The Avengers (DVD)

...can be no doubt that the original series of 'The Avengers' with Honor Blackman and Patrick McNee was ground-breaking stuff. When Dianna RIgg and McNee came out karate chopping together it got even better. Possibly by the time Linda Thorenson was part of a team of Avengers the series had seen better days. It was a wonderful programme. Each week the enemies were incredible and surreal. Would the localised weather cloud catch up with our heroes in ...
...in the trilby hat and mac batter them? Would they meet their end in the deserted air-base? Would they be outwitted by malevolent clowns or would the time-controlled spike in the fountain pen go off in Steed's pocket before he realised it was there? And all the time the interplay between Steed and Mrs Peel was terribly, awfully English, dahling. Added to which Mrs Peel was gorgeous and had the air of being one step ahead of the game in the brainy-spy ...

FlameDruid 22.10.2004 · Read full review
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Review of The Avengers (DVD)

...we do, we're stuck in the middle of such a period right now. In the void left by zero ideas, Hollywood is forced to go back and try to adapt older material and one of the great resources available is the medium of television. Of course with a decent budget and all the skill and professionalism that is the film industry the end product is bound to just fabulous. Oh we're in for a grand mauling here. When a top secret government installation is broken ...
...but even more expert is the slightly eccentric August de Winter. But unless our eyes are deceiving us, it looks as though Mrs Peel IS on the side of badness and nastiness...as well as being on the side of truth and justice. With their investigations proceding, Steed and Mrs Peel are faced with greater and greater challenges until they discover the real agenda here, and it looks like winter is going to be mighty cold this year. Blimey that was tough ...

TheNeil 18.07.2001 · Read full review
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Review of The Avengers (DVD)

...critics on release I knew The Avengers would someday be destined to show up on Channel 5 and tonight was that time. John Steed (Ralph Fiennes) and Emma Peel (Uma Thurman) team up to save the world from Sir August de Wynter (Sean Connery. De Wynter has a weather changing device that could bring destruction to the world unless he is paid (cue extreme camera zoom in) millions of dollars! Anyway I think this is the plot because it's not made very clear ...
...time of over two hours. The final cut clocks in at an hour and a half. All I can say is IT REALLY SHOWS. This film is an muddles mess of editing. We jump from scene to scene with nothing really making any sense whatsoever. I knew things were going downhill once De Wynter holds a meeting with his cronies who aren't allowed to see each other. So instead of wearing blindfolds it seems they all dress in big colurful oversized bear costumes-as the abbreviation ...

utero 04.07.2001 · Read full review
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Review of The Avengers (DVD)

If the Avengers movie had any influences, then it surely wasn't from the David Keel, Cathy Gale or Emma Peel eras, but more likely plum in the final deathknell season that featured Tara King. Smug and glib, with inventiveness smothered beneath self conscious 'wackiness' and an approach to writing that was an insult for all that had gone before. Perhaps half the problem was that the director, producer and script writing team all professed to be fans ...
...who thought they knew the Avengers so well that they hardly needed to bother with the details. What ended up on screen shows rare instances of Avengerdom, but really feels more like an excited school childs rendition of 'The Forget-Me-Knot' or some other sub standard episode. Fan fiction rarely works as the writer is so comfortable with the material that they often forget to fill in the details and concentrate soley on all the bits that feel precious ...

dadmancat 14.03.2003 · Read full review
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Review of The Avengers (DVD)

...most people who ever watched the television series The Avengers fell in love with its campy charm. We may not have watched it religiously but it was always watchable and a fun diversion if anything else. Weh they announced they were making a movie there were the usual mutterings of decent but no one really expected it to be that bad. When rumours started filtering out from the film set we may have been a little worried, and then when the movie company ...
...started jangling...then came the critical reviews - universally panning it - and with gusto. Now you can't always believe the critics but there was a certain sense of almost desperation to keep us away from seeing this movie, like they really didn't want us wasting these moments of our lives on something quite so bad. So I gave it a miss, usually I tend to ignore them. Not so long ago though this movie made its way onto terrestrial television and ...

wampyrii 11.10.2001 · Read full review
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Review of The Avengers (DVD)

...strange weather around London & the Ministry (a sort of MI5 establishment) headed by Mother (a codename) has been tasked by the PM to find out what is going on. In steps Steed, sort of a 007 character who manages to get by without a gun, just a bullet proof waistcoat, bowler hat & sword concealed in an umbrella. They think that the adverse weather conditions are related to a government project called Prospero so a meeting is arranged with the former ...
...Prospero is a bit like the American star Wars project in so much as there is an umbrella (weather puns throughout the film) covering the country to protect from attack which uses lighting & tornadoes to block missiles. She thinks that the mostly likely person to investigate is Sir August De Wintyr disgraced head of the project & leader of BROLLY (British Royal Organisation for Lasting Liquid Years). He seems to have lost the plot a bit since he thinks ...

earlofaldgate 11.08.2006 · Read full review
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Review of The Avengers (DVD)

...a film is released onto the sell-through and rental markets after it was universally slammed at the cinema. The film revives the original characters of John Steed and Emma Peel from the sixties television series. It is set in sixties Britain and comes complete with the evil genius out to take over the world with a weather machine. Our two heroes have to save the world in a very under-stated manner and still find time to drink tea. What should have ...
...one thing to blame. Certainly the editing has left the film without any continuity whatsoever and it looks as if a group of schoolchildren were given the various scenes and asked to piece them together. The script doesn’t know what it is either. It lies somewhere between Austin Powers in the way it tries to play the sixties clichés up for laughs and True Lies in that it wants to be an action driven, secret service film. Even the acting is atrocious, ...

shaun 05.02.2001 (06.02.2001) · Read full review
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Review of The Avengers (DVD)

...there are no redeeming features. The Avengers falls into the latter category - and it falls with a resounding crash leaving a lasting mark there too. It is hard to review a movie which lets you down on so many different levels that you realy do not know where to begin. I could go through discussing each point in depth but I feel it would be to waste both my own time and yours. There IS nothing good about this movie - there IS plenty bad about this ...
...need a little convincing: The basic plot is ludicrous, but then this IS The Avengers after all so that is exactly what you would expect. You would NOT expect though that the plot be so jumbled and convoluted that it is virtually impossible to follow so that many people left the movie with completely contrasting ideas of what the hell the damn thing was about. As far as I see it, there is an mad lord, Sir Alex De Wynter(Sean Connery) who is attempting ...

WhiteWolf 20.10.2001 · Read full review
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Review of The Avengers (DVD)

...qquite high hopes for this. The trailer looked good. Unfortunately only about 3 scenes from the trailer actually appeared in the film what we have here is: Terrible Acting - Not fans of either Fiennes or Thurman but they were just ridiculous in this film. Neither of them looked like they really wanted to be in it Terrible Plot - Not only was the plot unbelievable (something to do with Sean Connery taking control of the World's weather) but it's ...

MikeWoods 09.08.2000 · Read full review
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Review of The Avengers (DVD)

Yes the remake of the hit 1960s TV series was indeed long awaited. The adventures of Patrick McNee and a bevvy of gorgeous beauties as they battled the weird and wonderful with their tongues very firmly in cheek. Ralph Fiennes stars as John Steed and Uma Thurman as Dr Emma Peel. Steed is sent to investigate unexplained changes in the weather and saboutage to the UK weather shield (so thats why we have different weather to the rest of the world!). ...
...about it. Sean Connery is the baddie (he must have been desperate for the money!!) who decides to hold the country to ransom by decreasing the temperature to arctic conditions. This has to be the worst film of the year (1998). They have taken a cult show and camped it up (even Eddie Izzard plays a baddie!) and tried desperately to bring the 60s back into the 90s. Everything about this film is bad and the actors obviously realised this because they ...

Xcom 26.05.2001 · Read full review
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Review of The Avengers (DVD)

The movie was a critical and commercial flop. I went into the movie expecting the worst and emerged pleasantly surprised that it wasn't terrible -- just hollow. The twisted production design, the aforementioned light demeanor, the surreal sets, the dreamlike supporting cast -- all staples of the original show -- are present here in all their glory. When watching Mr. Steed and Mrs. Peel, one should never feel that it's anything but a dream. Telephone ...

Andy 06.08.2000 · Read full review
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Review of The Avengers (DVD)

...to be without a doubt the worst film I have ever had the misfortune to watch. Indeed I only watched in at all because I'd bought it on E-bay for £4 and felt I needed to justify the expenditure! The film reads like a recipe for some success - Sean Connery - one of the greatest British actors of our time (not counting Highlander 2!), Uma Thurman - one of Hollywoods hottest starlets, Ralph Fiennes - a fine contempary and serious actor, The Avengers ...
...series from the 60's. Unfortunately these ingredients do not mix well, Fiennes and Thurman in particular do not come across well at all. Their attempts to catch the almost seedy gentlemanly charm of Steed and the sultry but dangerous charms of Ms Peel end up looking embarrassingly amateurish. Connery provides only a mediocre performance as a somewhat camp villian (a far cry from Bond!). The story line about a weather controlling device and a plot ...

p1073 13.12.2003 · Read full review
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Review of The Avengers (DVD)

The pre publicity to this film sunk it without trace, the fact that confidence was low equated to a very anti media and subsequently meant that naybody who might want to see this film ended up in the cinema with a gloomy look before it even started. i have had the fortune to re-evaluate this film recently on video and I feel that it stands as a good try at capturing the Avengers on teh big screen, the script wasn't at all bad, Thurman was trying ...

mezzaninedoor 12.10.2000 · Read full review
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Review of The Avengers (DVD)

...me. Mundane story, similar to the old Avengers plots, but at least the original had an excuse (nothing to compare it too). At least the original Avengers had a certain quality about it which captured the 70s styles and classic cars of the era, looking to the future with its ideas. I think Sean Connery did this on his day off for charity, surely. He has one-liners galore which don't do him any justice on the comedy front. Ralph was too young for ...

Bawjawz 23.04.2004 · Read full review
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Review of The Avengers (DVD)