Rescue from Gilligan's Island

The original show was a gem as its stories were designed so that the seven characters "bounced off" one another in a way that highlighted their stereotype, cartoonish natures. The show was pure escapism - and it worked!

It was a gem of comedy.

With their removal from the island and separation from each other, the characters' took on a dull, blah realism as they had to interact with other characters and situations germane to their respective "real" environments. They no longer were funny. The magic of the series was missing due to this, and the show seemed more a weak drama with shallow, predictable plots and a few strained comedic interludes.

While it initially was nice to see the characters again, I prefer to remember them as they originally were intended to be.

The original Gilligan's Island TV series had 30-minute episodes each week. That was just the right length. I was a young college student when the run started, I remember looking forward to each episode and enjoying them.

I suppose naturally enough producers decided to make a 90-minute movie where the professor is able to forecast a big storm, they lash all the huts together, and end up floating again in the Pacific after the storm subsides.

A Coast Guard helicopter spots them, a Coast Guard cutter tows them back to Hawaii, and they receive a great welcome. But ultimately each finds that the 15 years away made it hard for them to readjust, for all different reasons.

When the skipper finally gets his insurance settlement he buys a second boat, the Minnow II, and to celebrate everyone that had been stranded take a celebratory cruise. But then a storm comes up and you can guess it, the only appropriate thing happens ...

I enjoyed this movie even though 90 minutes of over-the-top silliness is a bit much to take. I enjoyed seeing the whole cast but I'd guess that audiences not a fan of the original TV series might not like this too much.

Even though Tina Louise is missing from the movie, and the cast looks older, they still pulled off a very convincing movie. Unlike the Andy Griffith reunion where Barney is still deputy, which doesn't make any sense because he had been a Raleigh detective by the end of the original series, or the Dick Van Dyke Reunion where mush of the script doesn't make a bit of sense, especially the part of Rob playing on his computer. Unlike these and other reunions of 60s sitcoms, Rescue from Gilligan's Island makes sense. The castaways had been on the island for 15 years, and any hope of being rescued has long since past, which accounts for the fact that the castaways look much older. The radio has been dead for years, and the barometer doesn't work either, until Gilligan finds a disc on the Lagoon from a Soviet satellite.

The Professor is able to fix the barometer to only find out that a storm is coming, which will wash away the island. Thus, the castaways build a boat by joining all three huts together (why they didn't think of that before, we'll never know), and then are rescued later on. Each person returns to pick up his/her life, but things aren't going very well. Gilligan and the Skipper have to prove that it wasn't the Skipper's fault for the shipwreck, Ginger will not do a nude scene, Mary Anne doesn't love her fiance of 15 years, and the Howells' are being taken for their money. Also, the Professor has become a celebrity, instead of the scientist he wanted. It's a great story-line, much better of any TV reunion movie.

Although Tina Louise is absent, Judith Baldwin's performance is a fair one, convincing enough, although she does look younger than everyone else. The movie lacks in a few places, but it's overall a great movie, and is very much like the series, silly but classic. At the end of it, they're shipwrecked again on the same island, which in one way doesn't make sense because didn't the island get washed away in the storm? But hey, it's like the series, silly to the end.

When I heard that this reunion movie was going to be made, I really looked forward to it. However, once you get past the reunion of the characters and the looking at how they changed (gee, Ginger looks and sounds different) you get just a routine chase movie where a couple of Soviet spies chase Gilligan to get a back a computer disc that came off of one of their satelites. This film might have been a great piece of nostalgia, but it comes up a little short once you get reacquainted with the funniest group of castaways ever.

Before watching the reunion movie "Rescue from Gilligan's Island", the only exposure I had to the original television series was seeing the last five minutes of one episode. After watching this reunion movie, I have absolutely no desire to watch any more of the original show. This reunion movie goes wrong in just about every way you can think of. Most of the principle cast looks very tired and old, and seeing them try to get the energy to do their shtick is a sad sight. In fairness to the cast, they were working with an incredibly bad script. The gags are as tired and old as the cast. Not only that, but the movie doesn't seem to know what to do with its premise, having the rescued castaways doing things that don't seem the least bit comically inspired. Also, an incredible amount of time is spent on the subplot with the communist spies hunting for Gilligan's medallion, a subplot that's ultimately for nothing and could have easily been written out without affecting the rest of the story in the least bit. This sorry excuse for a movie should be marooned on an uncharted island.