The Avengers (1998)

User Rating:

3.4/10   

Director:

Jeremiah S. Chechik

Writers (WGA):

Sydney Newman (television series The Avengers)
Don MacPherson (written by)

Release Date:

14 August 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure

Tagline:

Mrs. Peel, we're needed.

Plot:

Two British agents (John Steed and Emma Peel) team up to stop Sir August De Wynter from destroying the world with a weather changing machine.

Plot Keywords:

Weather | British | Secret Agent | Lightning | Sequel

Awards:

1 win & 9 nominations

Cast

Ralph Fiennes	...	John Steed
Uma Thurman	...	Emma Peel
Sean Connery	...	Sir August de Wynter
Patrick Macnee	...	Invisible Jones (voice)
Jim Broadbent	...	Mother
Fiona Shaw	...	Father
Eddie Izzard	...	Bailey
Eileen Atkins	...	Alice
John Wood	...	Trubshaw
Carmen Ejogo	...	Brenda
Keeley Hawes	...	Tamara
Shaun Ryder	...	Donavan
Nicholas Woodeson	...	Dr. Darling
Michael Godley	...	Butler
Richard Lumsden	...	Boodle's Porter

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for brief strong language.

Runtime:

87 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Philippines:G | Canada:PG (Ontario) | South Korea:12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-12 | France:U | Germany:12 | Iceland:10 (original rating) | Iceland:12 (video rating) | Netherlands:12 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | Spain:T | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:12 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #36085)

Filming Locations:

Albert R. Broccoli 007 Stage, Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

The Ministry archivist Colonel Invisible Jones is voiced by Patrick Macnee, who played the original John Steed.

Goofs:

Continuity: Towards the end of the movie, the Westminster clock (AKA Big Ben) is destroyed by a lightning strike. The very last shot of the film shows a wide angle of Westminster, and the clock tower is restored.

Quotes:

Sir August de Winter: A man with an umbrella is a man praying for rain.
John Steed: And a man without one is a fool.

Movie Connections:

References "The New Avengers: Target! (#1.6)" (1976)

Soundtrack:

RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN' ON MY HEAD

Falling for the old "edit out what the test audience didn't like" trick

Oh, wait, that's from Get Smart, not The Avengers.

No matter. As a longtime fan of The Avengers (since childhood), I will say, right off the bat, that this movie did not fail on all levels. If nothing else, the makers of this film understood, at least, what The Avengers was about. This puts them head and shoulders above, say, the makers of The Wild Wild West movie, who had only the most rudimentary (and faulty) knowledge of what made that series an icon of popular American culture.

They might not have been successful in the execution, but they did understand what made The Avengers tick, and if the studio heads hadn't ordered extreme and desperate editing, we might have been able to see more of what the filmmakers imagined.

Two scenes stand out as perfect examples of this understanding: When Mrs. Peel tries to escape by running endlessly down an Escher-like staircase, and when Steed and Mrs. Peel walk on water in giant bubbles. Sean Connery's eccentric megalomaniac (so much more interesting than a serious, conservative megalomaniac) fit right in with the The Avenger's roster of enemies.

Whatever sense of fun the movie had (and The Avengers tv series never seemed to take itself too seriously; does anyone remember Steed being shrunk to the size of a mouse and jabbing a villain in the ankle with a fountain pen?) was destroyed when the nut jobs at the studio fell for the old "edit out what the test audience didn't like" trick, and put a botched film on the screen. Too bad these studio honchos have such weak nerves and such short memories; will they never learn?