Strong and Moving!

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

A TV movie updating of the classic KNIGHT RIDER series, this was envisaged as a pilot for a new revamped show which didn't get picked up. However, it's still pretty entertaining for what it is, and it has a lot of fan-pleasing elements included too. The story sees KITT rebuilt from scratch and David Hasselhoff coming out of retirement to help fight corruption from within the police force as well as a murderous mad man intent on wreaking havoc in the city.KNIGHT RIDER 2000 has a pleasant early '90s feel to it which brings it in line with sci-fi fare from that era. The early futuristic set dressing is quite fun as is the political debate, and the cast members all do a dedicated job. I was particularly delighted to see Mitch Pileggi playing another villainous role riffing on his turn in Wes Craven's SHOCKER. The one let down is the action; there are few action scenes and those that do take place simply aren't very good, but the film as a whole has a solid ambiance that makes it rather likable.

"Knight Rider 2000" is a very well-made film, originally produced as the pilot for a new show with Susan Norman and Carmen Argenziano as the main leads. David Hasselhoff, Edward Mulhare, and William Daniels all reprised their roles, and its a real shame the new series never took off; I'd have watched it for sure.The story is fairly simple, but effective. 14 years after the end of the series, Devon Miles (Mulhare) still runs the Knight Foundation, partnered with former district attorney Russell Maddock (Argenziano). Conventional firearms have been banned across the board, even from the police. Evildoers are no longer held in jail cells, but cryogenically frozen for their crimes. When a Seattle mayor is shot with a semi-automatic handgun, Devon seeks out retired ally Michael Knight (Hasselhoff) to aid the investigation, pairing him with a rebuilt KITT (Daniels), and police officer Shawn McCormick (Norman). The villain of the piece is Thomas J. Watts (Mitch Pileggi), a former cop turned gunrunner, with a notable connection to McCormick.This film originally aired in 1991, and has become a cult favorite for fans of the series. Its easily light-years ahead of any other attempt to revive the property, including 1997's "Team Knight Rider" and the 2008 reboot starring Justin Bruening and Deanna Russo. The original show is still the best of them all, but this movie's a worthy successor, included on both the standalone Season 1 DVD set and the Complete Series package.

So they decided to make a Knight Rider TV movie with no budget, no action, no stunts and they decided to play it very seriously.An American future without guns sounds like a good idea for a b-movie, but in a TV show that had tactical nuclear warheads being sold on the black market to shady businessmen every week you kinda expected a bit more from this lacklustre, banal TV movie.There's no KITT, they've replaced the famous Black Trans-Am with some red car that does NO STUNTS whatsoever. Devon is killed by the bad guys, but should have just retired.This movie is so bad, so awful, so woeful that I dread to think what the much rumoured "new" Knight Rider movie, Knight Rider 3000, will be like - if its anything like this it'll burn and burn badly.

***CONTAINS SPOILERS***Knight Rider 2000 was not without a few minor faults; however, these faults were so minor that one could easily forgive them when viewing this enjoyable movie.I don't really rate most reunion movies as they never match the spirit of the original but to be fair, how can they ever? Can an artist recreate an original painting? No, so you have to let a few things pas by when reviewing a reunion movie.The story is set in 2000 where police officers are forbidden to carry guns and criminals are cryogenically frozen. The Foundation for Law and Government still exists but K.I.T.T. is just a memory and Michael Knight has been on one long sabbatical. A policwoman is shot in the head and one of K.I.T.T.'s original chips is implanted in her head. This means she will eventually team up with Michael Knight (who comes out of retirement) and K.I.T.T. (whose brain was kept even after the car was scrapped). Eventually, Michael and Shawn (the policewoman) do battle against the evil Thomas Watts (played by Mitch Pileggi), the man who originally shot Shawn.Firstly, the minor faults. No mention of Bonnie (or April) and RC3 from the original series. This is always a problem with reunion movies; you wonder if it would really be that hard to at least mention characters who don't show up for the film. Secondly, one fault (considered by most fans) is that K.I.T.T. is not a black Trans-Am and that there are no major stunts in this movie. However, I didn't find this a fault as for once, the characters carried the show and whilst K.I.T.T. should always retain an important part in the KR universe, we didn't need to see him Turbo Boost or Ski Mode in order to make the story great. The story was great despite the lack of stunts.And, it is an interesting story with interesting characters and a very good plot. Some reunion movies can show lazy scripting but I didn't see this in KR 2000. It's hard to find fault with this film even if you look for it (which I didn't). It is a shame we didn't get to see this develop into a TV show (even a short-lived one). The final point I'd like to make is how devastated I was at the death of Devon Miles who was an integral character in the original KR. The actor who played Devon- Edward Mulhare- died of cancer a few years after this show.If you can appreciate that this will be different in some ways to the original series, then you will enjoy it. KR 2000 does a good job in honouring the spirit of the original series whilst giving KR fans something new.