Noutions Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

DubyaHan The movie is wildly uneven but lively and timely - in its own surreal way

Jakoba True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

dhoffman34-14-97263 Surprised to find that so many others remember this TV-movie! It's a classic in the sense that it mimics many of the B-grade flicks of the 1950s. I watched this one evening while living and working in Honolulu during the 70s and 80s. What emerged as absolutely hilarious was the scene in which the hero in the suit realizes that he's losing oxygen inside his suit as he presses the status button on his left sleeve. The readout then shows the word: MALFUNTION (the actual spelling). It was certainly the case that perhaps the readout circuitry was also facing oxygen deprivation!! Understandably, though, it was simply never destined to become a weekly series but it was entertaining nonetheless, at least for that era in the 1970s.

David Edward Martin It's hard to remember now what an impoverished time the 1970s were for science fiction and superhero television shows. While the SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN, BIONIC WOMAN, INCREDIBLE HULK, and WONDER WOMAN seem to have done well in our memories, their budgets were limited and the creativity was hampered by the SFX technology of the time.But that did not stop studios from trying. And occasionally a network would begrudgingly cough up the money for a pilot in the form of a made-for-TV flick.In this case, the guys behind the two bionic shows on ABC got NBC interested in their pitch for another Martin Caidin concept. Caidin was the leading "tech thriller" writer of the 60s and 70s. His NASA novel MAROONED (actually three novels) was a famous film. His gritty novel CYBORG was softened into the popular SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN. NBC probably asked for "something like the $6M Man but different." They got it.Caidin again looked to cutting edge technology for his gimmick. NASA and the Pentagon had been working on "man-amplifiers", powered frameworks a user could wear and use to possess forklift-like strength. The chemical industry had developed "memory plastic", materials that could be deformed then spring back into shape when an electric current was supplied. So there was the concept-- a man-amplifier suit that used memory plastic joints to make it work.Of course this is television so they needed a crisis to compel the hero to build the thing in the first place. In this case, the hero was a college professor who witnessed a crime. The local mobsters tried shutting him up by nearly killing him. Now paraplegic, the hero decided to combine his work with memory plastic with research by his colleagues to produce an armored plastic suit that can walk on its own. And of course, this being TV, he used the suit to get revenge on the mobsters. He even picked up the obligatory street-smart young assistant along the way. The idea looked good on paper. The only problem was, the best mid-70s SFX tech could come up with was plastic plate mail the wearer could barely move in. NBC took a look at the pilot, let it air once, and quietly forgot about it. As did most of the viewers.Martin Caidin just cashed his check and went on with his life. After all, he still had the royalties from the bionic shows coming in. A few years later, Caidin decided to recycle the basic ideas behind EXOMAN in his early-80s tech thriller MANFAC. Like CYBORG, this is a very serious, very adult novel that still holds up well. MANFAC also enabled Caidin to have his final say on some of the exaggerated powers of THE $6M MAN, especially that "running at 60 mph" trick (the suit's legs literally run out from under the wearer).

sunkorg I was quite a young child but remember this movie. I recall the handicapped man visiting museums and studying chain mail while designing his special armor. He would climb into a tanning booth-like device that would encase him in the suit. Once in it, he was able to walk and, of course, fight crime. Ah, the 70's! ;)For years I had assumed it was a short-lived series...I had no idea there was only one movie ever made! Apparently there was a lot of studio wrangling that prevented this pilot concept from taking off. Too bad. It's interesting that this idea has since been used in other film productions.Search YouTube for "Exoman" and you'll find a five-minute clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0KSqelmgN8

BigRich I saw this movie when I was a little kid. It's about a crippled man that builds a suit that allowed him to walk and he ended up trying to be a crime fighter. He almost looks like a walking red bullet or missile. He had one weakness, a lack of air in the power suit. For some reason I really thought this movie was cool. By the way, the suit was bullet proof. I would love to see this movie on Mystery Science Theater 3000.BGR