BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Subject: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: DonMeixner
Date: 13 Jul 03 - 12:57 AM

Since I am on record for saying that I can easily suspend disbelief and be entertained with minimal effort. And I enjoy the LXG comics and think the whole idea for the stories is grand I find it hard to review this film. There are so many holes in it that it isn't a great job in any sense. But I really enjoyed the film.

I think the production team just bit off too much and tried to do it too quickly. Another film I'd like to see done over and done right.

Don

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 13 Jul 03 - 03:47 AM

But it has Sean Connery in it.. why bother with a plot? I could just go and sit for 2 hours, stuff my face with icecream and watch him....... ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Does drool come out of keyboards?

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: Kim C
Date: 13 Jul 03 - 09:25 AM

Yeah, see, it looks like from the teasers, it has something for everyone. Sean Connery for the ladies (who only gets BETTER as he gets older) and lots of Big Booms for the men.

Our local movie reviewer, whose opinion I generally trust, said this was his favorite movie of the summer. I like action movies and I've noticed that most of them do have a lot of holes - but they tend to be a lot of fun anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: DonMeixner
Date: 13 Jul 03 - 09:37 AM

My sons who are very tough indeed thought it was the worse they have seen this year. Oh well.

Don

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: KateG
Date: 13 Jul 03 - 10:38 AM

Have no intention of seeing it. But I agree that Sean Connery gets better and better with age, even though the flicks he's been in lately are of the type where the snippets shown on TV are more than enough for me.

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 13 Jul 03 - 12:16 PM

Another fan of the comics. "LXG"? Tom Sawyer? TOM SAWYER?! Fuckers. Why do they have to ruin everything I like? This, and soon that cretin Stephen King's regurgitation of Lars von Trier's "Riget" series... Why don't they rape my grandparents and run over my cat, while they're at it.

So, no, not planning on seeing it. :)

---Lepus Rex

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: artbrooks
Date: 13 Jul 03 - 01:57 PM

I saw it last weekend...very painful for someone who has pretensions of being a historian. Herself says I need to work harder at suspending disbelief...maybe so. I though the special effects were so-so and the acting was generally poor. Sean Connery did better, but he was playing the same character he has been doing for years (albeit with a different name), so that is as espected. I do wish he'd go to either a speech coach or a dentist to get the whistle back out of his SSSs.

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: michaelr
Date: 13 Jul 03 - 02:00 PM

Can someone please enlighten me as to what you're talking about... perhaps provide a link? The title rings a distant bell -- is it a Sherlock Holmes story?

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: artbrooks
Date: 13 Jul 03 - 02:02 PM

Official movie site.

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Jul 03 - 02:20 PM

Yeah, I can't decide whether or not to blow a few bucks on this one...

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: DonMeixner
Date: 13 Jul 03 - 02:52 PM

Well the idea for the comic is excellent. The great literary heroes of the Victorian Age come together to save the world. A Victorian Justice League of sorts. I think I'd wait to see this on the tube if you are even marginal in mind about going.

Don

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 13 Jul 03 - 03:27 PM

Sean Connery hasn't made even a half way passable movie for 15 years or so... and before that his work wasn't really all that good to begin with...

If he -wasn't- in LXG I'd be MUCH more likely to see it...

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: Mudlark
Date: 13 Jul 03 - 04:48 PM

I agree that often Connery is much better than the films he's in, but I found "Finding Forrester" to be a very satisfying film...

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 13 Jul 03 - 04:54 PM

"Connery is much better than the films he's in"

Oh no he's not! LOL

Finding Forrester?? That pale-immitation wanna-be of "Good Will Hunting"?? Please... Matt Damon and Ben Affleck shoulda sued Mike Rich!

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Jul 03 - 06:32 PM

Sean Connery rates your general performance level as lacklustre too, Clinton. :-)

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: GUEST,pdc
Date: 13 Jul 03 - 06:53 PM

It always bothers me that Sean Connery is considered a gorgeous hunk even though he's 350 years old, while excellent women actors are thrown on the heap when they approach 40, in most cases.

Piffle.

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: Helen
Date: 13 Jul 03 - 06:56 PM

artbrooks says, "Herself says I need to work harder at suspending disbelief".

Well I think that suspending disbelief is what we pay the actors and directors for, via our movie tickets, and we shouldn't have to do the job for them. That is why I don't watch films with certain actors in them, e.g. going back a couple of decades, Susannah York and Michael York (are they related, because they certainly show a marked similarity in wooden acting).

I am not really a fan of Connery's. My hubby always watches his films but I can take them or leave them. I didn't mind Finding Forrester and I didn't mind him in - was it The Hunt for Red October, or the other submarine flick.

There are other actors I like better. John Cusick and Joan Cusick are my latest additions to the list.

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Jul 03 - 08:07 PM

I think Sean Connery's got a lot of presence, and he was undeniably sexy when he was younger. Now the movie business says he's still sexy so he must be, right? It's marketing, folks. They've got a recognizable product and they are busy selling it for every last dollar they can make. If they decided that Joe Shlabotnik was sexy, and had a whole bunch of TV ads telling people that he was, then in a short time a lot of people would swear that Joe Shlabotnik was the sexiest thing around and they'd go to his movies.

It's programmed response.

Apologies to those who would still find Sean Connery sexy even without such marketing...you are no doubt on to something, and I respect that.

Furthermore, I think Diana Rigg remained sexy way beyond age 40!

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 12:47 AM

Sean Connery has never had to endure one of my performances they way I have his, because he's not that unlucky...

,-)

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 10:47 AM

Hey Don, do you know that there's a rock star named Alex Meixner who plays accordion?!!! How common is you name, are you related to musical royalty (Toronto Star, Monday) They've got a good website if you wanna look it up.

******************

I understand that 82 year old Connery will shortly star with 23 year old Reeese Whitherspoon, in an old fashioned romantic comedy. His kids, Lloyd Bridges, Kirk Douglas and the late John Guilgid are against the marriage, but his grand kids, Mary Tyler Moore, Roger Moore and the late Dudley More are all for it. It's called "Just Depends" and is supposed to ne a laff riot, according to Gene Siskel.

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: GUEST,former wag
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 02:43 PM

Gad! You keep trying Rick. Didn't you learn anything from the 'Avril LaPremiere' thread?

fw

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: Larkin
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 02:51 PM

Has the ex -milkman ever made a film with any other accent other than Scots?
Larkin

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 04:04 PM

Here in England we've probably been spoiled by the League of Gentlemen (Royston Vaizey). The extraordinary was silent, as in Pauline.

Kitty

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: Kim C
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 04:10 PM

Diana Rigg is WAY cool. She is still classy and gorgeous.

I don't know that women are necessarily "thrown" on the trash heap just because they're over 40. Don't a lot of women that age, celebrities included, have children that they might want to stay home with? Movie actors' salaries are certainly conducive to early retirement. I imagine some of them are staying out of the movies by choice.

What about Susan Sarandon... Sigourney Weaver... Meryl Streep... Glenn Close... ? Kathy Bates? Jessica Tandy?

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: Helen
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 05:25 PM

Herga Kitty,

League of Gentlemen, Royston Vaizey style, is scary! I can only watch it when I feel that I can cope with its particular brand of dark humour. The circus troupe episode and the choirmaster episode are especially icky, but funny in their own peculiar way.

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: katlaughing
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 05:26 PM

LH, I made up my mind about Sean Connery a long time ago before the extreme hype of Hollywood became so rampant. He's got a way about him, his voice could melt just about any part of me he'd want and the way he smiles with those eyes and lips AND the accent, oh what a darlin'...I don't care what age he is.

He's not REALLY 82 is he, Rick?! Lol!

Thanks, Don.

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: Little Hawk
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 05:29 PM

You mean Avril La Premiere is not real???

I think that sounds like quite a movie, Rick, and I plan to see it as soon as it comes out. I plan to see my uncle as soon as he comes out too, but that's a different story. :-)

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 05:40 PM

"sighhhhh"

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 05:45 PM

Sean Connery
Date of birth
25 August 1930

From the IMDB.COM

And the last half way decent credit to his name as an actor was in Medicine Man (1992), but even then his performance was mostly self-characture...

Before that, and what some say is the last good, smart movie he was in was The Name Of The Rose (1986)

(Woulda been The Untouchables (1987) but that had Kevin Cosner in it, and he's the touch of death! LOL)

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: Kim C
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 05:59 PM

Name of the Rose was an excellent movie.

And I liked The Untouchables, too, in spite of Kevin Costner's woodenheadedness as an actor. He had enough good supporting actors to carry the movie. Probably my favorite in that movie was Billy Drago as Frank Nitti - even though in real life, Nitti didn't meet his demise by landing on a car from the top of a tall building.

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: DonMeixner
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 07:31 PM

+Rick,

Must be the otherside of the family. We swore off accordions in the 40's. That was when Uncle Wadlow Meixner who had a terrible stutter and couldn't say a word outright for several seconds unless he was singing called his Sweetheart on the phone to sing her a love song. He got his thumb stuck on the air spill on his Paolo Soprani so he was just pumping air. His girl's Mom answered the phone and so flustered him he could speak and just blew air into the blower on the phone. Missus Bliven's thinking it was an obscene phone call called the police and had the call traced. Waddy had a hell of time explaining what had happened and he lost the girl to boot.

Since them accordions have not breen welcome across a Meixner threshold.

Don

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: LadyJean
Date: 15 Jul 03 - 01:11 AM

In the comic, Mina Harker was the strong character. This was the only reason I forgave them for having the Invisible Man rape Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. (Rebecca Randall. I actually read the book.) In the film, Connery is the strong character, and they added an adult Tom Sawyer. Why does Hollywood have a problem with strong women?
Sean Connery is on my cracker list. ( Men I wouldn't kick out of bed for eating crackers.) But I wish they'd stuck with the comic er graphic novel.

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: MAG
Date: 15 Jul 03 - 02:02 AM

I'm gonna go see it as soon soon as I get a buncha crap off my plate, 'cause I just love the intertextual stuff.

thread creep: "Hollywood Homicide" has Harrison with a woman in the correct age bracket. Yeah!

And I'd go see anything Johnny Depp is in. I'm gonna go see *Pirates* AGAIN as soon as I get ...

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 16 Jul 03 - 01:05 AM

Veering ever so slightly away from the main topic, but . . .


Rick, have you perchance spent a lot of time In Callahan's Cross-Time Saloon?

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: Little Hawk
Date: 16 Jul 03 - 01:07 PM

Hey, well, I saw it...and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'd give it an 8 out of ten on the enjoyment scale. Why? I love the period scenery, the Victorian machinery, and the exotic locales, and Sean Connery made a darned good Alan Quatermain too. I was not impressed with the youngster who played Agent (Tom) Sawyer...typical smartass American youth of the kind who should not intrude on a classic Victorian tale. (by the way, he looks a lot like Raptor did about 10 or 15 years ago) I liked most of the other characters just fine. Nemo was unusual...but an interesting interpretation of the character. His submarine is the most gorgeous and impressive submersible of all time...Wow!!! What I love about that era is that they made things not just to be effective, but also to be beautiful. Things have gone way downhill since.

The Mr Hyde character was ridiculously overdone...a Victorian version of the Hulk...but that is typical of today's movies where everything is overdone so a whole lot of expensive stuff can get smashed up and blown up "real good"...for what purpose? To titillate audiences that are already so jaded that only a nuclear explosion can get them to open their eyes for a second or two?

They tried to crowd too much stuff into one movie...but...it was still good light entertainment. I much prefer a look into the past like this than one of those downer futuristic films where everything is dark, urban, filthy, ugly, and high-tech disgusting. Give me the glorious past...where men and women had style, grace, and honour.

Despite its many flaws...a good movie, IMO. And nice African music at the end too...and NO friggin RAP tunes at all!!! Yay!!!

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: Kim C
Date: 16 Jul 03 - 01:50 PM

Wasn't Erin Brockovich a strong woman? Thelma and Louise were touted as Strong Women, although I thought they were stupid.

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: Little Hawk
Date: 16 Jul 03 - 03:57 PM

They were collossally stupid. I think there have been a fair number of strong, smart women in Hollywood films in the last 2 decades.

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: katlaughing
Date: 16 Jul 03 - 04:18 PM

Susan Sarandon was awesomely strong in the Alien movies, too!:-)

Jeremiah, I have, ever since someone (Rick, maybe?) here turned me onto Spider! Love them!

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: DonMeixner
Date: 16 Jul 03 - 04:24 PM

This is off the topic but....

As far as those movies go, I agree with LH on Thelma and Louise. The actresses maybe strong women, the charcters were not.

Strong womens roles? A stretch for me because I don't look at women's or men's roles that way. What is a strong woman and what are roles about strong women?

Jody Foster- Nell, Anna and the King, The Danger Room

Amy Madigan- The Riders of the Purple Sage

Sigourney Weaver- The Aliens Films, Dave, A Year of Living Dangerously.

Glenn Close- The Sarah Movies, The Big Chill

Sharon Stone-The quick and the Dead, Gloria

Countless others from DW Griffith up to now.

Don

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 16 Jul 03 - 04:46 PM

Don: DW Griffith was a woman???

certainly had me fooled!

Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: DonMeixner
Date: 16 Jul 03 - 05:01 PM

Nigel,

I was using DW as a determiner of time. Certainly not casting wonders on his sexuallity.

Don

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: alison
Date: 16 Jul 03 - 09:48 PM

not Susan Sarandon kat... it was Sigourney Weaver....

I don't care if Sean Connery is 73 he's still gorgeous......*grin*

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: MAG
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 12:03 AM

"Old" is 20 years older than you are, and Sean isn't old in my eyes either.

The thing about Thelma and Louise is that these two experienced a trauma and reacted like people do in PTSS, and the rest flowed from there. I didn't like the ending; so unnecessary, but the rest rang true.

Do we spend too much time at the movies?

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: Little Hawk
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 01:21 AM

The ending was quite unlikely, but it was the kind of ending Hollywood likes...going out with a bang! (like Bonnie & Clyde, Butch & Sundance, etc...)

Be thankful though. Without that ending we might by now have seen "Thema & Louise II - (This Time It's Personal)" and "Thelma & Louise III - The Final Confrontation". Geena Davis would probably have had the good sense to bail out after number 2, and we'd have to put up with someone else playing her in the last one which would be so absolutely rotten in every way that it would finally kill the whole franchise deader than the bad guy in the first movie.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: Kim C
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 04:10 PM

At least the ending of Butch & Sundance may have had an inkling of truth to it!

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: katlaughing
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 06:11 PM

As did the ending of Bonnie & Clyde, I think...didn't they die in a shoot-out?

Thanks, Alison, I meant Sigourney Weaver!

Don, wasn't it the Panic Room that Foster was recently in?

I loved Thelma and Louise...what other choice did they have? They would have been caught, put on trial and probably sentenced to death or a lifetime in prison...after that run of extreme freedom why stop there? After their initial reaction, they gambled, went for broke and had the courage to end it on their terms.

I also consider the women characters in Fried Green Tomatoes to have been very strong roles.

kat

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: DonMeixner
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 12:12 AM

Yup, Panic Room, I must have had a senior moment.

Re: Thelma and Louise, Those characters (Remember they are just characters) acted like idiots. The movie should have crashed and burned earlier in the first hour. Both Sarandon and Davis have made much better film with strong women's roles. Dead Man Walkin, Bull Durham, League of Their Own, The Long Kiss Goodnight.

Don

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 03:20 AM

Yeah, but just like a lot of fellahs love it when one of them gets to act out in a film and "get even," so did T&L allow women that cathartic release from the more trad. roles in film and tv.:-) I still think it was a great movie, but I also agree on the others you've just mentioned, Don.

BTW, I won't watch anything with Sharon Stone...absolutely loath her and I cannot even really say why...some early thing she did really turned me off and that was it.

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: keberoxu
Date: 04 Jun 18 - 05:12 PM

I watched an HBO telecast of this film,
which means I channel-surfed when it got boring.
That is one way to sit through it.

It would have been far less entertaining
had I had to sit straight though the film with no breaks or rests.

All that money, all that talent, all those resources,
and it falls so very short of expectations.

I have heard it said that Sean Connery's absence in feature films in recent times
is largely down to his experience in LXG.

Subject: RE: BS: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From: Donuel
Date: 04 Jun 18 - 09:02 PM

Then you will enjoy the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnasus