Tuesday, May 24, 2022

Knight Rider 2000 (TV Movie 1991)

In the future, guns have been banned and criminals are now frozen instead of being locked up for the remainder of their sentences with the hope of killing off crime. But after a series of shootings with banned handguns, Michael Knight is brought back from his peaceful life to fight crime once again and bring justice. Upon his return, he insists on the help from his partner K.I.T.T. his artificially-intelligent car from years ago. However, there is only one problem. K.I.T.T. has been deactivated and is now in pieces. Following the story and adventures of the popular 80s series: Knight Rider (TV Series 1982-1986), this film, which ended the Knight Rider story, was a made-for-TV movie. It returned David Hasselhoff to the role of Michael Knight alongside Edward Mulhare as Devon Miles and William Daniels as the voice of K.I.T.T. which was so great to see. This film was supposed to renew the show and bring a new series set in a futuristic society but ultimately failed. I am personally not a great fan of this film, I adored the series but this didn't carry the same exciting feel or delight I had grown to know from the series. I also wasn't too keen on the future setting as it didn't really grab me unlike the 80s setting of the original being a, at that time, modern-day show. There are things I like but ultimately it doesn't compare to the enjoyment the show brings. It even has some choices I disagree with strongly and I'm about to go into some spoilers so if you don't want any spoilers then skip past the red. *Spoilers* Far into the film Devon is captured and the criminals look into his memories to learn about Michael and K.I.T.T., once they have finished getting all the info they need, they kill him. It was so sad and unnecessary and I still can't understand why they would do it and it was a big punch in the heart to Knight Rider fans like myself. He was one of the best characters on the show and knowing that's how it ends for him is so upsetting. There are some interesting cool additions this movie brought, however, like seeing K.I.T.T. being put into different cars, from Michael's Blue Chevy to the sleek red K.I.F.T (Knight Industries Four Thousand). Michael and K.I.T.T. still have some great banter which is always nice to see especially with it being one of the highlights of the series. For the majority of the film K.I.T.T. manages to deliver some hilarious one-liners that still got a chuckle out of me, like, for example, "There's nothing worse than a smart-ass automobile." One of my favourite scenes in the whole film was when K.I.T.T. stuns what he believes to be a criminal but is in fact James Doohan, who is Scotty from the amazing sci-fi show Star Trek (TV Series 1966-1969) and the movies which followed. It was a great reference with him muttering 'phasers on stun, captain' and 'I don't think I can hold him Mr Spock' which are lines from the show. Even Michael knew him and remarked to the others asking if they were a Trekkie (a fan of Star Trek). I couldn't believe it when I first saw it and was easily the best part of the whole film hands down. Overall, it's not a bad movie but not a great one, especially with what came before. It felt much darker and grittier than the original that we all love. If you haven't seen the show then I'd highly recommend that but not so much this film. If you want to see everything Knight Rider then you can check it out if you can find it. My copy was part of the box set shown in the images below as an added bonus extra but maybe it'll show up on streaming services one day. 


Runtime: 1h 31m
Director: Alan J. Levi 
Genre: Action / Sci-fi

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Movie Trailer:


My DVD Boxset:

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