The movies bear no resemblance to the TV show at all. They don't take place in the same country, they introduce entirely new characters, don't mention any of the old characters or events and come across as a whole different show... in sort.. they suck.

Well, let's all assume the falling to the ground was meant as a running gag through the show. The sudden pow explosion can throw Mac to the ground. One swing oughta do it, in most episodes. In serious fight scenes he wouldn't do it, except maybe against Murdoc.

Dream on. Maybe on Blu-Ray, but that's as big as the dream was to get it normal released on the dvd.

Interesting you ask that after I watched the movies yesterday and the day before.

I resent that but I understand it as well.

Come to think of it, I don't think I ever saw them as 'movies' but just as a longer or a two-parted episode. Keep in mind that they're just TV-movies and not from Hollywood's big blockbusters mill.

Lost Treasure of Atlantis is an Indiana Jones type of film. And actually if you have seen Legend of the Holy Rose, Treasure of Manco and Eye Of Osiris, you might get a good idea on the film. It's adventureous and there are plenty of MacGyverisms in it. Indeed like Rock said a whole new set of characters, no reference whatsoever to the show. Could've been better maybe if it was a Mac-Jack-Nikki adventure. Most annoying is the overacted enthousiasm of Brian Blessed.

Trail To Doomsday, I saw it last night. Completely the opposite of Lost Treasure of Atlantis as it set in the British crime world. Both movies are set in Britain by the way. The tone is much darker and there are less to hardly none MacGyverisms. Mac's investigating the death of a friend on his own in England and not everyone appears to be who they are. So the script needs to have it of twists, turn of events and so on.

I'd say give it chance and make up your own mind before you go down on others and decide not to watch it because others say it's bad.

Regarding Mac's fighting style: He could have had a career as a professional boxer, since everyone he punches ends up being out cold for, well, as long as it takes Mac to get away. Of course, everyone one of his fights would have ended like Rocky 2, since Mac would fall to the canvas at the same time as his opponent.

Regarding the TV movies: Really, it's best to just think of them as extra episodes, rather than as movies. When I first watched them, I had the misguided notion that they would be "movies," which, in my mind, implied bigger budgets, etc. In fact, these are quite low-budget. But if you just view them as bonus episodes, they're pretty much on par with the rest of the series. "The Lost Treasure Of Atlantis" was kind of fun, but Brian Blessed ruins things by hamming it up WAY too much. Also, the low budget really hurt this one because they TRY to do big budget special effects and sets, and it comes out looking awful. Still, if you enjoyed season 5's "Legend Of The Holy Rose," you'll probably enjoy this.
"Trail To Doomsday" doesn't really feel much like MacGyver at all until the end. It's less of a kid's show than the typical MacGyver episode, and has a darker tone to it. I kind of like that aspect of it, though it often feels like I'm just watching a movie that happens to star RDA, rather than a MacGyver movie.

When do you get the movies?

No one made it in the movie business except Teri Hatcher. But if you check out their filmographies you might be surprised who all actually made it into big movies even though it's just a quick peep. Start with Bruce McGill for example and Morgan Sheppard.

Well, I think you should still see it before you make a judgement here. Like I said with Eye Of Osiris and Legend of the Holy Rose, you might get a good idea of what Lost Treasure of Atlantis is. Eye of Osiris was written by John Sheppard (as he did most of the Murdoc episodes, Lesson in Evil, Passages) as he did Lost Treasure of Atlantis.

John Considine (Log Jam, There But For The Grace, Off The Wall, Good Knight MacGyver) wrote Trail To Doomsday. He also wrote Blind Faith and maybe it's not a good comparison but I always have the idea to compare it with the movie. Crime organizations with political connections all that stuff.

But feel free to share your opinion once you have the movies.

The fact that none of the series' regulars are in the movies isn't really what bothered me. There were plenty of good episodes of the TV show that didn't feature Pete or Jack or Penny, etc, etc, so their absense in these movies isn't a deal breaker at all. There were also plenty of episodes that didn't mention the Phoenix foundation, so the lack of the Phoenix Foundation in the movies wasn't a big deal either.
Like I said, the biggest problems with the "Atlantis" movie, for me, was Brian Blessed (he hams it up WAY too much) and the pitiful production values, particularly towards the end of the movie. It starts to look like a really bad b-movie. The first half of the movie is fine, though, and if you can tune out Brian's performance, it's an enjoyable MacGyver adventure, no worse than most episodes.

And the big problem with "Doomsday" is that it just doesn't feel like MacGyver for the most part. There really aren't any MacGyverisms in it, and the characters and story just don't feel very MacGyver-ish. It's not a BAD movie, per say. I actually enjoy it. It just doesn't feel like part of the series that we grew up watching. The only part, to me, that felt like MacGyver was towards the end when he uses a belt to scale a castle wall and then sneaks into the castle.

If you read the reviews on Amazon, they're mostly meaningless. About 90% of those reviews are from people who aren't commenting on the quality of the movies, they're just basically saying, "Yay, now my collection is complete! I'm so happy this was finally released." In other words, they're die-hard fans/completists who don't care whether the product is good or bad, they just wanted to have it on their shelf.

Well, I guess my point is that's it's not a good idea to just rely on star ratings to determine whether or not people like something. A lot of the reviews on Amazon give the movie 5 stars, but if you actually read what they say, they're not saying the movies themselves are worthy of 5 stars, they're saying that it was 5-star decision for Paramount to finally release the movies so that our DVD collections can be complete. In fact, I recall seeing at least one review that gave the movies 5 stars, but in the body of the review, they basically said, "These aren't very good movies, but I'm glad to be able to see them." I don't understand how that earns 5 stars, personally.

Anyway, just my ramblings.....

But yeah, go ahead and order them. You'll probably enjoy them well enough. It's basically like getting two extra episodes of the series. Maybe not the best episodes, but certainly not the worst either. I had fun watching them, and I tend to be more critical of MacGyver than most people on this board.