'STEVE AUSTIN is a man barely alive . . . We have the technology. We can rebuild him.' The word they neglected to use over the credits of The Six Million Dollar Man was 'twice' - for Lee Majors and Lindsay Wagner, the 'bionic' Seventies superhero and his girlfriend, are back on the assembly line for Bionic Breakdown, a film in which they finally marry. Inflation and Hollywood's insatiable appetite for lucrative remakes probably makes Steve Austin a bionic bargain at Dollars 6 million.

But is there really a demand for his outmoded 'bionic' technology, for the metallic clunking that accompanied his displays of strength, for the target over his bionic eye?

Sadly, real-life science has overtaken the bionic man. Even his price could barely buy a couple of hip replacements or a diving German footballer. Steve was the Austin Allegro of sci-fi superheroes. The Nineties require a model with airbags as standard.

The Observer (London, England)