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List Price: $9.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 40235
Released: December 29, 1998 |
| Our Price: $2.22 |
| Used Price: $0.47 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
based on the sophisticated, quirky british secret-agent television series of the 1960s. a scientist who develops the means to control large-scale weather changes uses his discovery to wreak evil. emma peele and john steed must stop the villian for person
The Avengers Reviews:
"And This Is Merely The Beginning." Never Saw The TV Series, But The Movie Is..."Not Someone Who Plays By The Rules, Doctor." 
2009-10-20 - Ralph Fiennes, Uma Thurman and Academy Award winner Sir Sean Connery star in this big-screen adaptation of the popular 1960's television series which starred Honor Blackman, Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg. Unfortunately, a lot of scenes which were in the trailer were deleted from the film after what are rumored to be terrible test screenings, and in the end, we wind up with what looks like an action movie trailer for the real thing (please excuse me for using Ridley Scott's descrption of his own film "Kingdom Of Heaven" when talking about the Director's Cut). The original length of the movie is rumored to run aywhere from 115 minutes to 2/1/2 hours. Frankly, I LOVED the movie, but am left feeling cheated because the Director's Cut has not been released. Warner Bros. should plan to release it, as there is a fan base, however small, for this movie. Also, there's a narrative error caused by the editing down to 86-89 minutes-SPOILER AHEAD!!!-when infiltrating Sir August De Wynter's lair, how did the real Doctor Peel know the code words ("How now, brown cow?") to get into the lair with John Steed, as the line is not heard in the film prior to the scene?-SPOILER OVER!!! I enjoyed the acting of everyone involved, but felt that Sean Connery was underused (and, judging by the trailer and information on another site, most of his scenes ended up on the cutting room floor). SPOILER ALERT!!! Patrick Macnee's cameo was good. I guess the reason he chose not to appear on screen (and why Ms. Rigg turned down a cameo in the film) is because they didn't want the cameos to distract the audience from the plot of the movie. It also would have been nice to see Honor Blackman, another Bond Girl, appear in the film as well. Trivia: Patrick Macnee also appeared in a Bond film: "A View To A Kill." PLEASE, somebody contact Warner Bros. & urge them to release the Director's Cut of this movie and the Director's Cut of
"Anna Karenina" starring Sophie Marceau, Sean Bean, James Fox, Phyllida Law and Alfred Molina. This movie was initially rated PG, but upon the (ultimately stupid and late) decision to include brief rear male nudity and an "F" word (which were really not neccessary), was re-rated PG-13.
They did it on purpose
2009-10-07 - The cable movie rating was ONE STAR, but the names were fabulous. So I watched it. It may be the worst movie ever made, by the rating, but it is CERTAINLY one of the MOST ENJOYABLE ever seen. It took a little research to discover that this was made after the successful TV series -- and then it dawned on me that they got the one star on purpose. This is a fantastic "send-up to the extreme" of all the earlier "spy movies" and when watched with that in mind it was very enjoyable. A must now for my collection.
At Least Give It A Chance
2009-08-31 - I know I'm in the minority, but I really did love this movie. I suspect one reason there was a negative reaction to this film was because many people missed the original series. The original series was before my time, so I had nothing to miss so to speak.
Moving on, the movie tries to create a 60s feeling, and to a great deal they succeed. We see John Steed gradually walk through a series of 'obstacles' to test his spy abilities. Uma Thurman and John Steed meet, and right away, we see that Uma Thurman does not always play by the established rules. We are lead to believe that Uma Thurman has sabotaged her own project, and of course we know that that is a little too obvious. So, Mrs Peel and John end up working together to find the real problem.
We then meet Sean Connery who carries some charm and is obviously very intelligent. But he shows his dark side as well. Moving on, we see that Connery's plan is to control the world with his weather controlling device. (Alright. A bit cliche. But this is a 60s recreation, so a bit of the cliche was probably inevitable.) Also worth mentioning is that all the nations of the government are fighting and bickering at the crucial moment and accomplishing nothing. Sean Connery walks in and announces his intentions to control the world. And of course they continue to argue and bicker uselessly. There is something utterly hilarious about how Sean Connery silences the politicians very simply: "Oh...DO SHUT UP!"
I don't want to ruin the movie for those of you who haven't seen it. But there is a nice 60s charm; there is the right amount of action; the right amount of story; and a nice amount of internal trouble where we should feel safe; and the comedy is well balanced too. And the final showdown between John Steed and Sean Connery is very well done. Also worth mentioning is that John Steed and Mrs Peel work together well without stomping over each other.
Another character I feel obliged to mention is 'Mother.' Rather than being the cliche behind the scenes man, he seems to know that things aren't always what they seem; he is open to reason and the finding of the truth; and when he discovers the truth, he tries to save Mrs. Peel, even though he is old and injured. It's also worth mentioning that at one point he refuses to believe that Steed and Peel have simply vanished, and he sends out a rescue party. (The kind, benevolent, open to reason boss, who knows when he has to face the danger. And just the right touch of being fatherly.)
If you are expecting the original series, you're probably going to be disappointed. But if you are willing to see this in its own light, it's really a nice film. Also a great way to have a 60s night!
My advice is to at least give it a chance.
Not a catastrophe but certainly a mess 
2009-01-24 - In an age of director's cuts and extended additions, the irony is that the films that need restoration the most are the very ones that never get it. Thus the Weinsteins chose not to restore The Fall of the Roman Empire, MGM/UA chose not only to ignore the existing four-hour rough-cut version of Tony Richardson's The Charge of the Light Brigade but actually put out a cut version of the theatrical version and the much-troubled 1998 movie version of The Avengers will never be seen as it was originally intended. It's not the catastrophe its often portrayed, but the studio only had themselves to blame for the over-reaction by violating the quid-pro-quo relationship with the press by not screening it for the critics, a public relations disaster that lead to many publications imposing a blacklist on articles about their films for months after and picking it as their turkey of the year.
Warner Bros. 75th anniversary year was certainly not good one, with flop after flop turning their planned celebrations into commiserations. Perhaps in any other year there would have been less pressure on trying to turn an always optimistically surreal cult item into a blockbuster despite increasingly bad word of mouth, but by the time it emerged from lengthy post-production, the film was covered from head to toe in self-inflicted wounds. What had started out with a two-hour plus running time went to a 101-minute compromise cut to a released version that ran only 81 minutes without credits with Michael Kamen's original score replaced by a quickie effort from Joel McNeely as they tried to unsuccessfully make it more conventional to an audience unfamiliar with the series while alienating the original fans. It's just a surprise they didn't try to edit it down further to the length of a TV episode - even the troubled movie version of The Saint only lost its last 20 minutes. In the process they simply turned an interesting misfire into a much shorter, more confusing misfire and ended up with something too surreal for mainstream audiences, and too mainstream for Avengers fans. (The BFI was offered the chance to screen and preserve the original cut in 1999, but all too typically blew it by not bothering to return the studio's calls!)
The loss of the original (and heavily trailered) opening was certainly a huge mistake. Instead of seeing Mrs Peel (or is it?) breaking into and destroying a weather station, something that triggers the plot (a variation on both the original show's A Surfeit of H20 and Our Man Flint with a weather-controlling eccentric millionaire holding the world to ransom), the film now opens with Steed taking on policemen, milkmen and machine-gun toting nannies with only his bowler and brolly - an enjoyable enough introductory scene but not as essential to understanding what's going on. That's just the first of many plot holes the film is left with, but they're still the least of the film's problems.
On the plus side, Ralph Fiennes wisely doesn't attempt a Patrick McNee impersonation as Steed, opting for a more formal, slightly reserved approach that lacks Macnee's effortless bonhomie but works well enough on its own terms. Jim Broadbent makes a good `Mother' and Eileen Atkins (in a cameo originally intended for Diana Rigg) effortlessly steals her few scenes. But if they're all on good form, just about everyone else isn't. Indeed, there's miscasting on an epic scale here - Fiona Shaw overacting for England yet again as `Father,' Eddie Izzard exuding all the menace of a fluffy kitten and Uma Thurman delivering a turn bad enough to make you sorry they didn't cast Elizabeth Hurley as Mrs Peel instead. You feel almost sorry for her and wonder how she ever got another job after this - she can't do comedy, she can't do the accent, she can't do sophisticated, she can't do the banter and most of her action scenes hit the cutting room floor, which reduces her to not much more than a clotheshorse. That there's absolutely no chemistry between her and Fiennes is just another nail in the coffin.
Sadly it's a performance more than matched by what originally seemed the film's great casting coup. Sean Connery, once again showing the keen commercial instinct that led him to turn down X-Men, Lord of the Rings and The Mask of Zorro, gives a career-worst performance in his first role as a villain since 1959's Tarzan's Greatest Adventure and 1984's Sword of the Valiant. Looking like Windsor Davies playing a dirty old man but without the restraint, his introductory single-entendre scene with Thurman is painful to watch as she flounders and he mistimes every line - it's the kind of thing you'd expect in a Robbie Moffat film where amateur actors only get one take and it goes in the picture whether they fluff it or not. It cannot be stressed enough just how absolutely awful he is for much of the film, and considering how often Connery's double stood in for him Peter Sellers-style even on non-action scenes because of the star's feuds with the director and producer (shades of LXG) you find yourself wondering if his better moments may not even be him.
There's a lot about it that's good - the teddy bear scene is spot on and worthy of the original show while Patrick McNee's cameo non-appearance is fun - and a lot that isn't - Roger Pratt's dour photography overcompensates for the primary colors of Stuart Craig's production design and Anthony Powell's costumes. Yet while it's a mess that often stops making sense thanks to the unsubtle re-editing, it's still surprisingly watchable, with just enough moments that do work and give a hint of what could have been to keep you soldiering on through the patches that fall flat. It's just a shame we'll probably never see the film the way it was originally intended to judge it on its own merits rather than the studio's second-guessing.
Not much in the way of extras here - just a trailer and som e text notes - though the disc does have an acceptable widescreen transfer.
Great Deal
2009-01-24 - This dvd worked perfectly. It was simply missing the original case with cover art. I would definitely purchase more products from this seller.
