The Incredible Hulk (1979)

Best movie of this year hands down!

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

I was 14 years old when this movie came out, and I refused to watch it back then. Even though I had been a big Bill Bixby fan from his "My Favorite Martian" and "Courtship of Eddie's Father" days, I wasn't a fan of comic books and figured this series would just be hokey.Fast forward to 2010.... I discovered that RTV is showing "The Incredible Hulk" TV series, and being a Bill Bixby fan I decided to check out an episode. WOW! I had no idea this was such a great human drama. Well, I started watching episodes nightly for several months, and was quite impressed with the writing and acting (and that haunting theme music I just can't seem to get out of my head), but never got a chance to see the original pilot movie.Yesterday I found the pilot is available on Hulu, so I watched it. I was overwhelmed. The performances by Bill Bixby, Susan Sullivan, Jack Colvin, and Lou Ferigno were so believable and moving. I'm not a sentimentalist usually, but I nearly cried twice during that movie! It makes me sad to think I missed this for all those 33 years! The emotional range of Bill Bixby in this episode just astounds me. I felt like I was experiencing every nuance of emotion just as he was. I am just amazed by Mr. Bixby's dramatic range, and feel he is truly under-rated and under-appreciated as a performer. I really miss him, and was very saddened by his all-too-early demise. Susan Sullivan's character's bravery and compassion when confronted with the Hulk for the first time is a treasure in acting. I liked Jack Colvin's work in this pilot, and greatly enjoyed the development of his character in the series. He was the quintessential hard-nosed investigative reporter. One surprise for me was the depth of Lou Ferigno's performance. In the series he doesn't get to show quite as much of a range of emotions as he did in this pilot, and I think that is a bit of a shame, as his performance was exemplary.Bottome line: Perhaps you, like me, missed an opportunity to catch this on its first run because you thought the subject matter (the Hulk comic book character) would just be an insult to your intelligence. Let me assure you this is a great pilot that led to a great series. If you have never seen this pilot, watch it!

I never liked the hulk when i was a kid collecting comic books - so never watched this movie until i was a lot older. What first hooked me was the human story of David Banner, brilliantly played by Bill Bixby. Having lost his wife in a car accident, David Banner is obsessed with stories of people in similar situations with loved ones in danger and how they found some sort of superhuman strength to save them. David Banner not having done this with his own wife is tortured by this fact and wants to know why he couldn't and these other people could. These tests obviously lead him into becoming the hulk. David Banner is already a man in the grip of sadness before he becomes the hulk and it becomes more painful as the situation gets out of control and he begins to hurt everyone he comes into contact with.Lets just say the end with the lonely theme is just great and for TV movie holds some punch. A real tragic story that will for me always be the definitive story of the hulk.

Dr David Banner works alongside Dr Elaina Marks in a study into the root causes of those people who have had a sudden burst of strength when placed under extreme conditions. David has a vested interest in this having failed to save his wife from a burning car after an accident. Hearing stories of others who saved themselves and loved ones in similar circumstances, he is filled with a sense of self-loathing as well as scientific curiosity. After years of searching they decide to check the DNA of those involved and a few hours later have the answer they want. David decides to expose himself to gamma radiation to mimic his subjects DNA status. It doesn't appear to work, angering him. Things get worse as he drives home in the pouring rain and gets a flat. Unable to change it he gets very angry and his "inner anger" starts to come out. Not only does his inner anger have a complete lack of auto-repair skills, but it also forces him into an actual physical change that overtakes and controls him.Opening with a horribly hammy and soft-focus flashback of Banner being in love with his wife before losing her in a crash, I honestly thought about bailing out and giving the whole thing up as a bad job. However once you get passed these terribly dated opening scenes the films gets better and, although still very much an 1970's TVM, actually has plenty of good points about it. The narrative is engaging if a bit familiar to those who know the Hulk already from different visions and sources. In this regard it is occasionally a bit dull because it has to lean on the side of explanation as part of its role as a pilot but regardless it still does a good job of getting to the heart of the character – which is one of tragedy and loss.Although this is not a work of art it does get the tone right and even produces a suitably downbeat ending that the series could then run with. The narrative could have been better in terms of bringing out the people rather than the plot steps but it has this current running through it and it is for the best. As director Johnson may not ever manage to shake off his television pilot budget but he does seem to understand the importance of Banner's loss in his life and also in the roots of the Hulk. Bixby brings out this aspect well and although his range is limited he does seem to have understood what his character is about. Ferrigno is solid as the Hulk but overdoes the rage aspect without having the ability here to show that Banner is still below the surface – his is a limited performance. With the material being slanted in Bixby's favour the support isn't anything special but do enough for the TV standard of the film.Overall this is a TV movie and a pilot and therefore it has its limitations but it does manage to get the emotional tone (if not depth) right. The opening flashback is shockingly bad but after that even the most instructional of scenes is built on a sense of sadness and loss that does well to make the Banner character interesting even if the Hulk himself is not delivered well enough to run this through the entire film.

Dr. David Banner still having recurring dreams of his wife's death via car accident eleven months later is studying the reserve of strength that the average human could conceivably be capable of. Fed up with hearing that people in other similar crash could save their loved ones while he, himself, could not, he chooses to use gamma radiation on himself. However he gets a larger dose then he thought that he was going to get and thus the incredible Hulk was born. This pilot for the subsequent TV series captures the sad melancholy feel that the series later would later do so well. It's everything that Ang Lee film SHOULD have been and more.My Grade: A- DVD Extras: Intro by Lou Ferrigno; Commentary with Director/Writer Ken Johnson; a featurette on the Ang Lee travesty; a preview of the Hulk game (the crappy one, not the glorious "Ultimate Destruction"); An except from the Hulk novelization; Trailers for "Fast & the Furious: Tricked out Edition", "Hulk", the "Monk" pilot, & "Taken"