The Avengers (1998)

By Greg
Score 3/10

With Marvel's The Avengers in theaters currently and dominating with the brilliance of Joss Whedon at the helm. I felt like I should visit another The Avengers. The remake of the popular 60's television show with the same name.

When British intelligence agent John Steed (Ralph Fiennes) investigates a murder and Dr. Emma Peel (Uma Thurman) is a suspect and wanting to defend her innocence. The two join forces as The Avengers and seek out to bring down the recent threat of world domination from a weather producing machine created by Sir August de Wynter (Sean Connery, I know, why Sean, WHY?). That there is enough to figure out the movie, with the assistance of the trailer, which gives a lot of the visual eye candy. A well versed film-goer knows how this will all play out. Good v. evil, spy v. world dominator (i.e. any of James Bonds 25 films) it doesn't lack imagination, just originality.

It is a remake, which isn't always bad, but the chemistry wasn't there. Sean Connery is a cinematic legend of being a good guy, the hero. This film depicts him as, well, stupid and cheesy. Which also applies to the film on the whole, cheesy. Cliched one liners, over dramatic acting, the actors tried, director tried, just wasn't enough. Loads of cinematic eye candy, but it too falls flat. The only way I see how this happened was, studio had this brilliant idea for a remake, had the money, latest cutting edge technology and people were just left to make scenes, but no a cohesive film.

Jump 14 years into the future, Joss Whedon's brilliance, with the help of an army. Created a cinematic masterpiece that was 50 years in the making, Marvel's The Avengers. Tackling characters that also were legends in the 60's, except even though the idea wasn't original, watching the film is satisfying from start to finish. The Avengers (1998) not really satisfying at all, except just to see Sir Sean Connery on the screen, even though it was a crappy role, he still shined.

Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Uma Thurman and Sean Connery
Directed by: Jeremiah S. Chechik
Budget/Gross: $60,000,000 (estimated)/$23,322,832 (USA)
IMDB Rating: 3.5/10
Tomatometer: 14% critics and 18% audience liked it

Captain America (1990)
Score: 1/10

Felt compelled to find this cinematic gem with the arrival of Avenger in theatres.

Before Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) or the current box office hit, Avengers. There was the 1990 release of Captain America. It wasn't bad, it was horrible. At times I thought of going to the cabinet to retrieve some crackers and wine due to all the cheese in this film. Not just the low budget special effects or the costume that looked like a rental, but the lighting, the dialogue, the whole package was bad. There is no wonder that the 90's struggled with comic book related films, this piece of stench started it off and marred the playing field for this sub-genre. Fortunately, by the end of the decade fans would have word of an X-Men film and Spider-Man, set for film creation.

The film did try, earning that 1 out of 10. They did have a a decent supporting cast, with the likes of: Ned Beatty, Darren McGavin and Ronny Cox, plus a few other select people. It wasn't enough to save the film, hokey sets, bad dialogue, etc. I'm trying to spin positive, but Matt Salinger who played Captain America/Steve Rogers was more amateur actor than professional. He looked uncomfortable and it was hard to believe him at times. For anyone unfamiliar with the story of Cap, here is a short version:

Weakling wants to be soldier during World War II; volunteers for experimental serum for super soldier, it works, fights Nazis, especially his arch enemy the Red Skull(played by Scott Paulin, in this film), gets frozen in ice, thawed, culture shock worse than Austin Powers, and fights Red Skull again in his present form, in this film he's a mob boss/arms dealer with plans to kidnap the president.

It was a super failed attempt on this awesome superhero. He works on paper, but cinema has struggled to bring this American gem alive, mostly the costume hinders things. But I will say this, Avengers did it. All-around every character came to life, from page to screen, even the hardest, the Incredible Hulk is great.

Go see it.

NOW!

Starring: Matt Salinger, Scott Paulin, Ned Beatty, Darren McGavin, Ronny Cox and Melinda Dillon
Directed by: Albert Pyun
Budget/Gross:Unknown
IMDB Rating: 2.9/10
Tomatometer: 11% critics and 20% audience liked it