The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island (1981)

I decided to tape this movie because it was Gilligan's Island and I remember watching it heaps when I was a kid. Later I found out that this was the third attempt to resurrect the series from the grave. Gilligan's Island may have been a good series, but sometimes things should just remain dead, as with this.In the previous movies, the castaways were rescued and then turned the island into a resort. Now they are running the resort under the management of the Howard's (the rich couple) son. One of the cast has been replaced and the wealthy man does not appear until the end of the movie.This movie is actually quite dull and boring. The Harlem Globetrotters crashland on the island and become welcome guests while a mad scientist is trying to buy the island off the castaways for its rich deposit of supremium (a uranium rip off). The movie culminates in a basketball game between robots and the Harlem Globetrotters in which the Globetrotters manage to win through the use of their funky moves.The movie is really quite dull. Though it does invoke a couple of laughs (such as the Globetrotters rescuing their basketballs from the wreckages) most of it really falls flat. Though I cannot remember what the characters were like in the original, in this movie they seemed to really over act (especially Ginger, who is supposed to be a movie star). In the end, the series may have originally been good, but the attempted resurrection falls flat on its face.

This movie is incredible! Amazing! It had everything! It is truly shocking that it was a made for TV production, it has epic blockbuster written all over it.Name it and this movie has it. The Harlem Globetrotters, greedy developers, Gilligan, Mary-Ann, The Professor, The Skipper, the millionaire and his wife, the rest, tourists, basketball in an exotic Caribbean location....... this movie has everything! EVERYTHING! ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING! You should be grateful, very grateful, that we get entertainment such as this. The world is good.

I think this is a really cool Movie and I think it should come back on tv again so people can see it. I think it will be nice if TV Land Channel should have it on like for a weekend. Thanks for listening and please get it on tv again...

I am probably one of the few Gilligan fans who can say that they like this picture, but there are several things wrong with it. Ginger has regressed backward in age so that she looks like her own daughter. Lovely Constance Forslund, an actress who once played Marilyn Monroe, is obviously too young to play the role when she would be better off doing it in a remake. The Howells who once said they never had a son suddenly have one, so either they had lied way back then, or they adopted the oldest kid in the orphanage to avoid parental duties." Oh no, we meant we didn't have a son ON THE ISLAND." This was supposed to set off a new series with the castaways running a resort on their old island, such a series would have allowed them to close all the old plot points of the series and bring back their old guest stars, but instead there is a culture shock as the castaways meet the Harlem Globetrotters. An illogical bet is made just for the team to play and show off their magic on a ridiculous looking court that has to be seen to be believed. Husband and wife team Martin Landau and Barbera Bain play financial rivals of the Howells in order to bilk them out of a valuable new element on the island. The plot as well as the jokes are straight out of the series, as are the Skipper's and Gilligan's wardrobe. Couldn't they have got more new clothes by now ? Still, this movie to end all movies does follow the spirit as well as the craziness of the series. I can only assume the next movie will be called: "Return to Gilligan's Island: Balingkoff's Revenge."