SHOPPING>DVDs>Action & Adventure>Sean Connery - Entrapment / Rising Sun / The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen / Zardoz / Family Business (Box Set) (DVD)>Reviews
This is an odd collection of more and less watchable movies with little in common except that that all feature Sean Connery in the lead role. Starting with his first post Bond role in Zardoz and finishing with his final big screen performance (to date) in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, this set includes mediocre performances in some ordinary movies and serves no real purpose other than filling the gaps in your collection.
Looking at the movies in chronological order we get:
Zardoz (1974)
John Boorman was given a free hand with this psy-fi extravaganza following his success with Deliverance. Connery plays a savage called Zed on a post-apocalyptic Earth where survivors worship a floating head called Zardoz. It’s all a bit pseudo-intellectual and silly with the former James Bond forced to run around in a scarlet nappy and handlebar moustache. Of the five films in the set this is probably the most demanding and least rewarding.
Family Business (1989)
The normally reliable
Sidney Lumet was the director in charge of this yawnfest. In it Connery is the criminal patriarch Jessie McMullen who has been disowned by his son Vito after Vito turns his back on the life. As Vito, Dustin gives one of the least convincing performances of his career although he was always going to struggle playing an Irish-Italian heavy. The third generation of the family is represented by Matthew Broderick as Vito’s son Adam, who idolizes his grandfather and hatches a caper to catch his grandfather’s imagination and seal his rebellion against his ‘straight’ father. It’s a flimsy film that does not add to the distinguished resumes of any of the principles. Focusing more on the relationships than the heist wipes out the last vestige of interest the movie might have held. It’s entirely missable.
Rising Sun (1993)
Rising Sun is an old-fashioned whodunit spiced up with state of the art (for 1993) technology and some intriguing US-Japanese cultural differences. Based on a book by Michael Crichton, the role of John Connor was said to have been written with Connery in mind. Connor is brought in to help policeman Web Smith, played by Wesley Snipes, solve a sensitive murder. The murder has taken place inside the US offices of a Japanese corporation during some delicate negotiations. Smith and Connor have to unravel a cover-up despite a lack of cooperation from any side. The ending might be a little neat but the dry chemistry between Connery and Snipes is a welcome surprise in this satisfying popcorn flick.
Entrapment (1999)
There was some controversy when this movie was released due to the age discrepancy between Connery and his leading lady Catherine Zeta Jones. Connery plays an almost retired art thief while Ms. Zeta-Jones is either an insurance agent posing as a thief or a thief posing as an insurance agent -- I’m not sure it matters which. In the end critics were too engrossed in Ms Zeta-Jones lycra-clad behind to notice the paternal chemistry that Connery generates with the Welsh beauty. Entrapment is a diverting enough movie that holds up well 10 years on.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)
At least the source material here made some play of Connery’s character’s decrepitude and the oddity of any romance between him and the leading lady. Hollywood has tried before and since to adapt works by Alan Moore for the cinema. From Hell, V For Vendetta and, most recently, Watchmen have all been based on graphic novels written by Moore and in each case he has had his name removed from the movie version. Of that eclectic quartet, The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen is the least likely to persuade the curmudgeonly genius of Northampton to change his opinion of the business called show.
In the movie, Connery plays Allan Quatermain a character from a series of adventure novels by H Rider Haggard that began in the late 19th century with King Solomon’s Mines. The rest of the League is made up of other fictional misfits such as Mina Harker, Captain Nemo and Dr. Henry Jekyll. With some unfortunate CGI and incomprehensible plotting, the movie ended up a mess and a sad coda to Connery’s life in film.
All in all it’s an odd collection of movies and if it were up to me to pick five post-Bond flicks to show Sean at his best I might have chosen differently. Aside from the obvious choice of The Untouchables, your collections may be better served by these lost Connery movies all made since he handed back his license to kill for the first time in 1971.
• The Man Who Would Be King (1975) • Outland (1981) • The Name Of The Rose (1986) • The Presidio (1988) • Finding Forrester (2000)
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Production Year: 1977 - Action/Adventure - Director: Clint Eastwood - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring:Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Pat Hingle, William Prince, Bill McKinney
Production Year: 2007 - Action/Adventure - Director: Paul Greengrass - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring:Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, Joan Allen, Edgar Ramirez, David Strathairn, Paddy Considine, Albert Finney
Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
There was a time when I thought that if a film featured Sean Connery then it must be at least reasonably good. I changed my mind when I saw Highlander II. Of the films in this box set the only one that stuck in my mind was Entrapment, which I thought was quite good, but I agree with your list of what should have been included, especially The Man Who Would Be King.
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Entrapment (1999): When a priceless Rembrandt is stolen in New York the evidence points ... more
to a solitary master thief (Connery) who is about to meet the insurance company's most cunning and seductive investigator (Zeta-Jones). Following a nerve-wracki...
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The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen:A hunter, a scientist, a vampire, an invisible man, ... more
an immortal, a spy, a beast... when a masked madman known as The Fantom threatens to launch global Armageddon, legendary adventurer Allan Quatermain (Sean Connery...
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