This DVD includes the two TV movies that are kind of, a continuation of the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno Incredible Hulk series that ran from 1977-1982, The Incredible Hulk Returns and The Trial of The Incredible Hulk. I say kind of because the movies really abandon the main concept upon which the series was created, namely keeping the Hulk out of the comic book realm, which is definitely not the case with these movies. It is interesting that this is the route that Bixby (who was a producer on both movies and directed The Trial of The Incredible Hulk) decided to take because if you have the DVDs or Blu-Ray set of the TV series and listen to the commentaries by Kenneth Johnson, who created the series, Bixby was dead set against playing a comic book character and only agreed to do the show when he found out that David Banner was going to be a regular guy in the real world that was the victim of an accident and not a superpowered hero. As most fans of the series know, it ended very abruptly, being canceled after just seven episodes into the fifth season, all of which were actually filmed at the end of the fourth season because of a possible strike going into the 1982 production season that could have impacted the show being aired on time. Thus, the series was never given the chance to have a proper ending, and these movies should have seized the opportunity to provide one. Instead, they kind of went off the rails.
The first movie, which was made in 1988, about six years after the TV series ended teams up Hulk and Thor (played by Eric Kramer, who has been a character actor on a ton of shows over the years), but the twist is that Thor is called via the Hammer by a guy that David met a decade earlier. In the second movie, David teams up with Daredevil (played by Rex Smith) to take on Wilson Fisk (played by Johnathan Rhys-Davies). Neither of the movies is all that good, the special effects were atrociously bad (although CGI was still in its infancy at the time, and not something that TV movies really had the budget for). Really the only reason to watch them is to see how they continued the story from the series, which they actually did a bad job at.
The movies would have been much better if they would have actually continued the series and involved Jack Colvin a lot more. He did appear in The Incredible Hulk Returns but was used pretty much in the same way he was in the series ( barely), and the character of McGee was never closer to getting the story. Personally, I think a much better way to do the movies would have been to give the show a proper ending with something like having Jack McGee finally find out that David Banner was alive in the first movie, track him down in the second movie, and then end the series in the third movie. Instead, Colvin never reprised the role of Jack McGee after the first movie.
For those who get the DVD set, it is just the two movies. There are no extras aside from a couple of previews that play after the disc loads. Overall, the movies are pretty cheesy (not as cheesy as some of the tv series episodes, but not far from it). They do feel dated now, and you can definitely tell they were made in the late 1980s. Lou Ferrigno still was in great shape at the time, and still looked the part, although he had aged a lot. He looked much older compared to how he looked in the series, even with the green makeup, than Bixby did. If you were a fan of the series, the movies will give you a bit of nostalgia, but that is about it. You are not missing much at all if you skip them.
The first movie, which was made in 1988, about six years after the TV series ended teams up Hulk and Thor (played by Eric Kramer, who has been a character actor on a ton of shows over the years), but the twist is that Thor is called via the Hammer by a guy that David met a decade earlier. In the second movie, David teams up with Daredevil (played by Rex Smith) to take on Wilson Fisk (played by Johnathan Rhys-Davies). Neither of the movies is all that good, the special effects were atrociously bad (although CGI was still in its infancy at the time, and not something that TV movies really had the budget for). Really the only reason to watch them is to see how they continued the story from the series, which they actually did a bad job at.
The movies would have been much better if they would have actually continued the series and involved Jack Colvin a lot more. He did appear in The Incredible Hulk Returns but was used pretty much in the same way he was in the series ( barely), and the character of McGee was never closer to getting the story. Personally, I think a much better way to do the movies would have been to give the show a proper ending with something like having Jack McGee finally find out that David Banner was alive in the first movie, track him down in the second movie, and then end the series in the third movie. Instead, Colvin never reprised the role of Jack McGee after the first movie.
For those who get the DVD set, it is just the two movies. There are no extras aside from a couple of previews that play after the disc loads. Overall, the movies are pretty cheesy (not as cheesy as some of the tv series episodes, but not far from it). They do feel dated now, and you can definitely tell they were made in the late 1980s. Lou Ferrigno still was in great shape at the time, and still looked the part, although he had aged a lot. He looked much older compared to how he looked in the series, even with the green makeup, than Bixby did. If you were a fan of the series, the movies will give you a bit of nostalgia, but that is about it. You are not missing much at all if you skip them.
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