Knight Rider 2008

[BarTopDancer]

Not bad for what it is. I hope it sticks around for a little while.

I want the car. NOW.

[ozron]

I was a big geeky fan of the original. I liked this one - of course, one has to be capable of a healthy suspension of disbelief, but I have no problem with that.

I did want to see the Hoff drive off in a black Trans Am after the funeral...

[Alex]

Even all souped up and morphable the modern Mustang is a damn-ugly car. I understand why other people might like it but it does absolutely nothing for me.

When it returns as a standard hour-long thing I'll give it a couple shots but last night was not very promising. And it's weird, but in the commercials KITT's voice is very recognizably that of Will Arnett (from Arrested Development) but I didn't recognize it at all in the actual movie.

[Alex]

Well, that explains it. Will Arnett was forced out participating in the show by GM so 10 days ago they replaced all of his lines with Val Kilmer.

I was so busy trying to hear Arnett that I never gave it a chance of recognizing Kilmer.

[Kevy Baby]

Even all souped up and morphable the modern Mustang...

Will Arnett was forced out participating in the show by GM...Maybe I need to read up a bit, but if by "GM" you mean General Motors, it strikes me as odd that GM would be forcing a change of character in a show featuring a Ford.


ETA: OK, I found the reason:

Last week, Variety reported that Will Arnett, the new voice of KITT, had to be replaced by Val Kilmer. General Motors, at nearly the last minute, suddenly said it didn't want Arnett, who does commercial voice-overs for GMC Trucks, to be the voice of the TV movie's Ford Mustang.

[blueerica]

I didn't watch it last night, for some reason that I'm unsure of. Perhaps I was afraid, as I have learned to be with the things I loved in the past - The Last Unicorn... anyone see that lately? Don't. - maybe I just wanted it to be something I knew it couldn't live up to with my retardedly high expectations. I forgot that Will Arnett (love him!) was supposed to be the voice... so maybe... I don't know.

I hesitated, and watched Raiders of the Lost Ark instead. It was deliciously campy.

[BarTopDancer]

I didn't watch it last night, for some reason that I'm unsure of. Perhaps I was afraid, as I have learned to be with the things I loved in the past - The Last Unicorn... anyone see that lately? Don't. - maybe I just wanted it to be something I knew it couldn't live up to with my retardedly high expectations. I forgot that Will Arnett (love him!) was supposed to be the voice... so maybe... I don't know.

I hesitated, and watched Raiders of the Lost Ark instead. It was deliciously campy.

I only gave it a chance because it is a continuation of the original, not a remake. And they account for the time gap - they don't try and pretend it picks up right where the other left off.

[blueerica]

I only gave it a chance because it is a continuation of the original, not a remake. And they account for the time gap - they don't try and pretend it picks up right where the other left off.

I knew it wasn't a remake. I just couldn't bring myself to watch it for some reason, unknown to me. I mean... I've been watching The Sarah Connor Chronicles, so in essence, what's the difference? I'm just not sure... I'll probably get over it and watch it on a re-run, which I'm positive they'll have. Maybe it was the daunting two hours? Could they break it into two different one-hour episode? Hrmm...

[Alex]

Well, essentially it is a remake they just do the standard "and now the exact same thing as the first time around but this time with the children of the first show."

[Pirate Bill]

I watched the first half, then sleep began to overtake me and I went to bed. I did have very vivid dreams of driving KITT though, so that was fun.

I'll watch the other half tonight.

Hot chicks and fast cars... What's not to like?

[alphabassettgrrl]

I didn't realize this was on already. I might give it a chance, even if it is a Mustang. They've gone downhill since the original in the 60s; I say that even though my brother drives one.

I do like hot chicks and fast cars...

[Kevy Baby]

I must be in the minority as I LIKE the latest Mustangs. The whole throwback to the Boss 302 look works for me.

Although I think they should not even offer anything but a V8. But then their sales would plummet, so I guess they need to.

[Pirate Bill]

Saw the rest of it last night.

The first half was way better than the second half. The ending just seemed to drag on forever. Overall though, it wasn't great, nor was it even good. It was fun though, for a (pretty much) free movie. It was a tasty little piece of bubble gum that I enjoyed while it lasted but I'm not really craving to taste again.

The way it ended they seemed to be setting up a regular series, yet I see no series on the schedule. I probably wouldn't watch it anyway. Two hours for a one-off made for TV movie I'm okay with. But T&A and fast cars aren't enough to keep me interested in watching bad acting, uninteresting plots, and lame characters for an hour every week.

[NirvanaMan]

I loved it myself. I watched it fully expecting it to be terrible and wanting to tear it apart for bastardizing my childhood as they did with "Team Knight Rider" and to a lesser extent "Knight Rider 2000".

And at first, the bad acting seemed to indicate that my assumptions were correct. Though maybe, that was just an homage to the original. :)

All fears were quenched when I sat up, giddy like a school girl, as they walked into the garage. I saw the original K.I.T.T. under the tarp. The Tuned Port Injection engine that indicated it was a GM product after all. A motor from a Trans Am in fact. Then the old license plate, the steering wheel. Woo hoo!

There were some groans that my former colleagues decided to turn a great product placement opportunity into a ginormous in-your-face obnoxious Ford/Mazda/Volvo/Lincoln commercial (Mercury was currently absent as was Lincoln save for the limos; Jaguar and Land Rover are in the process of being sold so not oddity in their exclusion). I will have to take to my guys about how to do product placement right, though it was likely the result of Bob's good product placement and an idiotic overzealous marketing department looking to capitalize on the placement deal. But I digress.

I thoroughly enjoyed the storyline. The homages to the past "don't wreck the car Micheal" and the continuity they introduced. Instead of so many a remake that tries to bring an old story into the modern era (Dukes of Hazzard comes to mind) they actually continued the story instead of ignoring the 25 year progression. The inclusion of Micheal Knight was well done and well thought out.

Much of K.I.T.T.'s features requires a suspension of disbelief as it should be (remember in the original the buttons would change on the IP every episode to provide features that just happened to come in handy) and the surprise at the end with K.I.T.T. launching out the back of a C-130 as opposed to the expected trailer was delightfully fun. And as proper, kit did a 180 and went on his way.

Tons of fun I thought. Not sure I dig Val Kilmer as the voice though.

[Gemini Cricket]

You know, when I first saw the ad for this I thought it was a joke. Oy vey, it's not a joke?