The new KNIGHT RIDER, 2/17...what do you think?

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I watched this Saturday night. All I can say for it is, if I wasn't watching it in HD I would have turned it off.
Bad Bad Bad.

 

I also assumed that they meant external hard drives since anyone with that much secret data should have it backed up. They should probably also be running an off site backup as well.

It was impossible to set up a season pass for this anyway. I forgot for a minute that this was just a made for tv movie at first and I was frustrated as to why I wasn't able to set up a SP before I realized that was why.

Also, he never morphed into a different car. The nanotechs allowed him to change color but he remained a Mustang throughout.

 

I've got mixed feelings about this... It was fun enough to watch, but they made some stupid / cheap mistakes that pulled me right out of the story. Some have already been mentioned:

The "high speed breaking test". Somehow I doubt they were really planning to test KITT's ability to fall apart at high speed. This is a particular pet peeve of mine since I visit several car message boards and some people interchange "break" and "brake" there too. There's no excuse for poor grammar or spelling on a million dollar production...

Everyone referring to the hard drives. My job is PC tech support and I have to deal with some people trying to sound more savvy by using techie words they don't understand all day. Not only would most people have looked at the spot where something used to sit and thought "PC" or "computer", but where were the cables that used to be plugged into it? For that matter, what kind of self-respecting brilliant computer scientist would allow computer equipment to sit in such filthy conditions anyway?

The magical appearance of the FBI agent from the wrong direction after the final chase. Did her back-up just beam her into their approaching car, or were the bad guys taking a scenic route that led them back towards the motel they just left? I'll just go ahead and try to ignore the stupidity of the SUV just plowing into KITT even though he'd slid to a stop a good 2 to 3 seconds ahead of them on an otherwise deserted road. The slightest swerve would have let them avoid the collision...

What I haven't seen mentioned is how the bad guys seem to have morphing technology too. In the chase near the beginning where they're in the helicopter, all 3 of the external shots showed a different model helicopter! They have 4 if you count a later scene. The first shot clearly showed one with retractable landing gear. The second, a newer narrow bodied model with skids and a large dome on the nose like for camera equipment. The third showed a Vietnam era Huey which is a wider bodied craft. Later they were shown landing a newer narrower bodied one, but without the camera dome. If they're going to use cheap stock footage, can't they at least take the minimal effort to make sure they're matching helicopters?

I didn't have a problem with Val Kilmer doing the voice, I just don't like how they replaced the 80's KITT's sass with the "I am incapable of emotion" schtick. I'm betting that if this gets picked up as a series that KITT discovering emotions will be a recurring plot point...

Why oh why must techno-centric shows still refuse to do even the slightest research? Hiring one guy to look through their dialog would cost practically nothing compared to their overal budget and it would do so much to improve the show...

 

I agree with you, except it seems to be common. I think they figure 'most people' won't notice. And they're right. You notice because you're in the industry.

I'm guessing that a doctor watching House M.D. would be appalled at the 'mistakes', where I would never notice...

Same with a cop watching a police show, etc...

 

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I am no Dr so I am not sure how accurate House M.D. is but I do know for a fact they have at least one Dr. that is on staff to help with the medical cases and that aspect of it. Also don't forget that sometimes directors would like to skew things to add drama so I am sure there is time in which the director will know in House that this procedure would be impossible or something but they would rather do it to hype it up. Or this procedure would cause no harm but they write it all up like the person could die from it.

 

"Hard drive" is a common-enough euphemism for the data stored on one's system ("do you back up your drives?") that I fail to appreciate how its use in the movie was a mistake.

 

Yeah... My wife worked in the medical field for years and she just couldn't watch ER because of everything they got wrong that she'd notice. It's the stuff like the helicopter changing models in every shot and the FBI agent coming from the wrong direction that are the worst. Even the "only people in the industry would notice" stuff is not really excusable, it's lazy writing. I've seen a few movies that got details right when it didn't matter to the plot and it was a refreshing change. Heck, even the Matrix Reloaded used a real hacking exploit instead of the typical Hollywood OS...

But they didn't just take the data or the drives with the data on them, they walked away with the entire PC leaving an empty spot on the desk. Saying that somebody took the hard drives in that context is like looking at an empty parking space and saying that somebody stole your engine. Sure, the engine was taken too, but pretty much everybody would say that the car was stolen. Occasionally somebody will say things like "my hard drive is broken" when referring to generic PC problems, but compare that to the number of people you've heard say "my computer is broken". It just seems like a glaring case of a non-tech writer trying to sound tech savvy without doing any research. IMO, a good writer will never have you thinking "who talks like that!?"

 

That, and part of the charm of the old show was the Bond/Moneypenny style relationship that Michael Knight had with Bonnie.

Like Data & Noonien Soong in ST:TNG, but as WD had requested that he was not credited for the voice of KITT in KR:2000, I presume that he no longer wished to be associated with the Knight Rider franchise.

 

Just seen the trailer for Drillbit Taylor, and got to thinking how the Dodge Charger would have looked better as KITT than any Mustang.

My opinion only.

 

Or maybe an '09 Challenger?

 

That would have been much better. The Mustang just doesn't work for me.

- Chris

 

I just watched this, I enjoyed it.

That was always my favorite part of the original series... you knew it was coming every episode, and I was looking forward to it this time.

Another thing I miss is the watch he talked into. Seeing the earpiece in this version... it makes so much sense, and makes the watch seem silly, but at the time, the watch was cool.


And the daughter: she had that dot on the middle of her neck.. very distracting. couldn't stop looking at it.

 

See, I thought the earpiece was stupid and way too obvious. At least the watch was an average everyday accessory and no one every wondered why he was wearing it as opposed to, "Hey, why do you have that big earpiece sticking out of your ear? You must be up to something!"

 

every third person you pass on the street is wearing a bluetooth earpiece nowadays. It's modern and relevant.

and the watch... he had to push a button to talk... and hold it up to his mouth... talk about obvious

 

Yes, hard drive. You see, had your laptop with $500k of financial transactions not yet posted, been in the trunk when your car was stolen, how would you phrase it? The car being stolen is the least of your worries. Yes, they stole the hard drives, which were encrypted. Sure, they didn't dismantle the computer just to take the hard drives, but the data is what they were after and the data is stored on the hard drive.

"They stole my computer"
"Was there any important data on it?"
"Yes, very important data"
"So, why didn't you just say they stole your very important data and not have dragged this conversation on?"

Me thinks you're picking nits that need not be picked.

 

That makes no sense and is not realistic. Data could be in a few forms.

I think the term hard drive came from a writer who was lacking in tech knowledge. I've worked with quite a few people who refer to the "box" of a computer as the hard drive.

 

Fixed

 

Okay, the data could have been on the hard drive, a flash drive, a tape, a cd, a DVD, or any variety of media types. However, he explicitly said it was on the hard drives.

Okay, so if your car is stolen while your child is inside, do you call the police and say "my car was stolen" or do you tell people that your child was taken or that your car was stolen?

 

I guess I'm one of the few that didn't have a problem with them saying "hard drive." I just assumed that the computers were on the floor where they had moved them to take out the drives and that is why there were empty spaces on the table. You couldn't see the floor.

Of course I think given that they had a van, it was night, and the location was remote, it would have been easier to just take the boxes. He seemed to have so many computers it it would have taken way to long yank the hard drives...that I did have problem with.

As far as their spotting KITT from the air based on the knowledge from the data. It was obvious to me that they hadn't yet gotten that information yet. Then there is the question. - Why wasn't that information also encrypted?

 

Why would they take the whole computer? Makes no sense. Just take the hard drive(s).