The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)

Sean Connery's Biggest Mistake

My brother asked me awhile ago if I ever saw a movie with Sean Connery I didn't like, after this movie the answer changed and I didn't like this movie at all. With I had never seen it. I know Sean Connery can act but in this it was just to much trash around for good acting to fix. July 7, 2008

It's a BAD LEAGUE.

There's so much nonsense in this movie that it's ridiculous. The league consists of characters such as Tom Sawyer (Yes, it's true!), Captain Nemo!, the Invisible Man, Dr. Jekyll/Mister Hyde! etc. Somebody had let his/her imagination gone wild. It's so wild that it's really ruins the movie. The dialogues are bad jokes. The acting is luke warm. There are some good special effects but they can't save the film.

It's still worth watching once for curiosity. June 8, 2008

What A Colossal Mess

It's not like Sean Connery needed the money. He didn't have to go the Donald Pleasence route and make a boatload of awful "Halloween" movies. The former James Bond could've stayed quietly retired and contented himself with daily laps in his pool of money. All of which begs the question: Why in heaven's name would he associate his good name with a clunker that is THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN?

But alas, it's all water under the Nautilus; Connery headlines this quagmire as slick adventurer Allan Quartermain (but it's still not as fun to say as Miss Moneypenney), out to save the world from certain doom in the last year of the 19th Century. Yet Mr. Quartermain is not alone; he is aided and abetted by a passle of fictional characters who all lend instant credibility to the story: Tom Sawyer, Captain Nemo, the Invisible Man, Dr. Jekyll/Mister Hyde, Dorian Gray, and Mina Harker (of "Dracula" fame).

No, I'm not making this up. Somebody else did and made a bad movie out of it. And would someone tell me how a "league of extraordinary gentlemen" would include a Mina Harker? Does Bram Stoker know something the rest of us should know?

But anyway, after what I thought was an absolutely sensational hook, this movie promptly dissolved into more nonsense than an ice fishing contest in the Everglades; nothing, and I mean nada, worked--from the special effects to the action sequences to the trite and sappy dialogue. I was impressed by Connery's ability to run alot; I only hope I'm that mobile should I reach my eighth decade. Indeed, there is something extraordinary about THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN. It's extraordinarly bad.
--D. Mikels, Author, The Reckoning
May 28, 2008

Excellent

This "Blu-ray" edition is the best ever. Video and audio are spectacular and well worth the "upgrade" from the regular DVD version. May 3, 2008

Why does everyone hate this film?

Having not been too impressed by the comic book series on which this was based, I wasn't expecting a whole lot, but this adventure-fantasy filled with 19th century literary characters turned out to be an entertaining couple of hours. Bring together Allan Quartermain (Sean Connery), the Invisible Man, Captain Nemo, Nina Harker (a vampire), Dorian Gray, Dr. Jekyll (and, of course, Mr. Hyde), and an American referred to only as "Agent Sawyer," and put them under the direction of a government figure called "M," and you have a formidable force for saving the world. And the world certainly needs saving, or at least Venice and parts of Africa. There are numerous sly references to other books and films, from Moby-Dick to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Okay, the acting wasn't top-notch (not even Connery, who didn't seem to be enjoying himself much), but the visuals were great (especially the Nautilus) and the plot was pall-mall. Not Shakespeare, but not bad. March 25, 2008

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