4k-UHD/Movie Review: Avengers Endgame

 

Endgame is the 2019 MCU entry that was the direct sequel to Avengers: Infinity War and a conclusion to the first decade of Marvel movies, which started in 2008 with Iron Man. It stars the main Avengers cast members, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, and Jeremy Renner, all of whom survived Thanos' snap in Infinity War. I will not spoil any specifics for any of the few who may not have seen it by now, but the basic plot is that the team tries to find a way to undo the effects of "the snap," which wiped out half of all life in the universe at the end of Infinity War. It is a great blend of action, dramatic moments, and comedy (mostly involving Thor), and finds a way to tie in many of the moments and characters that have been involved in the MCU throughout the course of the 23 movies. And, even finds a fun way to do a quick shout-out to one of the TV series.

The 4K set is a three-disc set with a UHD disc and two regular Blu-Ray discs. The UHD disc only includes the movie, which looks and sounds outstanding in the UHD format. One of the regular Blu-Rays has the movie with an intro by the directors and can be played with a commentary track featuring the directors and writers of the film. The other regular Blu-Ray disc has all of the extras. There are seven different featurettes, the longest of which is a featurette on Captain America, and the shortest of which is about Thor. Then, there are about five minutes of deleted scenes and a short gag reel. If you are a fan of the other movies, this is a must-get. It is one of the best (if not the best) of the entire group of 23 movies. It is well-written and acted that is funny at times, emotional at times, and action-packed from start to finish.  It is a good send-off for some characters and a good reset point for others. I will not spoil which characters fit into which category, but chances are anyone who has read about the future plans (or attended comic-con) will know.

4k-UHD/Movie Review: Avengers Infinity War

 

Avengers: Infinity War is the first of the epic two-movie crescendo to tie up the initial run of MCU films. The movie was directed by Joe and Anthony Russo and brings back the entire slate of MCU characters and actors, including Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johannson, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Holland, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Benedict Cumberbatch, Anthony Mackie, Tom Hiddleston, Don Cheadle, Chris Pratt, Sebastian Stan, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Chadwick Boseman, Jeremy Renner, Bradley Cooper, and Karen Gilian. It also, finally, sees the arrival of Josh Brolin's Thanos after multiple teases in various movies or end-credit sequences.

This, as most are aware, is the movie that the entire MCU slate of movies has been building up to. As I said above, Thanos finally arrives, making good on his threat in the post-credits scene in Age of Ultron to do things himself. It starts where the end-credits scene in Thor: Ragnarok left off, with Thanos attacking the Asgardian ship. The movie then finds a way to weave in most, but not all, of the characters from the other movies in an attempt to keep the various infinity stones away from Thanos. The "main" Avengers lineup get the most screen time, while the amount of time the other characters are in the movie varies. I won't spoil anything for those who may not know how it turns out, but it has massive repercussions for the MCU storylines going forward.

The 4k set is a two-disc set. The UHD disc has just the movie itself, which looks and sounds great, as you would expect. The extras are on a regular blu-ray, with about 30 minutes of behind-the-scenes and making-of featurettes, a gag reel, deleted scenes, and a commentary track on the movie. It is definitely one of the best movies in the group 19 or so movies in the MCU that had been released up to that point. Even if you have a bit of superhero movie burnout, it is worth checking out to see all the stories finally tied together.

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: The Incredible Hulk

 

This is the 2008 reboot of the live-action Hulk starring Edward Norton, Tim Roth, William Hurt, and Liv Tyler. It was also the second entry into the MCU (which was not, at the point it came out, assured to be as long-lasting and prolific as it became). This is not a sequel to Ang Lee's version of The Hulk (which is pretty widely panned, and mostly for good reason). I think that Eric Bana and Jennifer Connely did a good job in their roles and were the only good things that movie had going for it, but the screenplay was weird, and the CGI Hulk looked very fake. This, thankfully, pretends that version never existed. The purpose of this movie is twofold. The first was to help establish the MCU and set up the eventual Avengers movie. The second was to bring a movie version that paid homage to the series and the comic. The movie included the requisite Lou Ferrigno cameo and a posthumous cameo of Bill Bixby via a clip played on TV.

I think Norton did a great job as Bruce Banner in this movie. It is unfortunate that he was replaced (although I do think Mark Ruffalo did a fine job as Banner in The Avengers), although if the rumors of Norton being difficult when it came to making this film are true I can see why he was. Norton did a great job portraying the conflicted nature of Banner and the frustration and fear that the character feels. I also think he has fairly good chemistry with Liv Tyler, who played Betty Ross, which was necessary given the role her character played in the story. The movie does set up a possibility of a sequel, but obviously, Marvel has put higher stock in the Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor franchises (and the Avengers team-up movies). Whether a sequel to this movie ever gets made, and if so whether it continues the story started here remains to be seen.

I think the CGI Hulk is far better in this movie than it was in the Ang Lee version. I think it was one of the things that detracted from that version of the movie, but the technological advancements in CGI have come a long way, and while the Hulk does not look totally realistic, it looked a lot better. Ferrigno has gone on record saying he thinks that Hulk should be played by a real person, but given that the Hulk is supposed to be 9 feet tall, that is just not practical. If you notice in the film, while Ferrigno is substantially bigger than Norton, he is not that much taller. And they would have had to go back to the tricks used to film the series, like cutaways and filming Ferrigno (or some other actor) from below to make him look taller. A CGI Hulk just works better. Especially for the battle scenes. There is just really no way they could have done any of the battles (especially the end battle with Abomination) without the CGI.

The A/V quality of the Blu-Ray is outstanding. The special features consist of some behind-the-scenes material, making of documentaries, deleted scenes, and trailers. In all, if you are a fan of the Marvel series of movies, while this movie is not as strong as the first Iron Man or the Avengers movies, it is on par with most of the other MCU movies and is definitely worth the time to watch and adding to your physical media collection (if you have one).

4k-UHD/Movie Review: Marvel's The Avengers

 

This is, if you watch the MCU movies in chronological order, the seventh, after Captain America, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Hulk, and Thor. If you are watching them in release order, it is the sixth, after Iron Man, The Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America. It is, in part, a sequel to both Thor and Captain America, with the Mcguffin of Captain America (the Tesseract) and the villain of Thor (Loki) being front and center in the story. Basically, Loki is tasked to use the Tesseract to open a portal through which an army of aliens called the Chitari can come through and take over Earth. The Avengers have to team up to stop him, leading to what would be referred to in the subsequent movies as "The Battle of New York" and have reverberations throughout the other movies and the tv series that the MCU would spawn.

The 4k set is a two-disc set containing a UHD disc and a regular Blu-Ray disc. The A/V quality of the movie in UHD is excellent. I do not count myself as an A/V expert so I cannot really tell you whether the 4k UHD disc is a huge upgrade over the initial Blu-Ray release (there are certainly sites out there that can do that), but as a novice, it does look like, when watching it on a big screen 4k TV playing on a 4k Blu-Ray player, the UHD disc does look better than the Blu-Ray version. The extras include a director's commentary track on the movie, several making-of and behind-the-scenes featurettes, and a Marvel One-Shot short film starring Lizzy Caplan set after the events of the movie. As is the case with many UHD releases, the UHD disc just has the movie itself and then the regular Blu-Ray has all of the extras. I listened to the commentary track years ago when I purchased the original Blu-Ray release before everything all the allegations about Joss Whedon being a raging asshole came to light. From what I remember it is a pretty standard director's commentary, but I refuse to listen to him talk about anything, but it is there if you want to listen to it.

Overall, the movie is wonderful. I think Marvel did a good job by introducing the characters in stand-alone films first and getting the origin stories for most of them (all but Black Widow and Hawkeye) out of the way and developed (at least to an extent) before they started doing the big team-up movies. It seemed like the cast had great chemistry, and worked well together. Of course, the big casting change from the prior movies was the fact that Mark Ruffalo was brought in to play Bruce Banner/Hulk, replacing Edward Norton who seemingly wore out his welcome very quickly when filming The Incredible Hulk. Even though Ruffalo was kind of shoe-horned in, given that this was the first movie in which all of the major actors worked together, it worked out well. The movie is, as you can imagine, mostly an action movie, but does have some comedy and even drama mixed in. It also started the tradition of having both a mid-credits scene that advances the storyline (this one introducing the "big bad" of the initial phases of the MCU, and a post-credits scene that is meant to be more fun or tie back into the movie you just watched. So, if you are a fan of superhero movies, this one is definitely worth watching and pays off on the prior movies quite well.

4k-UHD/Movie Review: The Incredible Hulk

 

The Incredible Hulk was the second movie released in what would become the massive MCU. Iron Man had been a big hit, but it was not at all clear that the MCU would evolve into the huge franchise that it ultimately become. This movie, both in tone and in terms of the cast feels very disconnected from the rest of the MCU. This movie starred Edward Norton as Bruce Banner/The Hulk and co-starred Liv Tyler as Betty Ross, William Hurt as General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross (who would be the only actor from the cast to be included in the rest of the MCU), and Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky a commando that General Ross brings in to capture Banner. The movie eschews that typical origin story, showing everything the audience needs to know about the set-up in the opening credits. Then we see Bruce hiding in Brazil trying to find a way to cure himself of The Hulk. I will not spoil the rest of the movie for anyone who has not seen it, but it is a good blend of action and drama and ends in a huge monster fight at the end of the movie.

For those who get the 4k disc, the movie looks and sounds great in the UHD format. It is a definite upgrade from the regular Blu-Ray version. The cinematography really pops, especially the landscape in Brazil, in the UHD format. This is a two-disc set. The UHD disc just has the movie, which can be played with the commentary track with director Louis Leterrier and Tim Roth. The commentary is pretty good, but Leterrier and Roth do tend to go off on a lot of tangents. The rest of the extras are on the regular Blu-Ray disc, and those include an alternate opening sequence, about 40-minutes worth of deleted and extended scenes, a 30-minute making-of documentary, and four other featurettes that range from just over six minutes to just under thirty minutes. There are also several u-control interactive features. So, if you like going through bonus features, this gives you a lot.

While the movie does get shit on a lot, it is much better than it gets credit for. I personally like it better than the Ang Lee version of The Hulk, which had only been released a handful of years prior to this one. The CGI had come a long way since that movie, and the CGI Hulk looked a lot more realistic. Of course, there was still a debate going on whether they should CGI The Hulk or use a real actor, a-la Lou Ferrigno from the TV series. Using a CGI Hulk works a lot better (in my opinion) because they can actually make him nine feet tall and do not have to shoot him from below or with a special lens to make the actor look bigger as they did with Ferrigno. The movie has a lot of easter eggs that reference the TV series from the Danger sign, the "lonely man" theme, a reference to David Banner, and more. Lou Ferrigno had a small cameo (as well as being able to voice The Hulk, which he did not do in the TV series), and they found a way to include Bill Bixby (who of course had passed away by the time the movie was made) for a split second. 

Marvel was definitely still finding its legs with this movie. There was not a post-credits scene, but the final scene of the movie did act to further the MCU storyline. If you watch the movies in chronological order, this is actually the fifth movie in the sequence behind, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, and Iron Man 2. In release order, this was the second movie that was released later the same year as Iron Man, and it was not a foregone conclusion that The Avengers story arc would ever pan out. Personally, I like Norton's portrayal of Banner more than I like Ruffalo in the role. Not that Ruffalo is bad, but I just think Norton's version is better. Rumors have it that Norton was a huge pain in the ass during the production of the movie, including insisting on making his own re-writes, which ultimately led to him being replaced. Obviously, the MCU survived without him, but I would have liked him to stay in the role. The movie was clearly setting up a sequel that never panned out, and at this point probably never will. But, if you have seen the trailer for She-Hulk, you know Tim Roth is being brought back in some capacity, so it is possible that more characters can be brought back. It is probably the most overlooked MCU movie, but it is very good and worth watching.

DVD/TV Movie Review: The Death of The Incredible Hulk

 

This was the third of the disconnected TV movies that aired after the Incredible Hulk series starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno went off the air. The title gives away what happens, so it is not a spoiler (especially after 30+ years) to say that the Hulk dies, but I think how it was done was kind of dumb, especially given what the Hulk's real powers are (as opposed to what is portrayed in the series).

The crux of the story is that David is still trying to find a way of curing himself of the Hulk metamorphosis. He ends up working as a janitor at a top-secret government lab where a doctor, played by Philip Sterling, is working on an experiment that may help cure David. In the meantime, an Eastern European spy played by former Miss America (and alleged Bill Clinton one-night-stand) Elizabeth Gracen is tasked to steal Dr. Pratt's research. I will not spoil the rest of the story from there, but needless to say, the Hulk finally dies in the end, finally bringing a resolution to the storyline that was never finished in the TV show because it was canceled after the fourth season, and only aired a few remaining yet to be aired episodes as a very short fifth season.

The DVD just has the movie itself. I think there are multiple versions running around out there, but the version I got was an import from the UK (the US version seems to be out of print and very hard to track down) So, on this version, there are no extras. Of course, Bixby died a few years after making the movie so having any meaningful commentary track was impossible, but there was no making-of or behind-the-scenes material included either. Overall, the movie is better than the two other movies (The Incredible Hulk Returns and The Trial of the Incredible Hulk), but that is not saying a lot since those were pretty awful. It does give a nod to the super-soldier program that was the basis for the comic book story but does not go too deeply into it. Unfortunately, Jack Colvin either did not come back or was not brought back for this so there was really never a resolution for his character, which is too bad. He was horribly underused in the tv series and was only on screen for a few minutes in The Incredible Hulk returns never to be seen again.

Chances are, most of the people who are going to watch this are those who are fans of the TV series. It is definitely not like the superhero series of today by any means, both in being faithful to the comics, or the special effects. Of course, in this, they were still painting Lou Ferrigno green and using cutaways during the Hulk-outs. The handful of special effects that were used (mostly at the end) was very basic and fake-looking. I cannot say that everyone will love this, but if you like the series it is worth watching to see the full story arc.

TV Series Recap: The Incredible Hulk

 

The Incredible Hulk was a series from the late 1970s (it debuted in 1977) and ran for essentially four seasons. It was created by Kenneth Johnson, who also created series like The Six Million Dollar Man, the original Bionic Woman, V, and more. The show starred Bill Bixby as Dr. David Banner and bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno (a Mr. Universe winner and a Mr. Olympia runner-up) as The Hulk. The story is heavily modified from the comics. First, the main character's name is changed from Bruce to David (which apparently irked Stan Lee, who got a producer credit on the show) and it dropped the failed super-soldier program storyline in favor of one in which David attempts to tap into the hidden strength that people have when faced with life and death situations. David was unable to save his wife during a car accident and tries to find out why he could not tap into this hidden strength. In the course of his experiments, he hits himself with a massive dose of gamma radiation which causes him to change into the Hulk when he is scared or angry. A reporter named Jack McGee and played by Jack Colvin believes that The Hulk killed David Banner and his lab partner. So, Banner, instead of saying that The Hulk did not kill him, pretends to be dead and wanders the country living off the grid and trying to figure out a way to stop his metamorphosis into The Hulk. 

Another big deviation from the comics is that the Hulk was not fighting the military and supervillains. David traveled from town-to-town and invariably found someone (usually a woman) in distress and in need of help, and would come across the worst, most corrupt person in town that the Hulk would end up having to scare off or stop. The show had very much a feel of the 1970s from the look to the way people talked, but the overall storylines could be made in any era. There are definitely things that the show did that could not be done the same way, like using the term "wetback" in an episode and allowing some stereotypes to be used that would never fly today. That said, the show did deal with topics such as racism, drugs, and the pillaging of Native American lands (in an episode in which the Native Americans were bad guys). It also had a ton of recognizable guest stars including an incredibly young Kim Catrall (who the show tried to pass off as a Native American) and a young Ernie Hudson. The show was never big on continuity, however, using the same actors in different roles quite a bit. For example, Gerald McRaney guest-starred three different times in three different roles. 

Technically, it did air a handful of episodes in a fifth season in 1982, but those episodes were filmed at the end of the fourth season in case an impending writer's strike occurred, so a fifth season could air uninterrupted. However, during the hiatus between seasons four and five, the President of CBS decided to cancel the show (despite the fact that the ratings were still good, although not as high as they once were) because the show had "run its course". So, the final five stand-alone episodes were aired and the show went off the air without any resolution to the storyline or a proper ending.

In the late 1980s, Bixby produced a series of three tv movies (and directed two of them) that finally gave closure to the series. The first two movies, The Incredible Hulk Returns, and the Trial of the Incredible Hulk were horribly bad, and brought the series into the larger Marvel Comic universe, introducing a horrible version of Thor and an okay version of Daredevil (along with an awful version of Kingpin). The third movie, The Death of The Incredible Hulk, was a much better movie and did provide an end to the storyline (and co-starred former Miss America and alleged Bill Clinton hookup Elizabeth Gracen). While it was better than the other two movies, the ending was deeply stupid and probably left a bad taste in the mouths of a lot of fans. 

So, overall, the series was mostly good, but when it was bad, it was pretty bad. Lou Ferrigno managed to stay in great shape, even through the final TV movie, although he looked like he aged (even with the green makeup on) much more than Bixby looked like he aged. The show is much different than the superhero shows of today, both in how it was filmed, the special effects (or lack thereof) that were available back in the 1970s versus now, and in terms of storyline continuity. The one thing that I do not like about the show is that it criminally underused the character of Jack McGee. He was ostensibly a co-lead yet would disappear for long stretches, and in some episodes only appeared for a few seconds. His character deserved to find out the truth about David and The Hulk and get the last scoop. Instead, Colvin was not brought back (or refused to return) after filming The Incredible Hulk Returns and so his character never got a concluding arc.

The series is available on both DVD and Blu-Ray. Some of the DVD sets include the last TV movies, but the Blu-ray set does not. So, if you want the tv movies you have to find the DVDs and you may have to resort to buying imports because the US versions have been out of print and are very hard to find, especially at a reasonable price. After rewatching the show all the way through I can say I enjoyed it more as a kid when it came across as really cool. As an adult, it is kind of hokey. I was not old enough to watch the series when it originally aired, but I did see the re-runs that aired in syndication. I found that I did not remember any of the actual stories from any of the episodes, but I remembered the line "you wouldn't like me when I'm angry", the Hulk outs, and the opening title sequence voiced by Ted Cassidy (who played Lurch in The Addams Family) more than I remembered anything else. Chances are, those will be the most memorable things about the show for most people.

 

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: The Incredible Hulk: The Complete Series

 

This is the Blu-Ray set of the five seasons of The Incredible Hulk series that starred Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno (and in theory, but not always in practice, Jack Colvin) that ran from 1977 to 1982. It was created by Kenneth Johnson, who created series like the original Bionic Woman, the Six Million Dollar Man, and the original V series, among others. The hook of this series is that it was not a straight comic book adaptation that involved the military trying to resurrect the super-soldier program and had Hulk fighting both the military and supervillains. Instead, the premise was that David Banner (played by Bixby) is a scientist trying to understand the potential for superhuman strength when under stress because he was not able to tap into that kind of strength to save his wife after a car accident. He ends up dosing himself with a massive amount of gamma radiation which does not kill him but instead turns him into a huge green creature that is dubbed "The Hulk" (played by Ferrigno) by a reporter named Jack McGee (played by Colvin) who sees the creature and then makes it his life pursuit to capture the creature. The series then involves David moving from town-to-town trying to find a way to get rid of the creature and avoid being exposed by McGee. Along the way, he seems to find the one person in town (usually a damsel in distress) that needs protecting from the worst person in town.

The series definitely feels like it is set in the 1970s and early 1980s, in terms of the look of the film that the show was shot on, the clothing, and the dialogue. There are definitely things that they were able to do in the show back then that would never fly today, yet many of the themes are timeless and could easily be made today with some slight updating. One big difference between the show and the superhero shows of today is that it was never big on continuity, using the same guest stars to play totally different roles throughout the series run. For example, Gerald McRaney played three different characters in the first three seasons. It did include a lot of recognizable character actors as well as actors who would become A or B list actors (like Kim Catrall, Markie Post, and Ernie Hudson) in roles very early in their careers.

The extras mostly carryover from the DVD sets. The only things that are missing are some of the promos for the three TV movies that were made after the series ended, which are also not a part of this set. There are some DVD collections that include the last three tv movies, but this does not have those. The crown jewel of the extras are the commentary tracks by Kenneth Johnson on the various two-part episodes that he directed. The man either kept copious notes that he worked off of, or he has a photographic memory, because he could rattle off days of the week that things were filmed on, as well as the CVs of nearly every cast and crew member before and after the series ended. He also gave a lot of insight into what working with Bixby and Ferrigno was like, and provided a lot of insider details that may not have been well known (like Ferrigno was not the first choice to play The Hulk) and described the tricks they used to make Ferrigno look bigger than he was, for example, using special lenses, filming him from below, etc. The other extras include a gag reel that basically is about seven minutes of Bixby swearing and a couple of retrospective documentaries on making the series that include interviews with Johnson and the writers. Again, all carryovers from the DVD releases. The A/V quality of the set is an upgrade from the DVDs but it did not get a high-quality restoration like some movies and shows get, so it may not be worth the upgrade for some people who already own the DVDs.

Overall, the series is good but dated. Some of the storylines and themes hold up well even 40+ years down the line, and others do not. It could be very, very cheesy at times, and at other times was very well written and acted. My big complaint about the entire series is that Jack Colvin was very underused. So much so that it was almost criminal. He was a very good actor and there were many episodes that he did not appear in, or appeared for all of a minute. He could have been included a lot more. Also, the series ended very abruptly with a truncated fifth season that consisted of seven stand-alone episodes that were filmed at the end of the fourth season in case a possible writer or director strike that was looming between 1981 and 1982 came to pass, and there were episodes to run at the beginning of the season. Unfortunately, the show was canceled between the fourth and fifth season, so those episodes which did nothing to give the series a proper ending were all that were aired. Johnson lobbied for and failed to get, an additional six episodes to get a half-season run and give the show a proper series finale. That never came to pass and the series ended with an okay episode, but nothing worthy of being a series finale.

DVD/TV Movie Review: The Incredible Hulk Returns/The Trial of The Incredible Hulk

 

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.

DVD/TV Series Review: The Incredible Hulk: Season 5

 

Season five of The Incredible Hulk is barely a season, just seven episodes. For those who are not aware, the series was actually canceled by CBS before the fifth season would have aired, but, the producers filmed the first seven episodes to be aired in the fifth season at the end of season four to have ready in case a strike shut down Hollywood productions. I don't know if the strike ever materialized, but unbeknownst to anyone involved with the show, the head of CBS decided to can the show basically right before he was fired from the Network, and as a result, the show was left without any real conclusion to the story. The seven episodes were really just the same story-of-the-week episodes that the show had been running since the first season. Jack Colvin only appears in a single episode, and what ended up being the series finale (which for sharp-eyed viewers features a young Xander Berkeley, probably best known for his roles on 24 and the series Nikita), while a good episode (the best of the season) was just another "regular" episode. The showrunner, Kenneth Johnson, did try to get CBS to agree to film an additional six episodes to give the story a proper conclusion, but that never came to pass, and thus the show just abruptly ended.

For those who get the DVD set, the only extras are a 20-minute retrospective on the series in which Johnson and some of the other writers and producers shared their thoughts on the series. Of course, Bill Bixby had passed away by the time any of the extras for any of the seasons were filmed so he could not participate, and Lou Ferrigno was not interviewed for the feature. Then, there is a gag reel from episodes throughout the series, basically involving Bixby, which is funny but does include a lot of swearing (for those who care).

Overall, the season, for what it was, was good, but very much incomplete. It definitely had that early 1980s feel to it, and like the other seasons, some things hold up better than others. Surely the series would not be made the same way today as it was back then. For one, there probably would have been a lot less of recycling the same guest stars in different roles. This season Diana Mulder, who had guest-starred as David's sister in an earlier episode, played a nun in a convent near the Mexican border in an episode that involved the local bad guy trafficking illegal immigrants across the border and making them work for him. Even though the season ended abruptly and without a proper conclusion, if you have liked the other seasons, this one is worth having if nothing else to complete your collection.

DVD/TV Series Review: The Incredible Hulk Season Four

 

Season four of The Incredible Hulk follows the same format that the prior seasons have. Mostly, one-shot and done stories of the week, with really the only arc running through the series is the fact that the reporter Jack McGree is following David/The Hulk around trying to find out who he is. As is the case with the other seasons, the quality of the episodes runs the gamut from kind of dumb to very good. The standout episodes this season include the two-part season premiere titled "Prometheus" involving a meteor that crashes to Earth and affects David's transformation into the Hulk, "King of the Beach", in which Lou Ferrigno has an actual speaking role, playing a bodybuilder and wannabe restaurant owner, the two-part episode "The First" in which David discovers another person who has undergone the metamorphosis, and "The Interview" in which David tells his story to a reporter who manages to track him down.

For those who get the DVDs, the extras include commentary tracks on both episodes of Prometheus by Kenneth Johnson, the series creator and executive producer, a feature called "Inside the Hulk" in which Johnson and some of the show's writers discuss how the show created the character of the Hulk and the process Bixby and Ferrigno had to go through to bring the character to life, and a photo gallery for the Prometheus episode. Johnson's commentaries are always informative, and the guy either has a photographic memory or uses copious notes when he does the commentaries because he knows the dates (and day of the week) scenes were filmed and can rattle off the filmography of nearly every member of the cast and crew. And, he gives a lot of insight into what the working relationship between himself, Bixby, and Ferrigno was like.

Overall, the show is mostly good but definitely has some "clunker" episodes. The writing and acting were both sometimes very cheesy, and there are definitely some episodes that do not hold up extremely well with the passage of time. Others, however, are very much timeless and tackle issues that are still very much relevant over forty years later. The show is much different from the superhero shows of today as the Hulk was not battling super villains, David always just found himself in the worst situation possible in whatever town he happened to end up in, and usually had to help someone being threatened by bad guys. And, the show was rarely ever concerned about continuity as it often recycled guest stars to play different roles/characters than they played before. Although Gerald McRaney did not have a guest-starring role this season as he did in the first three seasons, so, there is that. The show is definitely a "blast from the past" for those of us who grew up either watching it as it originally aired, or watching the re-runs when it aired in syndication. I cannot say that everyone who likes the superhero shows of today like the Arrowverse shows or the various Marvel series like Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist will like this, but for those who are in their mid-forties and up, it is a pretty nice nostalgic trip down memory lane.

DVD/TV Series Review: The Incredible Hulk Season Three

 

Season three of The Incredible Hulk had some very good episodes, including The Psychic in which Bill Bixby's ex-wife Brenda Benet guest-starred as a woman who could get psychic flashes when she touched someone. Bixby and Benet wanted to do the episode shortly after their divorce to show their son that they could still get along. Tragically, their son would die not long after the episode was made and Benet would kill herself a year later, which, if you know their story, makes the episode even more emotional. There are a couple of episodes in which David and Jack come face-to-face, making much better use of Jack Colvin instead of having him just show up for a single scene. There is also an entire episode devoted to Jack's character in which David and the Hulk mostly just appear in flashbacks. There is also a good episode involving a serial killer targeting a college campus in which Gerald McRaney makes yet another guest-starring appearance playing, yet again, a new character that was totally different from the characters he played in season 1 and season 2. There are also some total duds, including a voodoo-themed episode and an episode in which David joins the circus.

For those who get the DVD, the big extra is a 17-minute retrospective on the show that features interviews with a couple of the writers and series creator Kenneth Johnson, who discuss making the show, working with Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno, and the challenges they faced when making the show. If you are a fan of the show it is very interesting. There are no commentary tracks like there were in the first and second-season DVD releases.

Overall, as I said, the season is uneven. The episodes are mostly good, but the bad ones are really bad. I think most of the attempts to inject humor via the Hulk fell pretty flat, and the sound effects they inserted sometimes were just cheesy. The good episodes hold up now even forty-plus years later, but the bad ones seem to be the kinds of things that could have only been made at that time. But, it will always be nostalgic for those of us who are old enough to remember the show being on TV, either during its original run, or who, like me mostly saw it in re-runs.

DVD Review: The Incredible Hulk: Season 2

 

The second season of the Incredible Hulk pretty much follows the same format as the first. David Banner is traveling around from place to place trying to find a way to rid himself of (or at least control) the Hulk. Everywhere he goes he manages to find someone in need of help and/or comes up against the worst criminals in town, all while having to avoid the reporter Jack McGee who is obsessed with finding The Hulk. Throughout the season there are a number of notable guest stars (along with a bevy of recognizable character actors). The guest stars this season include Pat Morita (The Karate Kid), Gerald McRaney (best known for Simon & Simon, incidentally playing a totally different character than he did in the first season), a very young Kim Cattrall (best known for Sex and the City), a very young and almost unrecognizable Ernie Hudson (best known for Ghostbusters), Rick Springfield (yes the Jesse's Girl singer who was also an actor at the time), Sherman Hemsley (of The Jeffersons), Markie Post (of Night Court fame), and Mariette Hartley (of Law & Order: SVU).

For those who get the DVD, the extras include a commentary track by Kenneth Johnson (the show's creator) on the first episode of the season, which was another two-hour movie), and deleted scenes for another episode. The commentary track was pretty similar to the commentary track Johnson did for the pilot episode.

Overall, the show has a good theme, but it is very dated. It definitely has the look and feel of a show from the 1970s. Obviously, everything back then was shot on film so it does not look anything like the shows that are shot digitally these days. Also, the 70s wardrobes and slang terms will always date the show. It actually did tackle heavier topics like race, drugs, the pillaging of Native American land, mental illness, etc., however, did not always do so tactfully. The special effects could be hilariously bad. The show did not have the budget for what little CGI technology there was out there, so pretty much everything was done practically, and a lot of it looked fake. And, some of the decisions on how to shoot scenes were a little head-scratching. Like getting Lou Ferrigno's feet in the shots when he is running, when he was clearly wearing green slippers when the Hulk is supposed to be barefoot. That said it is a pretty classic show, and unique in that most of the comic-book aspect of the character was left out of the show. He was not going up against evil supervillains, there were no hero team-ups or anything like that. If you have seen season one and like that then you will probably like season two.

DVD/TV Series Review: The Incredible Hulk Season One

 

This is the first season of the 1977 series, The Incredible Hulk starring Bill Bixby as Bruce Banner, and bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno as the Hulk (mostly referred to as "The Creature"). It is adapted from but changed significantly from the comic book series. Some of the changes (like changing the lead character's name from Bruce Banner to David Banner) irked Stan Lee, but overall, I think the changes worked for what the showrunners wanted to do and probably kept the series from getting canceled after 2-3 seasons which had been the fate of series like Batman and Wonder Woman. It was, up until the 1990s series Lois and Clark, the live-action comic book series with the most episodes (80) after the 1950s George Reeves Superman series (which had 104 episodes). Lois and Clark just edged it out with 88 episodes.

As my headline says, it is the character of the Hulk set in the real world. The series started with two made for tv movies. The pilot episode established that David Banner is a scientist looking into why people get superhuman strength in life-threatening situations, and why he did not when he was in a car accident that ended up killing his wife. He ends up giving himself a massive dose of Gamma Radiation which triggers the transformation to the Hulk when he gets angry or scared. Banner and his co-worker are presumed killed by the Hulk, so Banner becomes a drifter looking for a way to cure himself. As he moves around from location to location he always finds someone who needs help from some criminal element and always ends up transforming into the Hulk to save the day.

This set consists of the 10 "regular" episodes and the two made for tv movies that began the series. Those run about an hour and a half and then the regular episodes run about 50 minutes, give or take. The show definitely has a 1970s look and feel to it. It mostly holds up well 45+ years down the line, but parts of it are definitely dated. The DVD set includes a commentary track by the executive producer (and writer and director of the pilot and some of the regular episodes throughout the series run) Kenneth Johnson. It is a good commentary in which he goes through the process of filming the pilot and why he made the changes he did.

The series is well written (even if some of the dialog is a bit hokey now) and fairly well-acted. I think it worked to not have the Hulk going against supervillains, or Banner getting his powers because the military was trying to develop super-soldiers, as were the origins of the character in the comic books. Also, since the series was made before the advent of CGI (and did not have the budget for what little there was available), almost everything was done with practical effects. Of course, Ferrigno was painted green and put in wigs and sometimes silly-looking prosthetics. It is interesting that a different actor who was taller but not as muscular as Ferrigno (who was 6'5" and about 270+ pounds) was originally cast for the role, so they often filmed Ferrigno from below and with a different camera lens to make him look like he was seven feet tall (of course in the comics the Hulk was nine-feet tall), but every so often the shots would establish that he was not much taller than some of the extras. You definitely have to suspend a lot of disbelief not only of the premise of someone transforming into a big green creature as a result of Gamma Radiation overdose versus just getting cancer and/or dying instantly, or that David could have just said he was not killed in the accident and the Hulk did not harm anyone, but then the series would not have come to be.

Overall, the season is good, even if it is dated. The cast changes a lot, and if you are old enough you will recognize some of the character actors. In the first season, the two most recognizable guest stars are Gerald McRaney who would go on to have a pretty prolific TV career, and Martin Kove who is best known for playing Kreese in the Karate Kid movies and the series Cobra Kai. It is definitely worth watching even though it has a much different feel than today's superhero shows.