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Click here to return to the main site. DVD Review
When Charles Graiman's home is attacked by mercenaries they accidentally activate a highly advanced car, KITT. Aware that they will attempt to strike at his daughter next KITT contacts Sarah Graiman, who is working at Stanford University. Fleeing, they seek the help of an old friend of Sarah’s, Mike Traceur, who has changed his name to distance him from his estranged father. Together with KITT they have to save the professor and stop the mercenaries getting their hands on Prometheus... Knight Rider (2008) was the revitalised version of the old TV show. The franchise had limped along since the show's cancellation with a number of movies, but this was the first serious attempt to bring it back to the small screen as a series. The show stared Justin Bruening as Mike Traceur, Deanna Russo as Sarah Graiman, Bruce Davison as Charles Grainman, Kitt was voiced by Val Kilmer. The show was slick affair and still holds up eight years later, unfortunately the mistakes that were made with this new iteration have not been tempered with time. I’m guessing that when they looked back to the original Glen Larson show they attempted to mine the vein of its original success. Sure, the car was important in this respect, but it was only one element of the show’s success. In this new version KITT has been moved so centre stage that it may have well been renamed the KITT show, it feels like a television show that has been written by Jeremy Clarkson. The show takes great pains in showing the car in its best aspect, how the cities reflection is defined against the car's jet black skin, how it looks speeding through interesting environments, it almost fetishizes the vehicle. It even becomes a more integral aspect of the film's espionage elements, In some cases KITT only uses the humans as it cannot pass as one, although it does now do a good Transformers routine. As far as the actors are concerned, I think they did what they could with pretty generic scripts, but there was little believable chemistry between the two leads. The set is presented across four DVDs. As well as the episodes, disc one has a full length commentary for the pilot episode Prometheus. The Icon Reborn (9 min, 14 sec) with cast and crew talking about the show, it’s at the level of an extended advert. K.I.T.T. from 2000 to 3000 (6 min, 21 sec) takes a look at how the car was designed, once again nice but not deep. Lastly, Knight Rider: Legacy (5 min, 45 sec) and everyone big’s up the importance of the show in American culture. Disc two has a Gag Reel (6 min, 11 sec); there are a lot of people fluffing their lines, but there are also some genuinely funny pieces here. Audio options are for DD5.1 or DD2.0. It was interesting to see the new version of the car, however the show is let down by its scripts and lack of chemistry. 6 Charles Packer Buy this item online
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