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.
Knight Rider 2000
1991
Action / Sci-Fi
Knight Rider 2000
1991
Action / Sci-Fi
Plot summary
In the year 2000, criminals are frozen, handguns are banned from everyone--including the police, and crime is at an all time low... So why has the mayor been murdered with an illegal handgun? Rookie cop Shawn McCormick is asking these questions while still trying to learn the ropes of the police department. Letting her curiousity getting the better of her, Shawn recovers the murder weapon and begins asking too many questions resulting in the killer, an ex-cop and unfrozen convicted murderer, Thomas J. Watts, to shoot her in the head and leave her for dead. She is saved, however, by a computer chip transplant to her brain, but the resulting damage has caused her to lose her most recent memory. Meanwhile, the Knight Foundation is trying to stay alive in the city by trying to win a contract for their new project, the Knight 4000. The police department wants them out--why should they have to stumble over a freelance organization? The Deputy Mayor Harold Abbey, newly promoted to succeed the late mayor, gives them 30 days to complete the 4000. Russell Maddock, the new Foundation CEO is too proud to ask for help, leaving Devon Miles, still the controlling entity of the Foundation, to look himself. Michael Knight has moved on to a simpler life. Fishing, relaxing, waxing his classic 1957 Chevy every other day, and trying hard to leave his life in the Foundation behind. When Devon shows up to ask for help, he has a hard time being convinced that it is worth it to return, but he finally decides to do so... "only under one condition." Only there is no condition... not anymore. The Knight Industries Two Thousand- or KITT for short, once the cornerstone of AI Technology, has been deactivated and dismantled. Devon and Michael are outraged, Maddock is uncaring, indicating that the Knight 4000 is on it's way, so the old must go. Michael somehow gains the technological knowhow to restore and reactivate KITT, and then place him into his 57 Chevy. KITT is angry for being deactivated and shoved out of the way for ten years, and even more angry that his parts were sold off, and the one part that wasn't recovered, his memory chip, was swapped for a bogus chip. Guess where his original chip ended up... Shawn finds her way to the Knight Foundation after quitting the police department and it is quickly revealed that the transplant has altered her personality. She is more aggressive and less of a team player, but has a superior intellect thanks to her bionic technology. Shawn is hired and brought on board as Michael's partner to help investigate the growing illegal handgun problems in the city. Thanks to KITT's help and their constant investigation, they discover a massive police department conspiracy to sell banned handguns on the black market, but their discoveries place their lives in peril and causes the death of one of the Foundation's own.—Scott Kirkessner
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLUMovie Reviews
Better Than Expected
Not the best follow up to the classic show
I am a huge fan of Knight Rider. I collect all the models, books and comics which have been released.
I was hooked on the show when I was a kid in the 80's.
After they unwisely cancelled the show, I never thought I would see anything Knight Rider related again. Until one day my mother rented Knight Rider 2000 home unexpectedly from the video store.
Needless to say I was really excited. After watching the made for tv film, I was let down.
It was a very touching moment to see Michael and Devon reunite. And it was even more exciting to see Michael see KITT for the first time in years. But they were the best parts of the movie.
It was blasphemy to not include KITT in his trans am form. It was also shocking that there were no stunts at all featuring KITT in the Banshee car. Unless you count the scene when he drives on water. Not very exciting or thrilling. And the computer effects were rather bad. KITT didn't need any of the rubbish displayed on his windscreen in the original.
His new partner Shawn was rather annoying. She was ok, but hardly a match for KITT, even sharing an implant in her head related to him.
The most shocking thing of all was killing off Devon. There was no need for that and it honestly served no purpose.
And the personality of KITT himself changed. He was a smart a$$. He could be sarcastic in the original but this new tone did not suit him at all.
It was a backdoor pilot which would have maybe got interesting if a series was picked up. But it seemed like they didn't care. Those who made it never understood the appeal of the original and this comes off more as a cheap low budget fan film which happens to feature some stars from the original.
If you want to see a more true sequel to the original show, watch the 2008 series instead which ignores the events of this movie as well as the awful Team Knight Rider Show which came out in the mid 90's
sacrilege
Total embarrassingly bad junk. Just goes to show, new isn't always better. You'd think WOW all those years later, all the new technology... but nah! Wonder what Mr. Larson thought of this pathetic effort? The car is surprisingly bad. I can just see the executives at Pontiac smirking and shaking their heads. That Dodge Stealth is all flash and no style. I didn't like the female lead at first, but I did warm to her further on in. But one thing's for sure. In 1991, lots of old boys born during the mid-Seventies settled in and started to watch. Collective cry rang out... "What's this? KNIGHT RIDER without K.I.T.T.?" Channels were flipped, the commercials on the other networks were much, much better.
No Bonnie, no April, Michael is a dejected has-been, no Knight truck, very few car chase scenes...
Worst thing to inflict on a KNIGHT RIDER fan.