Parents' Guide to Knight Rider (2008)

Sure, it's cool, but almost a decade into the 21st century -- when everyone has a cell phone, GPS systems provide directions, and people can use the Internet to find out almost anything about anyone -- a talking car just doesn't seem that special anymore. So when Traceur heads off on his generic missions (download files from a foreign embassy's computers, retrieve some "package," etc.), KITT doesn't always seem to give him much of an edge over the bad guys. While the transforming vehicle effect is pretty neat, even that comes straight out of Transformers, where it was done much better. And the spy sequences all come from the same playbook as Mission: Impossible.

And, unfortunately, there's not much else to the series besides the cool car (which is obviously and repeatedly identified as a Ford Mustang GT500KR) and the careworn formula of a mysterious loner tapped by some shadowy agency to take on dangerous tasks of urgent importance with the help of some really nifty gadgets. The original show was fun but seems dated today, while this new version is flat and uninspired. Traceur's tasks seem bolted onto the script to provide some transition between the action scenes -- car chases, martial arts fights, and shootouts -- and what passes as a romantic subplot between incorrigible womanizer Traceur and colleague/former girlfriend Sarah Graiman (Deanna Russo), who often appears in her underwear for no obvious reason and whose scientist father, Charles Graiman (Bruce Davison), developed both KITTs. While the original series drove off into the sunset as a hit, this one doesn't even get out of the garage.