EssenceStory Well Deserved Praise

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

riccibilotta-167-829847 Good episode of "TIH", When Banner trying to foil thieves in a department store he's working at. As usual, David is in the wrong place at the wrong time. The store manager suspects David is casing the store, because be is way over qualified to do such a lowly job. Enough action in the story to keep one interested in the plot, but The Hulk in the toy department is the best part of it. Seeing all the mechanical toys come at him has him bewildered.

belovedfranklin I vaguely remember The Incredible Hulk from its original airing - but I didn't have much TV then. I have rediscovered it on METV and wow. I thought it was just me until I started reading these reviews.David is so afraid of the Hulk, thinks it's an angry, raging creature. He is destructive, and expresses anger against people who do wrong things--but he is also so gentle and careful and protective. I just saw a Thanksgiving episode (I don't know the titles) where David went home. Oh, the poignant scene where David has transformed into the Hulk in front of his sister and father. They are holding him, his head buried against their shoulders, comforting a man who rarely received comfort. Also loved a traumatic dream sequence triggering the Hulk.And then once again walking down the empty road while the sad music plays.How can a CGI ever match Ferrigno's tenderness?A TV series or comic book will (almost) never complete their character's story. As much as we want David to find a cure, I'm even sadder to know he never will.

hnt_dnl With comic book movies and TV shows being all the rage now in the 21st century, it's always good to re-visit the roots and influences of modern superhero presentations. In terms of film, it's easier to remember that 'Superman' in the late 70s kind of fore-fathered the modern superhero film experience (and in some ways I still think of that as the greatest of all time). But I wonder how many people realize the influence and importance of this groundbreaking series I'm reviewing "The Incredible Hulk (1978-1982), which actually premiered in the same year as the first Superman film? Amazing that both the film that set the stage for big screen superheros and the show that set it for the small screen came out at the same time and are to this day getting their due on their respective influences of the modern superhero genre."The Incredible Hulk" tells the story of genetic scientist Dr. David 'Bruce' Banner, (brilliantly played by the legendary Bill Bixby in an iconic TV performance). Bixby imbibed David Banner with a humanity that I think very few actors could pull off in such a genre, as most superhero actors, especially the TV versions end up coming across as vapid, one-dimensional fashion models playing hero. Look at all the failed superhero shows that came out in the 80s, each of which lasted at most 1 full season! While The Hulk went for 3 seasons, which was pretty good for a comic book TV show that came out at a time when the genre really didn't exist on television.What the producers and writers smartly did with The Hulk is to humanize it by casting a great, genuine actor in the lead role and also to style it in the form of an anthology series, a la the 1960s series "The Fugitive". Indeed, the Hulk actually played like a combination of "The Fugitive" and "Frankenstein", with Banner being a doctor who obsessed over the loss of his wife in a fatal car accident that he didn't have the strength to save her in, so in trying to make himself more physically strong, he inadvertently exposes himself to gamma radiation, thereby creating this creature inside him that only comes out when Banner is in situations that causes him to express rage and anger. Then, after a horrible accident at his laboratory that results in the death of his associate Dr. Elaine Marks (TV vet Susan Sullivan in typically reliable performance), Banner is forced to go on the run as the creature is believed to have killed both he and Dr. Marks since the creature was seen carrying the doctor's dead body from the exploding facility by snooping investigative reporter Jack McGee (passionately played by Jack Colvin). The comparisons to the Fugitive are apparent, with Banner and Richard Kimble both being doctors falsely accused of crimes of women they loved or cared about (except Banner is believed to be dead and the Hulk believed to be the killer), both go on the run until their innocence can be proved and both being chased by an obsessive figure (with The Hulk it's McGee, with Kimble it's Lt. Gerard) who will stop at nothing to capture their prey. And both are anthology series with their heroes each episode in a different place doing a different odd job and getting into new scrapes having to get themselves out of them while leaving an impression with the people they meet and affecting their lives in some way. And by the end of the episode, Banner is on the run again just like Kimble. But while The Hulk followed 'The Fugitive's' general trajectory, it still managed to feel like it's own entity and having the creature was the wild card that set The Hulk apart. The creature was played by famed bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno (in an immensely persuasive performance). Ferrigno, without any dialogue as the gargantuan green creature, was able to convey both fear and sympathy from the viewer as The Hulk, being the other half of David Banner, was actually a hero, not a menace, saving David's life numerous times when he got into trouble.The horror aspect was a huge bonus for this show, as especially in the first season, the creature was very scary and intimidating. The first transformation scene in the Pilot is one of the scariest transformations in all of TV or movie history, set on a stormy night with slow-building tension and accompanied by the show's memorable theme music that would eventually be used to introduce every episode of the series after the Pilot. Then each show was bookended with the scarier version of the score at the beginning and a more toned down version at the end to relay the sadness of Banner's plight.In addition to being the first of it's kind for TV, I still think this version of the Hulk has trumped every presentation since, including Ang Lee's pretentious Hulk film and Edward Norton's generic Incredible Hulk movie, as well as the Hulk in the bloated Avengers movies. The TV Hulk is still the standard-setter and best representation of the iconic character, all thanks to Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno!

jshorva65 I loved the show despite the fact that I found many parts of the Pilot movie very disturbing. When I first saw it, I was just twelve years old, and had been having what ultimately were prescient recurring dreams of my someday becoming an unusually young widower since approximately the age of three. I also had a long history of tragically-misunderstood (very often seriously maligned) heroic deeds and intentions of pure altruism which were often seriously misrepresented by those who seemed to delight in making trouble for me or anyone who dared to get close to me, the "geek with the bulletproof-thick glasses" until the day I had finally had enough (at age 15) and delivered a well-deserved beat-down to some a$$hole who had been slandering the "new girl" in school with tales of promiscuity (attributing the lies he told about her to ME, actually) for her having befriended me, probably motivated by jealousy over my having been the one she had befriended rather than him. After being pummeled by me that day, he managed to arrange a "sneak attack" on me, but I wasn't injured as badly as he had hoped. Years later, though, he delivered a long-overdue apology. There were also surprisingly-few times when I actually had to fight before the common misconception of "He can't hit what he can't see!" was dispelled. Other than "sucker punches" delivered from behind, I blocked pretty well for a "half blind" kid, too.The deaths of Laura and Elaina were particularly disturbing back then, even more so after 2003. I was 37 when my wife, Jan, lost a long battle with kidney failure. When our relationship began, she told me of her potentially-fatal condition, the high school gymnastics accident which was determined to have been its cause, the kidney transplant she received in 1988, the ten-year prognosis given by the surgeon who performed the transplant (the transplant ultimately exceeded the surgeon's expectations by three years). While waiting for a compatible replacement to become available for her, the dialysis treatments which sustained her life during that time ultimately caused a fatal heart attack while she slept after a particularly strenuous dialysis session. About 36 hours before she passed away, she told me of her belief that she wouldn't have much longer to live. It was her way of saying "Goodbye" to me, and reminding me that it was only because she was ready to stop fighting to stay alive since she had fulfilled all that she had ever hoped for in life and more (finding true love with me, witnessing the Graduations of both her children, the birth of her first grandchild, and being called Grandma for the first time by her granddaughter) and had already known this was coming when she signed her Living Will and Do Not Resuscitate orders. If not for that final "Goodbye" from her, I would still be a mess 6-1/2 years later, filled with frustration at the fact that I was also asleep for well over an hour past the time when I believe she must have died.Dedicated with love to Jan (1961-2003)