User Reviews

As he and girlfriend Catherine go to honor a buddy SEAL that was killed and left behind a wife and a daughter.

It shows Steve and Freddie Hart played by future Reacher star Alan Ritchson in their SEAL training as the former does not want the latter to quit.

As they go to North Korea there, to get Hart's remains and how they do so in a top secret mission to honor Freddie.

....because this is where Steve McGarrett (Alex O'Loughlin) and his main squeeze U. S. Navy Lieutenant Catherine Rollins (Michelle Borth) have to sneak into heavily-defended North Korea and retrieve the body of fellow former Navy Seal Freddie Hart (Alan Ritchson). McGarrett is driven to do this because he removed the lid off Hart's wooden coffin only to find that the corpse is not that of his good buddy. It does not have the tattoo of Hart's true love on ye forearm. Looks like the North Koreans managed to pull a fast one, and so Steve has to accomplish his own one-man mission. Forget talking to the State Department, they will sit on their behinds and bloviate. And forget having the Navy plan the mission, it's going to take forever and ten weeks. So McGarrett is off on his own mission impossible, and Catherine insists on accompanying him. No use arguing with her, Steve-O, so save your breath. With a little help from that lovable expatriate Frank Bama (Jimmy Buffett making a cameo appearance), Steve and Catherine manage to take a sneak into Kim Jong-Un's favorite homeland. And just take a look as to who directed this episode: Joe Dante, the genius who gave us PIRANHA (1978), THE HOWLING (1981), GREMLINS (1984), EXPLORERS (1985), INNERSPACE (1987), THE 'BURBS (1989), GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH (1990), MATINEE (1993), THE SECOND CIVIL WAR (1997), SMALL SOLDIERS (1998), and LOONEY TUNES: BACK IN ACTION (2003). Great films all. To make a long story short, Steve and Catherine find Freddie Hart's body. How are they going to get the body out of North Korea and back to his widow and daughter. Kind of a moot point, with North Koreans capturing them. I can't help thinking about the character played by Alan Ritchson, Freddie Hart by name. There's a song that goes "Eeeeeeeasy lovin'.....so sexy looking.....I know by the feeling.....that it comes from the hearrrrrrrrt......" I know it sounds goofy, but it can't be helped. McGarrett acts like Rambo, and his Rambette gives a good account of herself. Along the way, the viewer is treated to flashbacks of Steve McGarrett and Freddie Hart on a previous mission in North Korea that ended with Steve having to leave Freddie behind, and even further back to Steve preventing Freddie from washing out of SEAL training. Well, Freddie's body makes it back home, after all. And there you have it. It should have been a two-hour movie. Just saying.

An extremely poignant episode highlighting commitment,determination, courage and all is shown.

Steve goes to North Korea to pick up the remains of his fallen Navy Seal person, who was also a personal friend of his. After the body is claimed, Steve discovers that it's not him and searches for the remains of his friend.

The use of flashbacks is effectively shown here to tell the story of a friendship, and how Steve got his fallen friend not to quit when things really became tough.

That last scene where the funeral is held will tug at your heart. This is especially true when Steve gives that token to his dead friend's young daughter.

As McGarrett plans to bury his fellow Navy SEAL friend, he realizes that it is not him. And plans to go to North Korea and reluctantly must bring his girlfriend Catherine into the fray.

As both go to North Korea with the help of another friend, played by singer Jimmy Buffet. As McGarrett and his friend, played by Alan Ritchson is told in flashbacks as the Ritchson character is trying to save McGarrett out of all places, North Korea.

We see a cameo by McGarrett's mentor and friend, Joe White. As he is discreet and won't even tell his mentor what is happening with him and taking Catherine with him along the way.

It is action packed though unrealistic to go to North Korea. As you would be shot and killed there. But hey, that is not just Hollywood but McGarrett taken no for an answer.

Unfortunately not much screen time for Danny, Chin Ho, and Kono!

Normally I find Hawaii Five-0 to be an entertaining show. I'm not going to say it's usually very realistic - it's always had its share of fictional cop tech and factual inaccuracies - but the stories are good (sometimes even moving) and the acting is decent. However, I'm not sure what happened with this episode. It was a complete departure from the usual plot line - nothing wrong with that, but in this case it was a terrible move.

No one in his right mind, not even the exalted McGarrett, would drop into North Korea unannounced to retrieve a dead body. It would be absolutely impossible. And as another reviewer mentioned, the North Korean soldiers, who inexplicably spoke perfect English, were portrayed as ragtag militiamen, which is the furthest from the truth. Finally, they stretched the "enemy is always a terrible shot" cliché to the max. With over a dozen men shooting at them with automatic weapons, McGarrett and his girlfriend somehow succeeded without a scratch.

Although they were going for an emotional conclusion, I'd already lost any investment in the episode because it was just so ridiculous. Please, producers, don't do this again.

I usually love this show. Sure, it's not brilliant, but it's fun. The plots are usually well thought out, and the dialogue duels between Scott Cann and Alex O'Loughlin are almost always entertaining.

So what on Earth was the production company thinking when they scripted this Schlock? Are they looking to be cancelled? Personally I think they should be. Why?

Well, for one, I thought the entire Rambo-esque/ala-Chuck Norris scenes were ludicrous at best. Let's forget the fact that the production company could not take the time to properly research North Korean topography, but to show their military as a rag-tag band of ill-trained, ill-equipped thugs was a laugh. Let's be honest here: despite the fact that North Korea is (and has been) run by a lunatic - and is a repressive totalitarian regime, hell bent on the destruction of anything resembling democracy - their soldiers are anything but poorly trained and lacking in basic military discipline. More to the point, whether the NK military could stand up to a full scale onslaught by a better equipped army like the United States or The ROK is not the point here, their soldiers would never be taken lightly by any invader. Why? because they're dangerous. And taking any armed opponent lightly in a theater of military operations would be insane.

Nevertheless, this is exactly what the writers, producers, et al of Hawaii 5 O did with this episode. They sent in Steve 'Rambo' McGarrett' and his hot little Rambina girlfriend to open the proverbial can of Whoop Ass on the dumbbell North Koreans. And whoop ass they did too. Wow! what a body count they racked up. Two mighty American warriors against twenty (or was it two hundred?) stupid , cowardly - and all too willing to run directly into the path of speeding bullets - North Korean irregulars. These were not North Korean regulars. That's for sure.

Last but not least, I realize that some of the cast members are of Korean descent. And maybe they considered that this episode was just a way of poking fun at fat little Kim Jong-un, super brat. Yet regardless of the reasons given, however, I found the entire episode to be insulting to Koreans, Asians, Americans, and all of humanity as well.

Sure, I'll probably watch the show again because it's filmed on the islands and has some great looking women on it now and then. But from this day forward I will always remember this episode as the turning point in both the direction of this show and my opinion of it.

Boos, jeers, and tons of rotten tomatoes! And shame on all those associated with its production. You should all be sentenced to spend the next year doing community service at a local VA hospital for having the audacity to make fun of war and its atrocities.

I you want to lol like crazy watching every cliche in the history of military propaganda films this is the best episode for you.

An american dude with a chick go to defend blah blah blah and kill a bunch of bad guys who did the crime to be in their country and fight the invading two army rambos who have the best plot armor technology can make.

So funny for all the wrong reasons.