Universal, 2008, 114 minutes
To view the trailer, go here.
The Marvel Comics superhero The Incredible Hulk, green-giant alter ego of fugitive physicist Dr. Bruce Banner, was born in May of 1962. One year later came the TV premiere of The Fugitive, about an on-the-run doctor also wrongly accused of murder. Then came The Hulk, a short-lived 1966 TV series, followed by 1977's huge hit The Incredible Hulk, starring Bill Bixby as Dr. Banner and bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno as the Hulk. (In addition to various Hulk specials, the eighties would also bring us a band of fugitives called The A-Team, but I digress.) Yet even before TV's Incredible Hulk, dog lovers were glued to the set watching a series called Run, Joe, Run, about a heroic German Shepherd who managed to stay several steps ahead of the people wrongly accusing him of attacking his trainer.
Whether the hero is a doc or a dog, audiences can't get enough of the fugitive theme (which, incidentally, first showed up in 1952's The Greatest Show on Earth). The proof: Ang Lee's 2003 movie Hulk was released in 2003, yet here we are five short years later lining up to see a new and different version directed by Louis Leterrier (who, incidentally, also directed a Jet Li film called Danny The Dog, a.k.a. Unleashed). This time around, Ed Norton stars as Dr. Banner, and the movie - to the delight of hardcore Hulk fans - boasts nostalgic references to the seventies TV series that Ang Lee's version did not.
In addition to providing the titular CGI character's voice, Ferrigno makes a brief appearance, looking buffer than ever. Bringing everything up-to-the-moment, we also get a brief visit from Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark (a.k.a. Iron Man), as well as the requisite cameo by Stan Lee.
And for those seventies TV viewers (this reviewer included) who couldn't get enough of the four-footed fugitive called Joe, there's even a bit of dog action. When we first meet up with Dr. Banner, he's living with a handsome, black-and-white mixed-breed in a densely-populated neighborhood of Brasil that teems with owned and stray dogs. Of course, the reason audiences love the fugitive kind is that they, like the dogs in this movie, are underdogs. Memo to Hollywood: isn't it high time for a movie adaptation of Run, Joe, Run?
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