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Knight Rider 2000 (1991) (TV) More at IMDbPro »

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26 comments in total

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11 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
Off the rack script, 27 September 2004
Author: Philip from Amsterdam

This must be the worst movie ever. Not so bad that it can become cult, but the most unimaginative cud of a nostalgic concept. Knight Rider in the old days was cool, mysterious, fun. Even the later series had something. Forget everything. Take your standard washed out male lead (what was David THINKING?), your average conflict with the female lead, your run of the mill bad guy and don't forget to end it with the showdown that has been done 1000 of times. Of course the bad guy falls over the railing! What do you expect? And KITT in a two-tone low ride? It's not even funny. Never see this movie if you like Knight Rider before.

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9 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Knight Rider 2000 has great nostalgia that 'Knight Rider' fans will love all over the world!, 21 December 2002
Author: Old Joe from Hamilton, Australia

As a fan of 'Knight Rider' (1982-86) for as long as I can remember, I was filled with excitement when I saw that they had made a movie bringing back 'Michael Knight and KITT' called Knight Rider 2000. Although it might not be the best movie that has been made, it does embody some of the Knight Rider legacy. The ideology that 'one man can make difference' is presented here for us all to see and remember. Although with Michael Knight in 'KR 2000', you quickly learn that he may no longer be the man that made that 'folklore' so true.

In the Year 2000, criminals are frozen to save the city money and handguns are outlawed. The foundation for Law and Government (F.L.A.G.) under the leadership of Devon Miles and his new partner Russell Maddock seek to secure a new contract with the city, using their new concept car, the Knight 4000. Devon, realising that he may not be able to do it alone, he seeks out the one man who could make a difference when it mattered most - Michael Knight. Michael is reunited with his old partner KITT, while the Knight 4000 is being finished. On the way, F.L.A.G. recruits disgruntled cop Shawn McCormick, who has one of KITT's memory chips planted in her head.

This TV movie does many things that I like. Its idea of what the future might be like is valid, although back in 1991 it would have been hard to accurately depict what would and would not have been around in the year 2000. The story to KR 2000 looks closely at banned handguns, with cops only allowed to use stun guns. Then you have RNA transplants, whereby computer technology can be used to save human life, which would be of great benefit. There is also the brilliant technology, where criminals can be imprisoned by being put to sleep, immediately stopping over crowding in the prison system.

Another positive is the movies characters. The reunion of Michael (David Hasselhoff), Devon (Edward Mulhare) and KITT (William Daniels) was something that I was eagerly awaiting. In fact Michael and KITT's bond is still strong, after many years apart. I love it when KITT says, `That you Michael? You look like crap! You have obviously been flushed down the toilet since we split up. Get a life!' A funny line that only KITT could say. One downer is the demise of Devon in KR 2000, who stuck through the good times and the bad, keeping F.L.A.G. alive.

This movie shows of new characters to Knight Rider, which I found refreshing to say the least. Shawn (Susan Norman) is an ex-cop with a big agenda. I like the performance Norman gives to her character, which must have been a difficult one. The new head shot at the Knight Foundation is Maddock (Carmen Argenziano). While he might do things that are a bit eccentric, he means well and continues what FLAG was set out to do. His character is humourously accused of having 'a chip on his shoulder'.

The bad guys are not so easy to distinguish in KR 2000. The ring leader is the evil Tommy Watts (Mitch Pileggi), who is released early from prison, then causes havoc of great proportions all over the city of Detroit. This man has no conscience when it comes to getting rid of anyone that is a problem. Watts recruits crooked cops to do his dirty work, which include Shawn's former partner Kurt (Eugene Clark) and Officer Marla Hedges (Megan Butler). Hedges is one girl who looks and is mean. Yet for Knight Rider, this movie has a large amount of arrogance, which its story is not accustomed to. Many of its characters are accused of being 'arrogant' at one time or another.

Among this movies other highlights include seeing KITT (the Knight Industry Two Thousand) in action again, all be it in a '57 Chevy, and seeing what a car KIFT (the Knight Industry Four Thousand) really is. With such features as virtual reality (which can save lives) being of great use to the public that it protects. I feel a car with any sort of intelligence to be wonderful, yet with KITT he has 'humanity and a sense of humour' that makes him quite a unique automobile. I also enjoy the final fighting sequences in KR 2000, as they feel just like old times, with Michael and Shawn flexing some muscle when it is needed.

So 'KR 2000' might not be as good as what the TV series was (which had its horrible mistakes as well). What is good about it KR 2000, is that it is perfect for Knight Rider junkies, such as myself, who can not get enough of Michael and KITT strutting their stuff. Of great disappointment to me in this movie, is the lack of air time the new KIFT has, which is only about 25 minutes, not nearly enough in my view. I was not surprised to hear that there is to be a new 'Super Knight Rider 3000' movie to be made. I like the premise, but hope that the movie is not jinxed by a story that is a little out dated. Knight Rider 2000, 'Beyond state-of-the-art'.

CMRS gives 'Knight Rider 2000': 3 (Good Film)

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9 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
What ever happened to KR?, 8 November 2002

Author: knt2000

This movie is absolutely pointless. I think that they should have left the black Trans AM in the film the whole time. What's up with that Knight 4000? It had nothing the black T/A had like all of the functions, gadgets or even turbo boosts! Why does Michael Knight have a '57 Chevy in the film? Why can't he just keep the T/A and just go on with a new assignment from there? Everything should have been continued off from the original series. The original series had action, adventure, romance and there were some thrilling episodes. How come the KR2000 never had any of that stuff? Let's hope that the new Knight Rider movie will be a lot better than KR2000.

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5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
So where's KITT?, 5 February 2006
Author: modius from United Kingdom

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

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.

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Awful !!!, 19 January 2006

Author: Johnson from Riverside, NJ

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This movie stunk to high ....

This movie's plot was a joke and was made a joke. A total smack in the face of the series! I can understand Michael retiring and leaving KITT to the foundation to continue on with another driver, but once I found out that KITT got dismantled after he got "outdated", I was enraged!! Why didn't they just give him to Michael? After ALL they went though together, why couldn't they just honor Michael and have KITT retire with him. Seeing KITT in a BIN was way to heart breaking!!! Killing off Devon was another terrible piece of the plot. That was totally not needed to be done, and for what...

As for the ending, it finally put KITT in the RED car. The problem with that is I remember in one of the episodes that KITT had to be covered inside a RED fancy car shell for a mission and when he finally was out of it they asked him if he liked RED. He said "I'm the Knight Industries Two Thousand ... not a tomato on wheels". Now I totally agree. The car should be BLACK, not RED (just doesn't fit).

There were other terrible pieces of the plot and I could go on for several paragraphs but let's just say the movie did not have any good spots at all! You can tell Glen Larson had nothing to do with this movie. The plot was just not him. Hopefully in the next movie (yes, hopefully), now that they might have Glen Larson on board, they will just forget this movie existed (leave it in an alternate universe) and have it continued straight from the series' end and not this unfortunately made movie's end.

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Big Disappointment, 11 May 2005

Author: gary93 from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I've always been a big Knight Rider fan since I was a kid and I admit I've even thought about buying a mid-80s black Trans Am so I could cruise around pretending like I was Michael Knight. So after watching season one of the show on DVD and then watching this poor excuse for a movie, I am a little ticked.

First of all, where is the black Trans Am that everyone loved? I mean if you're going to replace the car at least do it with something better, not some huge front-wheel drive piece of crap.

Secondly, why did Michael turn into a wimp who wants to spend his life fishing instead of kicking ass?

Next, the music is awful. Again don't fix it if it ain't broke. The old theme was awesome and the new music doesn't even have an identifiable theme. It's just sleepy synthesized elevator music.

Why does Devon have to die, and in such a lame way? That was ridiculous.

Lastly, where is the car??? I know I said this before but I spent the whole movie waiting for the old car to pop up and it never came. And the new one sucks. Bad.

I would give this 2 stars out of pity but basically I blame crap like this for ruining the Knight Rider franchise. Yeah and Team Knight Rider sucked too.

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5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
This film is ripe with the stench of back bacon, 7 August 2004
Author: praetax from Tampa FL

This film while it has some good points is a fine example of what happens when Canadian's get their hands on high octane 80's action shows. They did it to Airwolf and the tried to do it to Knight Rider.

This was obviously a pilot episode for a show that never was and the reasons it never was are obvious. The idea was fine but the execution left a lot to be desired. The flaws are even more apparent after watching the first season episodes and the original pilot in the same DVD set.

The original show had the right idea and concept behind it. The car is the star of the show, it is indestructible, and has an arrogant personality to match. Combine that with the music that keeps you pumped into the action, a bunch of gratuitous explosions, death defying stunts and a pre-Baywatch David Hasselhoff and you have a certifiable 80's hit.

The first misfire in this project was taking the car out of the equation for 60% of it. I can understand that the Knight 4000 Pontiac Banshee was a little more expensive and one of a kind then the Knight 2000 Firebird but they didn't even present us with a single stunt that couldn't have been performed by an '84 Dodge Omni with fake wood paneling. On a positive note the new car itself had the potential of being really cool. The Banshee concept car is a sleek and cool update of the Firebird from the original series and seems to fit what we'd like to see as the KITT of the future. I think they should have painted it black, as a bright Red car tends to stand out almost as much as Starsky and Hutch's striped tomato. I understand they didn't have the budget to make several Banshee's to do the terrific stunts the original show had, but they could have tried a little harder to up the action with the car.

The second big problem was the music. The original score was exactly that, original. You could identify the show by its theme alone; it is almost as famous as the car. Knight Rider 2000 seemed to emphasize the kind of synthesizer music that the worst fare on the sci-fi channel usually gets. It's very soft, it's very soothing and it sounds like it should be on a relaxation tape and not an action show.

Third. I hate the way that shows like this exploit the future or at least how shows used to exploit that great year 2000. It was as if they felt that they could slap the year 2000 on a show and make it seem like is somewhere in the 24th century. They tend to present a time where Utopian societies formed almost overnight and replaced years of humanities attempts to prevent anything of the sort. I'm not holding this critique of this show alone, they did it throughout the 90's almost up to y2k when they realized, you know what it's nearly the year 2000 and society hasn't suddenly and magically morphed into an idealistic utopia like in star trek, nor has it been taken over by rampaging robots or evil computers. So why is it that they, in 1991, would assume for some reason that we would suddenly invent a cryogenic prison system, amazing brain transfer devices, sonic stun guns and the complete outlaw of all handguns by the year 2000. Now if I'm not mistaken things like this usually take about ten to twenty years to perfect and put into real practice, yet they felt that nine years later all of these magical changes would take place. Combine that with their jokes about President Dan Quayle, as if a gun ban would pass under that kind of administration.

The Fourth major issue is once again we find ourselves in an unnamed American city that looks suspiciously like Vancouver. It's like Stargate SG-1 "See the Universe of Vancouver" cause to quote the great Buckaroo Banzai "No mater where you go, there you are." I suppose it's no worse then in the 70's and 80's when every unnamed American city was LA. But it seems to me that when you have an action show against criminals you set it in some place like LA. Not to knock Vancouver's own criminal element, especially in the Utopian future of the year 2000, but Canadian shows always come off as somewhat stale, dry cleaned and pressed in a such a way that seems to brush away the gritty nature of classic American TV.

What is Knight Rider without KITT? I'll tell you what it is; it's David Hasselhoff and his partner running around with a sonic stun gun in a shopping mall. It was the action and the car that made the original show what it was, and by trying to up the science fiction angle to cover for the lack of anything going on in the plot or on the screen it made for a very long hour and a half. Unlike the producers of KR2k Hasselhoff figured out the right way to present this kind of mundane action, and while that show is not remembered for it's plots or it action, it is remembered for all the hot women running around in Bikini's. The failure of this to take off is the same as the failure of Baywatch Nights. David Hasselhoff - hot women in swim suits and - action stunt talking car = something that will be popular in Germany but leave the rest of the world scratching its head.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
An adequate revival of an adequate series, 20 August 2003
Author: balkaster from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** Five years after the cancellation of the series "Knight Rider," somebody (not the original producers) attempted to revive the concept for a new generation. The result, "Knight Rider 2000," garnered fairly decent ratings, but not decent enough to spawn a new series. Although the comments here seem divided evenly between vapid embracement and vehement revilement, in truth "KR2K" was no worse than the original series. Although obviously a Canadian (read: low budget) confection with some wooden acting, dim dialog, and a foundational plot premise that defied logic (the concept of placing convicted felons in suspended animation for the duration of their sentences and then releasing them into society makes absolutely no sense at all), it plays well as a sequel to the original. That is, it is neither more nor less intelligent than the original.

Devon Miles calls Michael Knight out of retirement to help salvage the foundering Knight Four Thousand project. This latest manifestation of the vision of Wilton Knight is off schedule, over budget, faces debilitating criticism from the client for whom it was designed, has yet to find a Knight Rider, and worst yet the car isn't working properly. Michael agrees to serve as interim driver until a replacement can be found. When he learns that the KIFT car (in addition to having no personality) is unwieldy and dangerous, he insists on reviving KITT only to learn that his old buddy has been scrapped and sold for salvage. Using his own funds and initiative, all of KITT's bits are recovered except one: an important microchip that was used to patch the damaged brain of a promising police rookie who was shot and left for dead. Naturally, she is recruited as the new driver. Once in contact with the revived KITT, she is able to recover lost memories about her shooting and discovers that her fellow cops attempted to terminate her following her discovery of a plot involving high-level police corruption. Michael and the new driver install KITT into the the KIFT car, "investigate" the conspiracy and save the day. Before the denouement, Devon is murdered by the conspirators, and at the end Michael returns to his retirement, thus leaving the door open for a new series featuring Devon's business partner, the new driver and KITT in a new shell.

The original cast members who were included did a faithful job revisiting their characters and relationships, and gave a satisfactory farewell to the programme (except William Daniels, who presumably would have stayed on as the voice of KITT). Carmen Argenziano and Susan Norman already seemed confortable with their roles, and Norman's wooden (dazed?) delivery would certainly have smoothed over time. But the producers' casual ignorance of technological concepts and use of poorly conceived futurist elements (such as the freezing of felons) make the overall package a bit hard to swallow.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Fairly Enjoyable And Honours The Original KR Series Well, 12 July 2003
Author: Big Movie Fan from England

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

***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.

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Better Than Expected, 22 July 2001

Author: Apostic from San Diego, CA

So you know where this is coming from: I was in my twenties when Knight Rider ran regularly on NBC. I didn't think much of it then. To me, it was an action-adventure variation on My Mother the Car. So I had low expectations for the return.

My low expectations were easily exceeded. There are some cute plot twists and developments afoot here, bordering on acceptable science fiction. This is NOT great cinema nor film, but it is a fun little movie that doesn't lose sight of what it is.

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