Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Before I talk about this pilot movie for "Starsky and Hutch", I have an important confession....I have never seen the ensuing TV series. Yep, I was certainly old enough to watch it...just never did. However, my curiosity was piqued because this movie was an installment of "The ABC Movie of the Week"...and I've watched several dozen of these movies recently on YouTube. However, this pilot was not on YouTube (probably for copyright reasons), so I saw it on the first disc for the TV series...and it's available through Netflix.The show begins with two tough assassins killing a young couple making out in a cool looking red and white Ford Torino. Why is the car important? It's the spitting image of Starsky's car and the cops immediately wonder if the murderers were actually trying to kill Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) and Hutch (David Soul). Through the course of most of the film, the two detectives look for their would- be murderer...until they realize that the killings and motivations weren't exactly what they first thought.This is a reasonably good cop film made for television...but never once did it scream out "This is so good it MUST become a TV series"! In the case of "The Six Million Dollar Man", the pilot movies clearly DID and were very unique and compelling. This film, on the other hand was good...but not great. Worth seeing but nothing particularly memorable.By the way, when the two assassins are in their hotel room, I did enjoy seeing one of them (Richard Lynch) reading "The Age of Voltaire"...a very large and cerebral sort of book. This guy was no dummy and proves just how far in life you can go if you exercise your mind. Sadly, in a scene soon after this, you see the guy shoot at Hutch and the nearby car explodes...which was pretty stupid (and next to impossible).

I'm not sure I ever saw the Starsky and Hutch pilot when it premiered in 1975, but I was a huge fan of the show in 1976 and 1977; my diary is filled with references to my favorite episodes. So, I tried to watch the pilot with fresh eyes and to be conscious of what would grab your attention in 1975, before you knew these characters at all. First, the banter between Starksy and Hutch keeps things moving and keeps them connected as the story moves along. I think they were channeling M*A*S*H a bit here, as it's the only show I can remember that does something similar with dialog. It's a serious job and trouble is always around the corner, but they can counter some that with a bit of humor and irony that only they are in on. Next, we have a team, partner cops. Most cop shows at the time were single player - Columbo. Kojak. Rockford, even Gunsmoke. The Starsky and Hutch pilot establishes them right away as a team, patrolling that beat together for at least three years. They don't always play by the rules, but they get the job done, even if it is a crazy, thankless job. And the only way they know how to do the job is together, depending on each other for everything, because no one else is a completely trusted commodity. You watch them puzzle out the situation; Hutch figures out "who", Starsky figures out "why". In the climatic scene, they run the stairs to catch the bad guys, separately but together, Starsky inside, Hutch outside, and in constant communication because when they work together, no one can beat them. And you, as a viewer, are (almost) included in their safe little circle of two. It's them (and you) against the world, and I think we've got this.The pilot has held up quite well after forty years. Except for the pay phones, walkie-talkies and clothes, it still looks real and goes together great. It's my goal to review every episode. I was pretty obsessed with the show as a love-sick teen, but now I can appreciate the subtleties, the really fine acting and the quality of the dialog. Onward and forward.

This pilot for the successful TV series is a dark, gritty thriller which begins with a young couple being blown away in their car by two assassins. LA's toughest cops Dave Starsky and Ken 'Hutch' Hutchinson are called onto the scene, believing that they were the intended victims, so they roam the seedy streets, looking for answers. They then realise that there are bad guys on both sides of the law. Compared to the series, this TV movie is considerably more serious. Although Starsky has several witty lines and the chemistry between him and Hutch is apparent, people are gunned down in cold blood and the two heroes trust no one but themselves. Soul and Glaser are good and the action sequences are raw and exciting, featuring a downtown car chase, a punch-up inside a gangster's mansion and the climactic chase/gunfight. S & H are the guys who clearly paved the way for the likes of Bodie & Doyle and Crockett & Tubbs, with their humorous banter and crimefighting antics. The first 2 seasons of S & H were pretty tough and violent, until they were told to tone it down and it became more corny.

This show rocked! Fast cars, people going over bonnets, paper blown down a side street. And the clothes. 70's ruled. TV now stinks of a smelly bin that was raided by a 90's producer who just finished film school. The characters cared, the camera was observing not interrupting, and the plot was simple, but effective. David Soul, Paul M.Glazer had style, grace, and a good sense of humour. As a film producer myself, I hope I can bring some of this old school back to the modern world. Enough said.