The Avengers

A movie by Jeremiah Chechik

With Uma Thurman, Ralph Fiennes, Sean Connery

Christina says:

Hollywood seems to run out of ideas for new movie. Now the 60ies cult TV show THE AVENGERS has fallen into the hands of a merciless movie maker.

There was a break-in at the top secret weather control project "Prospero". The secret service calls in super agent John Steed (Ralph Fiennes). Dr. Emma Peel (Uma Thurman) is the main suspect. Steed wants to clear her name and find the real leak. They stumble over Sir August de Wynter (Sean Connery). He assumed control over the weather and now wants to make governments all over the world pay good money for good weather.

The TV series THE AVENGERS was an abstruse parodie on spy movies à la James Bond so the plot of the movie was never meant to make sense either. The makers hit the nail on the head creating the ambience. The weather effects were nice, too, with a possible exception of the tornados over London.

The biggest disappointment were the three stars of the movie. I never thought the casting ideal, but was still hoping for a pleasant surprise. Yet in spite of the well done sets and wonderfully eccentric supporting actors they failed to breathe life into the movie. The best part of the TV series was the chemistry between Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg, but there's none of that to be found between Fiennes and Thurman. The flick desperately tries to make fun of itself with typical British irony, but fails miserably. Thurman and Fiennes just can't do the trademark Peel-Steed-banter.

Sean Connery's talent is also wasted and his constant mumble "Peel, Emma Peel" and "Steed, John Steed" gets stale quickly.

Highlights like Eileen Atkins' appearance as Agent Alice and Fiona Shaw as Father let the audience have a glimpse of what this movie could have been like. The best thing, however, was Patrick Macnee's cameo appearance, although I missed Diana Rigg.

If Hollywood has to bring cult TV shows to the big screen, I wish they would do it right.

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Christina Gross

Last changes: 01/04/03