The Avengers (Wide Screen)

Advantages: It's a reprise of a fantastic series
Disadvantages: The series did it first and did it better

...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 ... Read review

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...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 ... Read review

Advantages: good opening scene
Disadvantages: bad direction, bad script, doesn't make sense

...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 ... Read review

Advantages: Great production design, nice score, occasional moments of charm
Disadvantages: Committee filmaking, butchered by Warner Brothers

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 ... Read review

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...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 ... Read review

Advantages: Good CGI with intriguing concept about the human's mind.
Disadvantages: Lacking developments on characters and storylines.

.... Back to present future, Combat 21 realises that he can perhaps tap into 100% of the mind without using the Power Glove by using stealing Belle's power. Belle was soon kidnapped and the evil Combat 21 unleashes a poisonous gas into the dark city in order to gain control and to manipulate the citizens to do what he wants. An Officer Dark came into the scene to ensure Combat 21 will be defeated. Dark was once the best friend of Thunder and also, one of the 100 guinea pig police officers with Thunder and Combat 21. With Dark's help, Nova and his new befriend Iron need to open up 100% of the No Access Area of the brain in order to defeat Combat 21 and to save mankind. ~~~~~~~ TEKKEN ~~~~~~~ 'The Avenging Fist' seems to have many English titles, however one that particularly stood out was 'Legend of Tekken'. It was said... Read review

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