TMC
07-15-2022, 11:57 PM
https://ultimateclassicrock.com/six-million-dollar-man-bionic-woman-return/
rYPgp2T85Kk
In 1978, both shows (https://musingsofamiddleagedgeek.blog/2022/04/26/retro-musings-the-six-million-dollar-man-1973-1978/) were canceled, but their cultural mystique lingered long enough that NBC released (https://www.upi.com/Archives/1987/03/06/Entertainment-shorts/8145542005200/) The Return of the Six-Million-Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman (https://bionic.fandom.com/wiki/Return_of_the_Six_Million_Dollar_Man_and_the_Bionic_Woman) in 1987.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/2a/bc/ef/2abcef1eeca4d64615ad52e7005d89c3.jpg
The plot of the film (https://www.leemajors.co.uk/a/hearts_react.html) is about exactly what you would expect. There's a shadowy group named Fortress stealing weapons and explosives to pull off nefarious acts of domestic terrorism. Steve Austin – now a charter fishing boat captain – is summoned out of retirement to defeat them. In the process, he reunites with Sommers and also reestablishes his relationship with his estranged son Michael Austin (Tom Schanley). As is to be expected, Michael is injured in a terrible accident upon his graduation from flight school and has to be made bionic like his dad. Together, the three souped-up heroes defeat Fortress, and in the end, Austin and Sommers rediscover their love for one another.
It's a strange film (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Return_of_the_Six_Million_Dollar_Man_and_the_Bionic_Woman) to rewatch now. The writing and direction are insipid, and the effects feel incredibly dated, even for '80s television, with virtually every action sequence being shot in slow motion. This includes the moment near the end when Michael runs so fast that he's a blur, which somehow manages to combine super speed and slow motion in a remarkably cheesy way.
Beyond this, the movie feels outdated even for its own time, broadcasting instead a nostalgia for a kind of '70s television simplicity. There is an absolute lack of the kind of edginess that had already come to define so much of American TV by 1987, in the mode of Hill Street Blues or Miami Vice (https://ultimateclassicrock.com/miami-vice-last-episode/), and which would reach its climax in the crime boom of the '90s with films like Reservoir Dogs and The Usual Suspects.
There also isn't any hint of the growing distrust of technology that was already coming to dominate the screen, in the form of movies like Robocop and The Running Man and the TV miniseries V.
Despite this, it helped keep the strange Six Million Dollar Man (https://web.archive.org/web/20061031125314/http://www.jumptheshark.com/s/sixmilliondollarman.htm) franchise (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/TheSixMillionDollarMan) going. The film was a hit, landing in the ratings top 10 (https://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/21/arts/nbc-leads-ratings-for-the-week.html) and spawning two sequels, Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman (1989) and Bionic Ever After? (1994). A remake of The Bionic Woman appeared on NBC in 2007, and in 2021, Mark Wahlberg (https://screencrush.com/tags/mark-wahlberg/) was planning to appear (https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2561021/upcoming-mark-wahlberg-movies-the-six-billion-dollar-man-and-more) in a reboot of the original show called The Six Billion Dollar Man. If a reboot does manage to get made, it will cement the franchise as one of the longest-running in Hollywood history.
Not bad for a story that got its start with excitement building up around the idea of putting people into space all those years ago.
rYPgp2T85Kk
In 1978, both shows (https://musingsofamiddleagedgeek.blog/2022/04/26/retro-musings-the-six-million-dollar-man-1973-1978/) were canceled, but their cultural mystique lingered long enough that NBC released (https://www.upi.com/Archives/1987/03/06/Entertainment-shorts/8145542005200/) The Return of the Six-Million-Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman (https://bionic.fandom.com/wiki/Return_of_the_Six_Million_Dollar_Man_and_the_Bionic_Woman) in 1987.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/2a/bc/ef/2abcef1eeca4d64615ad52e7005d89c3.jpg
The plot of the film (https://www.leemajors.co.uk/a/hearts_react.html) is about exactly what you would expect. There's a shadowy group named Fortress stealing weapons and explosives to pull off nefarious acts of domestic terrorism. Steve Austin – now a charter fishing boat captain – is summoned out of retirement to defeat them. In the process, he reunites with Sommers and also reestablishes his relationship with his estranged son Michael Austin (Tom Schanley). As is to be expected, Michael is injured in a terrible accident upon his graduation from flight school and has to be made bionic like his dad. Together, the three souped-up heroes defeat Fortress, and in the end, Austin and Sommers rediscover their love for one another.
It's a strange film (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Return_of_the_Six_Million_Dollar_Man_and_the_Bionic_Woman) to rewatch now. The writing and direction are insipid, and the effects feel incredibly dated, even for '80s television, with virtually every action sequence being shot in slow motion. This includes the moment near the end when Michael runs so fast that he's a blur, which somehow manages to combine super speed and slow motion in a remarkably cheesy way.
Beyond this, the movie feels outdated even for its own time, broadcasting instead a nostalgia for a kind of '70s television simplicity. There is an absolute lack of the kind of edginess that had already come to define so much of American TV by 1987, in the mode of Hill Street Blues or Miami Vice (https://ultimateclassicrock.com/miami-vice-last-episode/), and which would reach its climax in the crime boom of the '90s with films like Reservoir Dogs and The Usual Suspects.
There also isn't any hint of the growing distrust of technology that was already coming to dominate the screen, in the form of movies like Robocop and The Running Man and the TV miniseries V.
Despite this, it helped keep the strange Six Million Dollar Man (https://web.archive.org/web/20061031125314/http://www.jumptheshark.com/s/sixmilliondollarman.htm) franchise (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/TheSixMillionDollarMan) going. The film was a hit, landing in the ratings top 10 (https://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/21/arts/nbc-leads-ratings-for-the-week.html) and spawning two sequels, Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman (1989) and Bionic Ever After? (1994). A remake of The Bionic Woman appeared on NBC in 2007, and in 2021, Mark Wahlberg (https://screencrush.com/tags/mark-wahlberg/) was planning to appear (https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2561021/upcoming-mark-wahlberg-movies-the-six-billion-dollar-man-and-more) in a reboot of the original show called The Six Billion Dollar Man. If a reboot does manage to get made, it will cement the franchise as one of the longest-running in Hollywood history.
Not bad for a story that got its start with excitement building up around the idea of putting people into space all those years ago.