Oddball Update

2 Comments

1. 

   Chief Oddball says:

   February 17th, 2008 at 11:39 pm

   Thanks for writing the post I meant to write, but didn’t actually get around to writing.

   OK, I just came from watching it. A few things:

   • It’s The Hoff! I liked the reference to the Wilton Knight “one man can make a difference” line, although I saw it coming a billion miles away. Would have been nice if they’d let Hoffmeister (wasn’t that a girl in our high school class?) talk to KITT for a minute.
   • Michael Traceur’s mother: “KITT’s not a Trans Am again, is it?” Hehe.
   • Um…could that possibly have been any more commercialized? “FORD would like to remind you that KITT is a FORD. The bad guys are also driving a FORD. Oh and here’s another FORD. And this? Yep, a FORD. By the way, you can go to your local FORD dealer and buy any of these FORDS right now, did you know that? Have you driven a FORD lately?”
   • OK, call me a schmuck — especially after I just ranted about the commercialism — but I liked the series of commercials with KITT, the Ford Focus, and Mike’s date.
   • If you’re a Ford fan, this movie was a wet dream.
   • The new take on the old theme music = sweet. Of course, the mere fact that they did a take on the old theme music at all makes it sweet. But I wanted more melody fanfare.
   • Trivia: The guy who played Charles Graiman is the “Poor Man’s Ed Begley, Jr.” (well, that’s what I call him, anyway) who played the doctor on the Battlestar Galactica episode “The Woman King.”
   • The acting was pretty universally bad. Seriously, it made The Hoff’s classic work on the original Knight Rider seem downright Shakespearean.
   • Val Kilmer is pretty good as the voice of KITT — me likes. He even has that sort of detached, machinistic vibe that the original KITT had in the first couple of episodes.
   • At the end, when KITT talks about how Mike’s presence is “only logical,” I was hoping they’d resurrect the line from the old pilot where KITT remarks about how he doesn’t have feelings, but the odds of finding a more compatible driver than Michael Knight are exceedingly remote.
   • Speaking of the end, I had to laugh at how Knight Riderean the whole team in the semi cargo plane was. Sarah = Bonnie, Charles = Devon, that Hispanic guy = RC. Ms. Portier = uhhh…scenery mulch?
   • Speaking of that last scene, when they opened the cargo door I thought, what’s all this wind? OH SHIT, NO, DON’T TELL ME IT’S A PLANE AND KITT’S GONNA FLY NOW. Then I saw the road back there, and I thought: good, it’s a semi truck, woohoo! More homage to the old show! Maybe he’ll even back out and do a Michael Knight J-turn! Then Mike backed out and…OH SHIT, NO, IT IS A CARGO PLANE. And the J-turn? Wow, CGI. The future is here!
   • The production department spelled “braking” wrong on one of KITT’s readouts during the first mountain road chase. Hehe.
   • There were a lot of “glamor shots” of the car, which was excellent, unlike the abysmal Knight Rider 2000 where KITT barely showed up. Of course, this was all because Ford paid a lot of money for those shots to be there.
   • The camouflage feature that turns KITT into a college chick’s V6 Mustang with the Pony Package is probably the one that sits most poorly with me. It’s just so far beyond the realm of disbelief suspension. At least the Super Pursuit Mode panels and flaps seemed to be coming from somewhere.

   One last thought. Maybe I’m a nerd, but if they make this into a series? Yes, I will watch it.

   (Yeah, I entered the sweepstakes to win the Shelby GT500 KR, too.)

2. 

   Pooch says:

   February 18th, 2008 at 8:13 am

   Well, it certainly wasn’t as bad as Knight Rider 2000. Anyway, some of my thoughts:

   The establishing shots of the beach — with the quick cuts and stuff — made me feel like I was watching an episode of CSI: Miami. This feeling was nurtured by the camera ogling Agent Portier (I know that’s not her character’s name, but I can’t be bothered to remember what that was) in her bikini after she finished her x-treme surfing. All that was missing was some dude letting his jacket fall open as he took off his shades and said, “Yeeeeeaaaaaaaaaah.”

   I wasn’t really feeling the new Mike. This may have been because I was always distracted by his messy hair. Seriously dude, get a comb. Even at the end, during his mother’s funeral, he was sporting a massive case of bed-head.

   Bruce Davison, aside from that role in Battlesnore, also played Senator Kelly in the X-Men movies. Also, how sad is it to be a poor man’s Ed Begley? I mean, the real Begley starred in Santa With Muscles, for pete’s sake!

   The constant FORD stuff was somewhat annoying, especially during the car chase early on, where the bad guys in their soccer-mom hybrid were somehow keeping pace with the super-duper GT-500. Almost, guys. Almost.

   As for KITT…well, I still prefer the original. And I was bummed we didn’t get to see any of the Two-Thousand aside from its bumper and steering yoke, but that’s to be expected. I, too, didn’t really like the nanotech/camouflage stuff. Like the second spoiler magically appearing during the all-new Super Pursuit mode and stuff. And it seems like a step backward not actually covering the car with the molecular shell in lieu of letting KITT handle the nanotech (as exhibited in the big plot point where KITT is shut off).

   The one thing that bugged me the most about camouflage mode (aside from magically appearing/disappearing hood scoops and spoilers) was that you could still see Mike and Sarah in the cockpit as they drove by, completely negating the camouflage! I mean, even the original KITT had mirrored windows when the situation called for it!

   Also, I was hoping for at least one Turbo Boost for old time’s sake. But considering how pricey the GT-500 is, Ford probably didn’t want the producers wrecking too many of those!

   What else…? I didn’t mind Val Kilmer; he was probably the best thing, aside from the Hoff’s all-too-brief cameo. He’s certainly no William Daniels, but I think he did a pretty good job; his voice definitely had that detached, robotic feel to it.

   I wanted more Hoff! And some sort of throwaway explanation as to what happened to the original KITT. But the shout-out to Wilton Knight was cool; at least they didn’t retcon the story so that Charles Graiman was the Foundation. In fact, the old series and its explanation that Wilton created KITT by himself always seemed a little farfetched to me.

   One thing that was welcome, though, was the lack of godawful “komedy” moments that Glen Larson loved putting in his shows, like the “wacky” subplot in “Knight of the Phoenix” with the two dudes wanting to carjack KITT. God.

   All-in-all, it wasn’t a bad way to waste a Sunday night. I’d certainly give a series a chance.

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