Knight Rider (2008) > Reviews (3)

Cast
• Justin Bruening as Mike Traceur
• Deanna Russo as Sarah Graiman
• Bruce Davison as Charles Graiman
• Sydney Tamiia Poitier as FBI Agent Carrie Rivai
• Val Kilmer as the Voice of KITT
• David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight

THIS TIME ROUND :
Mike Traceur is a bitter former Army Ranger and failed race car driver, just got a new lease on life, neither he cares for or wants this chance to make up for his past failings. FLAG wants a new driver, but he is hesitant to join this mysterious group and doubts this super car or he can make a difference. He's got problems, he's in debt and people want to kill him. The choice is all too obvious for him and the Knight Industries Three Thousand (K.I.T.T).

VIEW
The first thing to say is that this may not be a film although it may be being sold as one now. I suppose there are two ways to look at this version of Knight Rider: as a stand-alone TV movie, and as a pilot for a TV series. To be honest what we have here is NBC testing the water by creating a two-hour backdoor pilot to air later that season but selling it as a stand alone feature.

As a stand-alone movie, some might feel it falls a little bit short, I would have to say that I probably would not pay the full £15.00 which most DVDs seem to be released at these days but it would be worth considering when it drops into the three for the price of 2 bargin bin! The film goes out of its way to establish that it's not the 80s format that everyone has grown to love and remember. Gone are the clean cut morals with threesomes, lesbians, and commentary on private security firms working in Iraq (so perhaps not one for the kids). I think that they may have overreached themselves by cramming so many characters into the story, any chance of decent character development for the leads (Mike Traceur, KITT) was lost but again this is a pilot and I guess establishing characters is also important.

So as a pilot for a TV series, it stacks up much better. The number of characters almost disappears when you remember they're trying to lay a foundation for future episodes of a series; but future installments will need to focus on the relationship between the KITT and Traceur to duplicate the relationship between Michael knight and Kitt in the original at the end of the day it was this that made the original show a success.

All in all, there were some good effects, a little action, a few chuckles, and some nice nods to the past. Let's see where they take it if and when it goes to series. Which I think it should on the evidence before us.

A couple of interesting facts:
Will Arnett was cast as the voice of KITT, but was replaced because he had done commercial voiceovers for General Motors and the show uses Ford cars, creating a conflict of interest

But just remember:-

"Knight Rider...a shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man who does not exist. Michael Knight, a young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless in a world of criminals who operate above the law."