Knight Rider

Many many years ago, there was a televi­sion series I kinda liked. They called it Knight Rider. I called it a guy in a cool car. I don’t remember much about those ancient days, but I still remember that I liked the series.

Over the last week, I watched the latest avatar of Knight Rider: the movie that aired on NBC. Now, it may have struck you as strange that I said ‘over the last week’, because people gener­ally don’t watch movies over a week. Give them two hours, and they’re done with it. But this one was different. This one was so bad you could have mistaken it for a soap opera. They might as well have sung me a lullaby.

Occasion­ally, the actors tried to act. Oh well, I’m sure they tried their best. See, this woman is chased by bad guys, who have probably killed her father. I suppose she believes in living “in the moment” though, because she only seems inter­ested in that car of hers. She’s also very inter­ested in knowing why her old boyfriend left her.

Like all movies, there’s this guy who claims to be the hero. He doesn’t do much, but I suppose they needed someone to fill the spot. He’s the son of the original Knight Rider, which is deemed an appro­priate excuse for pretty much every­thing he does. He’s also our heroine’s former boyfriend, who blew her off years ago for no reason at all.

There is no chemistry between them. She might just as well have eloped with the car.

And speaking of the car, this car has one of the most advanced artifi­cial intel­li­gence systems ever built. It can do a lot of things — access infor­ma­tion that couldn’t possibly be obtained, talk to people to make them feel better, and show pretty pictures related to every­thing it says. Unfor­tu­nately, its brilliant creator forgot to install a decent intru­sion detec­tion system, so the average bad-guy-geek can hack into its computer in what, twenty minutes?

Let’s skip ahead to the end. Actually, I still haven’t watched the ending, but let me guess how it would turn out. Obviously, our hero would claim some deep and dark reason for having abandoned his girl despite having loved her, and we would all be asked to feel sorry for him. Then the reunited couple would exchange the customary hugs and kisses, and would live happily ever after.

Maybe I’ll find out how it really ended, someday, but frankly, not knowing is turning out to be a far more exciting prospect.

6 Responses to “Knight Rider”

  1. Aruna Says:

    We’ve also watched Street Hawk– the one with the motorcycle!

  2. Ramnath R Iyer Says:

    Yes, I actually liked Street Hawk more than Knight Rider, but I don’t remember much about it now. There were some reruns of Knight Rider on TV last year that served to refresh my memory.

    And by the way, I watched the ending yesterday, and my predic­tions were spot on. One thing that made little sense is that the FBI now wants him to drive the car for their ‘missions.’ Why? Leaving aside the fact that he’s the original Michael Knight’s son, he’s essen­tially a random loser from a wide range avail­able on the streets. What remark­able skills does he display? None, in my opinion.

    This was a perfect ending for a perfectly bad movie. I’m glad I wasn’t disappointed.

  3. Anonymous Says:

    lol.. how do u end up watching such movies.. on another note.. donot watch atone­ment.. its exces­sively overhyped

  4. Anonymous Says:

    Anything better than what I have had to endure over my weekend… Kadar Khan doing a K-serial precuror with full-on hysterics in ‘Jaisi Karni Waisi Bharni’ for a couple of hours and then Juhi Chawla n Govinda in the next movie, with their horren­dous 80s hairdos and costumes, on a cycle singing “Chandi ki cycle, sone ki seat, aao chalein darrrrling, chalein double seat”. The worst part is I actually remember hearing this song years ago…

    I would have changed the channel, but I had already settled into a comfy sofa and the remote was just out of reach…I mentally tuned out the TV by fanta­sising about scratching my wrists open with a piece of barbed wire… Somehow fell asleep…next thing I know I wake up with the remote in my hand… I now believe in a benev­o­lent TV God :-)

  5. Varun Says:

    This is Jesse Mach, an ex-motorcycle cop, injured in the line of duty. Now a police troubleshooter, he’s been recruited for a top secret govern­ment mission to ride Street Hawk. An all terrain attack motor­cycle, designed as a fighter of urban crime, capable of incred­ible speeds upto 300 miles per hour and immense fire power. Only one man, federal agent Normal Tuttle knows Jesse Mach’s true identity. The Man… The Machine… Street Hawk.”

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streethawk

    My dad and I used to program the VCR and tape episodes that we missed. I think I still have some of those tapes lying around :-) I still remember the couple of episodes when the hero takes off his helmet… too cool. But am not sure if I would be able to enjoy it now.

  6. Varun Says:

    http://www.streethawkonline.com/bikeinfo.php
    http://probertdesigns.com/Folder_DESIGN/S_HAWK_Designs.html

Leave a Reply