Heat Vision and Jack

I would probably watch this show if it were real... because it's pretty funny.

Not as funny as Tropic Thunder, mind you... but what is? This almost seems like a joke pilot made for fun. It's "episode 14" too, so that should tell you something.

The cast is interesting... a lot of the same players who do appear together in a lot of stuff... (Night at the Museum -- Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson... Tropic Thunder -- Ben Stiller and Jack Black)... it's quite possible these are all friends who just wanted to make a funny movie pilot.

If I had as much money as they do, I'd still have to find some time to do some stuff not for profit... but for fun -- that's how you keep your goals in check and not purely based on how much money your next gig pays... keeps you straight, in line with your actual creative goals.

I thought it sounded interesting when I first read about it. Then I saw it. It's like Lovecraft funny. Like "human language is inadequate to describe the horror blah blah" funny.

It's like every action/adventure show EVER packed into a half hour, but the most obvious comparisons would have to be "X-files" and "Knight Rider." (Heat Vision is KITT) The only thing I didn't like was Owen Wilson's flat reading of Heat Vision's lines. And even that wasn't bad the whole time.

So why didn't it make it on TV? It's a half-hour live-action comedy without a laugh track. How many of those have EVER made it? (Apparantly people need to be told when it's funny.)

made entirely of brilliant TV pilots (called "The Network") that were never picked up and this was by far the best. I couldn't stop laughing. It's a real tragedy the show didn't get any air time -- I bet if Jack Black and Owen Wilson switched places it would have been huge.

When I watched this, I figured it had to be a spoof by Ben Stiller. Stiller, who I don't normally like, had made something so outlandish that it couldn't possibly be real. But it was. And it was incredibly funny. So, Ben Stiller, I might have faith in you after all.

Jack Black, Owen Wilson, Ron Silver and Christine Taylor.... all on TV? Who turned up this idea? Fools, I say. Christine Taylor, for Jiminy's Crickets! And Jack Black... on a talking motorcycle... and he is fighting against "grave danger"! "Apparently the human mind is not unlike cookie dough..." "NASA is evil! They have a man tracking me down. His name is Ron Silver... a gifted actor and a cold-blooded killer." How can you turn down programming like this? I remember 1999 and the only thing even remotely like this was "Son of the Beach"...

This review is horrible and poorly written... lucky for you, this show isn't. Watch it. Or else. NASA is watching you.

I have no idea why Ben Stiller and the cast made this fake TV show...but I would sure love to see more parodies like it. It's a single episode of a pretend series (episode 14!) that is much like a mash-up between "The Six Million Dollar Man", "Knight Rider" and a lot of LSD!!

The show starts with a wonderful introduction by director/executive producer Ben Stiller. What follows is a ridiculous TV program that is so funny AND terrible at the same time. Here's the set-up. Jack (Jack Black) is an ex-astronaut who apparently flew too close to the sun. It resulted in his becoming, during the day, three times smarter than the smartest person in the world! But NASA wants Jack's brain...so they sent evil secret agent/tv actor Ron Silver to murder Jack and steal his mega-brain!! To top this off, an alien (Vincent Schiavelli) has just arrived on Earth and uses its evil green glowy eyes to disintegrate the foolish humans!! While the combination of Schiavelli and Silver seem insurmountable, Jack has the help of his beloved friend, Heat Vision--a sentient motorcycle who used to be Jack's roommate (the voice of Owen Wilson)!

Does all this sound insane and ultra-bizarre?! Of course...but also very funny and a great parody of some of the most ridiculous TV shows in history. It's simply the sort of thing you need to SEE to believe. Very funny and worth seeing...and it's currently on YouTube. It works so well because it really captures the awfulness and stupidity of some old TV shows. And, if you like this parody, you might also want to find "Kung Fury" (on Netflix, YouTube and many other places)...a hilarious recent sendoff to bad 80s movies and video games.