The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island

The Harlem Globtrotters crash land on Gilligan's Island. Compared to this, the original series seems almost intelligent.

That said this is truly one of the worst things you could imagine seeing.

This thing should be shown in prison to violent offenders serving life sentences. When they get finished watching this they will ask for the death penalty instead.

If you have anything else to do, and I mean anything, do it besides watching this.

Wow. If you were to teach a class on bad movies, this is the one to show.

The final and most obscure of the Gilligan's Island TV movies gets more right than the other two. While the previous two specials incorporated a lot of melodrama based on realistic situations that often made them feel more like the Brady Bunch than Gilligan's Island, this film goes for broad comedy, cartoonish antics, bold characterizations and sight gags that better capture the tone of the original series.

Sci-fi aficionados may notice that this television film curiously foreshadows elements from more prominent sci-fi movies and shows that came out later:

*The rare element supremium sounds a lot like Avatar's unobtanium and both are used as the MacGuffin in the plot.

*A villain's henchman sneaks venomous spiders into the windows of the heroes' huts to attack them while they're sleeping just as a hired bounty hunter sneaks killer bugs into the window of Padme's bedroom in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.

*The villain manipulates Thurston Howell the 4th into doing things he shouldn't do by taunting him that he's chicken. Marty McFly is manipulated the exact same way in the Back to the Future sequels.

*The supremium becomes unstable and destructive over a certain temperature just like the acid does in Superman III.

*George the robot opens the front panel on his torso to retrieve items just like Bender does in Futurama.

This movie was one of the few that are better than the book. I have been a big fan of Gilligan ever since he blew their chances of getting off of the island. Nice to see Thruston Howell the 4th as well as the Globetrotters.

This isn't a great movie. It isn't even a good movie, despite the presence of an Oscar-winning actor. But it did tell us all that robots can't think and human creativity and passion will always win out over the oligarchs' attempts to replace us.

Don't invest in AI. Invest in humanity. That's the moral.

One does miss the original Ginger, of course, and it is sad that the writers had to invent a never-mentioned son for Mr. & Mrs. Howell, but there was a reason. Jim Backus was dying.

The brief scene of Backus as Thurston is all the more valuable when you know how sick he was. He rallied for one day of shooting. According to Dawn Wells, after he finished his part, the frail Backus turned to Wells and asked "Was I funny?"

How often can you find the most entertaining sports team and the stars of the all time funniest situation comedy in one place? I only know of one and that's "The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island." I have only seen this TV movie once and I thought it was the funniest thing I'd seen (besides the one where the castaways get rescued). I'd recommend it to anyone that just wants to sit back and relax while enjoying a good move.