Movie: (1978) On the run, David Banner helps people
while he searches for a cure for his condition—turning into the Incredible
Hulk! In this (third) episode of the
series, Banner befriends an aspiring boxer who unwittingly delivers drugs for
the shady gym owner. When the boxer is
set up to be killed in the ring, the Hulk must rescue him.
First released: 05/12/2008
(VOD)
Availability: Download
VOD from Rifftrax only.
Reminds me of: Master
Ninja, maybe a bit of The
Indestructible Man.
Stray observations:
This was a lot of fun.
Looking at the list of Season 1 Hulk
episodes is like looking at a list of every 70’s TV/movie cliché, and this one homages
Rocky so strongly that the main
character is nicknamed “Rocky”! I still
wonder why this particular episode was chosen—on other TV shows like Heroes or Gray’s Anatomy they used the first two episodes, and from the look
of it they could riff this whole season.
Don’t I wish!
There are lots of riffs about Karate Kid, the original Rocky,
how old the street gang is (“this was before street toughs had to be, you know,
tough”), how dumb the main character is, and the subtle homoerotic quality of
Rocky and David’s relationship.
Cast and crew roundup:
Bill Bixby had been on several TV shows already (“Magician… Eddie’s
Father… nephew to a Martian”). He moved
from acting to directing and passed, relatively young, in 1993. Martin Kove (Rocky) has had an amazingly long
career, and still has several projects in pre-production today. He was a frequent guest in 70’s Universal TV
productions, from a one-shot on Charlies’ Angels to a costarring role in
Cagney and Lacey. He is still best remembered as the evil dojo
leader from Karate Kid. John Witherspoon (Tom) and Al Ruscio (Mr.
Sariego) have also been around forever; Fran Myers (Mary) went on to write for
several soap operas.
Fave riff: “Guy’s
nuttier than squirrel poop.” Honorable
mention: “He’s in severe danger of being
called a ‘turkey’!”
Next week: Cinematic Titanic goes unplugged when “East
meets Watts”!
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