SoTrumpBelieve Must See Movie...

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Brenda The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

RikerDonegal Even it didn't introduction one of the most iconic fictional characters of all time this would stand up as a great movie. However, since it does introduce Steve Austin (one of TV's best-ever characters and greatest superheroes), this raises it up to be something truly special. Watching it is something akin to a spiritual experience. Trying to write an impartial review is next to impossible, since I love every second of this thing with passion. But I'll have a go.Tight pace. The opening minutes show two men in parallel: a pilot called Steve Austin who is about to test a new type of plane, and very serious government official who is proposing a new type of soldier/spy to a room of very stuffy and self-important people. As we move into the second quarter of the movie, Austin has been mutilated in a crash and is being kept alive by machines. His suffering is succinctly brought across in several short/ingenious scenes. The mid-section of the movie shows us the new Austin: rebuilt by science and trying to master his new limbs. By the time we enter the final quarter of the movie, Steve is fully in control of his new body parts and we see him start to use them: first to save a boy in a traffic accident, and then on his first mission.Lee Majors. In one of the great marriages between character and actor, Majors takes the reins of Austin and makes him his own. Right from the first moment he saunters into shot Steve Austin is a likable hero: a very real, very human superhero. There are corny moments (like Steve addressing the entire flight crew by first name and seeming to know all about them) but Majors sells everything in the script. And adds to it. Two minutes into the movie, 50% of the guys watching will want to invite Austin for a few beers on the town and the other half will wish they were Austin. When the action gets dramatic (Austin trying to end his pathetic life, or - later - examining his own right arm) Majors is 100% committed to the role and he's make you feel everything Steve does.Cleverness. The movie is clever, and subtle, in ways that the (wonderful) TV series never tried to be. The man who orders the rebuilding of Austin walks with a cane. He is also heartless and - because of this - is more of a robot than Austin will ever be. The storytelling is wonderfully subtle in other ways, too. As Austin is told of his accident, the camera cuts away and we see/hear the reaction of the heart monitor. The sound, I suppose, of a breaking heart. And, later in the story, as Austin is on the verge of giving that heart to the pretty young nurse that has fallen in love with him, the story takes another unexpected turn: Austin orders her off the case and she overhears. We expect that she will run away in tears. Instead, she confronts Austin and calmly states her case. She doesn't behave like a 'tv character', she behaves like a real woman. It's the character's best scene. Finally, the mission that Steve goes on is not quite what it appears to be. Clever scripting makes everything, and everyone, shades of grey and makes the entire story more enjoyable.Casting. Darren McGavin almost steals the movie from Majors with a truly fascinating portrayal of the man who orders the rebuilding. Martin Balsam and Barbara Anderson round out the cast and each one gets scene after scene of quality material.Continuity. The three movies that started the SMDM series are an oddity. None of them really fits in with the continuity of the series. (In a nice bit of symmetry, the three movies that ended the series are exactly the same: Part of the franchise, but not quite...) Cyborg has many elements that are exactly the same as the series. The character of Steve Austin is consistent, even if his rank/status within the Air Force is not the same. Rudy Wells, the doctor that saves Steve and makes him bionic is also exactly as you will find him in the television series. It's a different character, yes, but he has the same heart and intelligent. He has the same bond with Steve, too. But there are many elements that are not even close to the TV series. Instead of beloved Oscar Goldman, we get a hard-nosed bastard called Oliver Spencer calling the shots. This guy sees Steve as a weapon. Nothing more. In the episodes that followed, many scripts made it clear that there was a very strong bond/friendship between Steve and his so-called boss. Some episodes made them seem like partners working side-by-side, and most episodes made it clear that they loved one another as only best friends can. It's fascinating to see what direction the show could have taken. Fascinating, but not better. Then there is the lover. She disappears after this and is never mentioned again (though the series does introduce a similar character at one point). We can presume that Nurse Jean got over her infatuation and she and Steve called it quits. There are other things, too. Minor things, mostly, like the name of the OSI being something different. Things that mean, if you want to look at it this way, that the events of this story take place in a parallel universe.Or something.I don't care.It's a superb movie. It captured my imagination when I first saw it, as a child, and it still has a firm grip on my imagination (and my heart) all these years later.http://yetanothertvreviewpodcast.blogspot.com/

voicemaster71 I keep thinking that I may have seen the pilot episode of the Six Million Dollar Man series when it played weekday afternoons when I was real little, but I'm not sure. I do know that as an adult, having seen both the original 90 minute pilot in movie form (my preferred favorite) and the 2 part syndicated version, I have grown to really love this movie. I never could have seen the original air date. I was practically 2 years old when it aired. The pilot to me, seems like it can't make up its mind about what the official title shall be. I feel the title should be simply enough, the Six Million Dollar Man. Some call it Cyborg named after the Martin Caidin novel that it was based off of. Others have called it both Cyborg: The Six Million Dollar Man. Sounds reasonable to me. Lee Majors took on the role of Steve Austin while acting on another TV show that wound up being short lived. We see Steve as somewhat of a rebel and after his accident, he's a depressed man who'd rather die than live with one limb or have Bionic ones replace his destroyed ones. I find it rather odd that the word Bionic was not used until the actual weekly series began. I also find it ironic that Steves rank of colonel was ignored, not to mention his walk on the moon not being fully discussed.We see the emotion he goes through after the rescue of the boy which tears into his bionic arm as well as his confrontation with Spencer. I loved his first official adventure in the dessert and how he escapes and kicks some butt bionic style. Now for Dr. Rudy Wells. If I'm not mistaken, the original Dr. Wells was played by the late Martin Balsam who I think was on Archie Bunker's Place. I liked Balsam's version of Rudy. He was not only Steve's doctor, but also his best friend. Barbara Anderson was a very beautiful lady and I recall her as nurse Jean Manners. I find it odd that they replaced her with Carla in the Seven Million Dollar Man episode. Now for the only criticism. I discovered that Richard Anderson's character, Oscar Goldman, was in the Cyborg novel and that it was Goldman who made the move to have Steve bionically rebuilt, but I cannot for the life of me figure out why they replaced Oscar with the character of Oliver Spencer, played brilliantly by the late Darren McGavin, who would later on do Kolchak the Night Stalker as well as the "Old Man" in A Christmas Story and he was a laugh a minute. McGavin's Oliver Spencer is someone who makes Oscar look like a priest. He is totally cold hearted red tape government man all the way. As much as I like Darren McGavin, I'm glad he moved on after this pilot. Not much was done to show Steve as a Bionic Man, but when they did, it was impressive enough. I more or less recall the series in its 3-5 seasons where he runs in slow motion and that special sound effect. None of that was here in these early episodes. I also feel the need to comment on the awesome music score by Gil Melle. I highly recommend that you see this pilot movie in order to understand how the Six Million Dolar Man really works. I give it a perfect 10.

razorbladeetches Although I haven't seen this show in years, I do have very fond memories of it. I recall it came on every Sunday night either before or after the new Hardy Boys show and I was pretty much addicted to it. It's a part of my past ... like it or not! Just like Superfriends, Sid and Marty Kroft, Big Wheels and my old neighborhood friends. I would have to admit it would be a most difficult thing for me to objectively review this show. That's the problem with nostalgia -one tends to idealize the past. I have my own perception of the show and I don't know how it would stack up to reality. I like to think of the show as something that I liked but left behind long ago. Not that I wouldn't be up to watching a few episodes now but it just wouldn't be the same.

ShootingShark Steve Austin is a rebellious NASA test-pilot who is critically injured in a horrific crash, losing both legs, his right arm and his left eye in the process. His doctor, with the backing of a mysterious government agent, uses experimental prosthetic surgery to give him new limbs and a new eye, which will give him superhuman strength and sight. The surgery is a success, but what does the government have planned for him ? This pilot TV-movie for one of the most successful US TV series of the seventies is a surprisingly low-key but intriguing story, with a great central idea. The rotten intelligence services want a super-agent, capable of incredible feats of strength and agility, who can infiltrate situations by stealth where a team of operatives could not. Their solution - take a man as good as dead and rebuild him as a cyborg; a bionic man with artificial limbs and senses infinitely more powerful than a normal man. Henri Simoun's script, based on a book by Martin Caidin, is really just a three-character play (Anderson, as a bit of totty, is pretty but unnecessary) between the unwilling roboman (Majors), his doctor (the always-reliable Balsam) and a control agent (McGavin), but it explores the Frankenstein theme with surprising subtlety and the relatively few action scenes are handled well. Also good, in the classic seventies style, is the depiction of government as ruthless strategists with limitless resources and no compassion - they see their creation not as a man, but as their product, which is only worth having if it is an asset to their operations. Perhaps a little too sober and ponderous at times, but a great story nonetheless.