Rescue from Gilligan's Island

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.

"Rescue from Gilligan's Island" came out 11 and a half years after the series ended. The movie was a huge hit on TV simply due to the show's gazillion of fans, multiplied by a decade of syndicated reruns. Unfortunately, the film doesn't measure up to the zany-but-excellent series, particularly the last two seasons.

For one, at 95 minutes it seems to have a lot of filler. Many of the scenes could've been cut down by about 40%. It also seems rushed at times, like the actors learned their lines an hour before filming; and a lot of the humorous situations/dialogue aren't entirely successful, to put it nicely. Also, Tina Louise refused to return as Ginger, evidently because they didn't offer her enough money (which is funny because she wasn't exactly an in-demand actress at the time; the only significant role I remember her in after Gilligan's Island was in the 1975 film "The Stepford Wives"). The woman they got to replace Tina looks fine but she comes off as an airheaded bimbo and Ginger was never a bimbo. She's a sexy starlet, yes, but also smart.

Most of the cast look pretty good a dozen years later and Mary Ann (Dawn Wells) looks incredible. Surprisingly, it's Gilligan (Bob Denver) who has aged the most, which is strange since he was supposed to be a "boy" of about 19-21 during the original run. As such, he should only be about 30-32 during this movie, but he clearly looks to be in his mid-40s or older (in real life Bob Denver was 29-31 during the series and was 43 at the time of this movie). Still, this isn't a big deal.

BOTTOM LINE: "Rescue from Gilligan's Island" comes across as a lame version of the series with too much filler, but it's worthwhile for fans of the show because, of course, we have to know how they finally got rescued after almost 15 years as castaways. But, as they say, you can never go home again and neither can the castaways; they became their own family on the island, which is one of the reasons the show was so endearing.

GRADE: C

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.

By the late '70s, I'd spent many an afternoon watching Gilligan's Island in syndication after school. Each episode was the TV equivalent of a Hostess Twinkie - light, fluffy, undeniably artificial, sweet and sappy enough to make you sick. But come the next day, you wanted another one anyway. Rescue from Gilligan's Island looks like nothing so much as an extended episode from the original series. Depending on how much you liked or hated the series, that can be good or bad. All the old staples were back, from the fast-motion slapstick to the groaners masquerading as punchlines. As soon as I saw the network promo where the Skipper said, "After 15 years, we're finally rescued," I was looking forward to watching this on TV. I missed the original lagoon set, though. The new lagoon looked a lot smaller and darker, not at all inviting. Perhaps the worst part of the movie was seeing everyone back in "civilization" after years of seeing them only on the "island." The message of the movie is true: there's no place like home, which in this case was the island.

Most of the cast was back, looking none the worse for wear. Alan Hale, Jr. could have stepped fresh from the series, as could Dawn Wells, Jim Backus and Natalie Schafer. Russell Johnson looked his age, and Bob Denver added the most years. Judith Baldwin was nowhere near as alluring as Tina Louise. Choosing between Mary Ann and this Ginger would be no contest. At least her leaden delivery and wooden expressions made me appreciate how underrated Tina really was.

The DVD transfer is easily the worst I've ever seen. Where did they get the source material, off a videocassette recorded from a local broadcast? There were numerous flaws in the tape, including a fuzzy, washed out picture, bad dropouts, tracking problems and many jumpy edits where a second or two seemed to be missing. In fact, roughly three minutes of running time are missing here, clocking in at only 92 minutes. Lots of hiss on the audio track. Even the printing on the DVD was bad. It was ragged and looked like somebody used an old inkjet printer to sloppily print the label. The company involved in the DVD mastering got prominent on-screen credit. If it were me, I wouldn't brag about it. I'd call it amateurish, but I've seen amateur-produced DVDs that were much better. But what can you expect for a $5 DVD? At least secondhand copies can be had for less.

As a youngster and lifelong fan of Gilligan's Island, I still recall my excitement when I first learned that Rescue From Gilligan's Island was going to be shown on television. I also remember my profound disappointment when I finally saw the show: it wasn't particularly funny.

Now, some 25 years later, I found myself purchasing this movie on DVD anyway, for two reasons: To enjoy sweet memories of youth when TV humor was simply good fun and didn't even pretend to be anything more, and because it only cost $5.99.

Well, what can I say? I was disappointed again because, again, it wasn't particularly funny. Yet I am still very glad I now own this movie on DVD. How can that be?

For all the abuse Gilligan's Island has taken over the years from "serious" humorists, the fact remains that the show appeals to everyone's desire for real friendship and camaraderie, without all the drama of real life. The original show was just plain fun to watch. And frankly, so is Rescue From Gilligan's Island, despite its many, many flaws.

I know it is anathema to say so, but this movie would have scored much higher if only it had included a laugh track, as did the original TV series. The laugh track itself creates the illusion of camaraderie with an audience, and that was always part of the appeal of Gilligan's Island. So I found myself pretending to hear the original laugh track every time the cast told a joke (i.e., constantly), and lo--the film was much more palatable!

On the bright side, losing the laugh track made me realize just how good these actors really were, and how great an ensemble they comprised. After all, the original cast never heard the roaring laughter the audience heard as the actors playing the castaways fired one asinine line after another between ludicrous slapstick action sequences. Without a laugh track, for example, the actors portraying Russian spies in this movie behaved beyond reproach; they were simply painful to watch. But then again, so was Wrongway Felman, Harold Hecuba, and other visitors to the island, without a laugh track. It is precisely because this ensemble was so good that they managed to score with such silly humor every time in the finished product. That takes talent (and guts, I suspect). For this reason more than anything else, I truly missed Tina Louise as Ginger: no one could adequately replace a member of such a tight ensemble. Kudos to Judith Baldwin for trying, however. Thurston and Lovely Howell are hilarious characters even without the laugh track.

Overall, as another reviewer observed, the value of this film is that it provides a trip down the most pleasant stretch of memory lane. It would be wrong, however, not to mention the unforgivable production of this DVD. The sound is bad, a few jump cuts are embarrassing to watch, and the video has frequent static bars like you would see on an old, worn videotape. Shame on the production company. Shame on you!

Bottom line: If you don't appreciate the Gilligan's Island TV series you will hate this movie with a capital "H", with good reason. But for those of you who get misty just thinking about Gilligan, the Skipper and company, Rescue From Gilligan's Island will help you feel like a kid again for 90 minutes, with good reason. A cast featuring Jim Carrey, Mike Myers, Bill Murray and other notable comics simply couldn't even come close to pulling off the feat this underrated ensemble pulled off time and time and time again for years, for no better reason than to make all of us feel good for a half hour each week.