REVIEW: Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (1998) (TV)
Starring: David Hasselhoff, Lisa Rinna, Sandra Hess, Neil Roberts, Tracy Waterhouse, Ron Canada, and Dr. X.
Directing: Rod Hardy
At A Glance: After years of self-imposed exile, retired agent Nick Fury (David Hasselhoff) returns to the field to help S.H.I.E.L.D. fight global terrorism. HYDRA has once again reared its ugly head, but the children of Baron Von Strucker (Sandra Hess and Scott Heindl) are now at the helm instead of their father.
What the Goose? Before Samuel L. Jackson, there was the Hoff. This made for TV movie was surprising. Surprising, in that it was released in 1998 and I can’t figure out why I missed it on the Tube. I know I was married that year, with at least one child, the second born in October… I think we were in our house at that point. Ah well, perhaps that was one of the years we went without Cable TV.
Anyway, it’s not a terrible movie. It contained some entertaining dialogue in that, since it was made for TV, and it was 1998, they tried to actually avoid profanity. Such as when the Hoff states: “Let’s go kick some HYDRA butt!” Yeah, seriously. These days, you know that they wouldn’t have used “butt.” It felt very ’80s, despite being released in the late ’90s.
What did I get out of it? Well, mainly, it reinforced how huge the Hoff is. Physically, I mean. That guy is tall. Really tall. I don’t think I really noticed that before. I mean, I was watching KITT more in Knight Rider, and the scenery in Babewatch. Also, Sandra Hess makes for an enjoyable-to-watch Andrea Von Strucker / ‘Viper.’ She definitely had nice… wardrobe choices.
Did it hold true to the comics? I dunno. There weren’t any obviously super-powered heroes or villains, but there was a hellicarrier. There wasn’t a Black Widow, but Lisa Rinna was clad in tight leather quite often.
Anyway, if you enjoy a nice, campy romp through the comics and have some time to kill, give Nick Fury a try.
It is possible that I am the only human being on the face of the planet who has seen this movie twice.
Twice?! You’ve seen this twice?!
And here I was hoping I had found something to add to your List, as I didn’t see it there when I looked today.
You haz superpowerz.
I haz superpowerz. Nick Fury does not.
Yes, I’ve seen it twice, the first time when it was originally aired and the the second within the past year or so. It’s a very forgettable flick.
In the beginning there was Marvel Comics.
Then in that magical time from the late-1980′s until about 1997 they were a little strapped for cash.
Their method for fixing that was to *lease* the film rights to their characters to whoever had cash on hand, right now. It was a time that gave us the Dolph Lundgren version of the Punisher, the 1991 version of Captain America, the Generation X pilot/TV movie, and that didn’t give us the 1994 Fantastic Four movie.
Nick Fury had a very interesting life/afterlife. Stan Lee gave his approval to the Hoff to play the part. The film was shot with enough of an open-ended finish to possibly create a SHIELD television series as FOX wanted at least three Marvel Characters that I am aware of for weekly TV: Spider-Man (a live action series was mooted, but deviated enough from the source material that Marvel actually developed some cajones and said no), Generation X, and the film currently in question. Also of note was that in 1991 NBC shot a pilot for Power Pack, which Fox then frequently aired in their early-90s Saturday morning slot, and legends about of an unfinished She-Hulk pilot/film.
After airing on Fox once (or twice, I personally saw it in the fall of 1998, but supposedly it aired in May, I’m unsure if was rebroadcast or if just the local station aired it after Baseball season). The show pretty much disappeared for the rest of the Millenium. Sci-Fi (back when they spelled it that way) aired it once in 2002/2003, then it made its way into the rotation of Encore Action Chanel in 2005/2006. In September 2008, the film got an exclusive to Best Buy DVD release to cash in on the hype of Nick Fury’s appearance (angry sigh) in Iron Man.
I’m kinda mad that it came out of DVD right after I finally broke down and bought an “archive” DVD from a vendor at a comic convention.