allow us to see the original KITT in action again, and then transition to the new KITT. But instead, we find the old KITT trashed and then cruising around in an old Chevy? Ack!
Then Devon is killed off and although KITT does eventually get a new body, we see it in action for (perhaps) a half hour or so and that's it.
I think if more action w/KITT had been used and Devon's death had not been so (for lack of a better term) unheroic I would have a higher opinion of the film. I do wish it had springboarded a new series since I could see the potential of a series towards the end with the new players (and perhaps Michael Knight appearing in the occasional cameo), but alas that was not to be.