Nick Fury

This movie received a lot of flack, and it's not all undeserved. Yes, Andra Hess is an absolutely terrible actress who can't resist camping up the series and turning Hydra into a complete parody as opposed to a legitimate threat. Yes, the story could have used a bit more work. But where this film got things right, it REALLY got them right.

The Agents of SHIELD are all well-cast and did great work in their roles. But I want to bring special attention to David Hasselhoff. The man gets a lot of flack for his performance in the role and I think a lot of that is just because he's David Hasselhoff. But in truth, this is probably the finest performance of his career. Hasselhoff nails not only the look, but the personality of Nick Fury and he looks like he stepped right out of a Steranko comic.

It really is a shame that Hasselhoff's performance and potential future as Nick Fury was completely overshadowed both by his own reputation and by the bad elements of the film. Given a proper villain in the form of a well-cast, well-written Baron Strucker, this would have been an incredible telefilm that would have led into an amazing television series.

Marvel's hard-boiled hero (David Hasselhoff) is brought to TV. He is brought back to fight the menace of Hydra after exiling himself in the Yukon since the end of the Cold War. The children of the former Hydra head, Baron Von Stucker, have taken charge of the terrorist organization.

I did not expect much from this one. A made-for-TV movie starring David Hasselhoff that never made it to DVD... that should be a series of red flags that scream "terrible movie". But I figured it would be entertaining -- not good, but bad enough to be fun. Instead, it was just bad.

Hasselhoff did alright and actually looks a lot like Nick Fury (with all due respect to Samuel L. Jackson, who now ones the role). The general plot was good. The effects were weak (but not awful). The biggest mystery is Sandra Hess' voice -- she was born in Switzerland, but has no ability whatsoever to have a German accent.

Watching this with two non-comic book fans made another shortcoming abundantly clear: the film did not adequately explain what Hydra or SHIELD were. I know because I grew up reading comics, but within the film it is not very obvious who is who and what is what. I am also unclear about Baron von Strucker being born in 1932... that makes him a bit young to be a Nazi serving alongside Hitler.

This made me laugh so much I wish I'd taped it to enjoy again. Risible dialogue, hopeless miscasting. Re-using the the same disused tunnel over and over again for every scene. The Airfix model of the USS Nimitz with rockets glued on that passed for the Helicarrier. It recalled Patsy's " It's only a model " quote in Monty Python's and the Holy Grail. The bloke off Holby City spoofing Hugh Grant's impersonation of a clichéd British fop. The Viper Nazi bird's horrendous over acting. The fact she disguised herself as the spy off 'Allo Allo' complete with beret and overcoat at one point was hilarious. The whole concept of Anarco - Nazi's was hilarious too.The bad continuity ( how did the LMD get into the Hydra base ? )The silly throw away lines. The unconvincing fight stunts. The bald Hydra blokes who looked like 80's techno rockers. I must find a DVD of this. There must be more bits I missed the first time. Everyone must have had a ball making this. Why wasn't there a sequel ?

Ok, so the mid-day viewing of the Sci-Fi channel has it's highs'n'lows. This was a low. Not because of another schlock movie with zero plot, horrible acting and zillion-year-old effects (and props!).

It sucks HARD because the original Sargent Fury was one of the most exciting comics I read back-in-the-day. The Sarge meant something. HASSELHOFF??????

I do hope producers read the comments posted here.

LESSON ONE: Decide what you want to be. LESSON TWO: If the answer to ONE: is "Parody", don't use an American icon as the subject.

If you really wanted to bring Hasselhoff back from the dead, get younger, cuter babes, put'em in nighties and redo Baywatch as a photo studio. Put it on cable with nighties so thin you can read the braille on their nipples. Ok, so we don't need Hasselhoff to do that, but put him in the background somewhere or the occasional cameo appearance.

Coulda had a winner here, guys. Blew it. An unknown (or Jesse Ventura) could have done a lot more to make this one fly.

Out of interest, after never watching this movie until tonight on TV to get more information on it.

First of all I thought it was entertaining!

So much so I'd say a lot of the other reviews are just being to critical and on the "Hasselhoff is xxxx, haha, bandwagon".

Yea maybe David Hasselhoff is pretty cheesy in a lot of the shows he's been (or otherwise produced), and sure maybe he's no silent tough guy (like Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson, etc.) but if you look past the stigma it's a pretty entertaining movie..

If you can catch it on TV, give it a go..