Rating: 
Summary: An awesome collection of 19th Century Stories
Review: The best movie of the YEAR!! The people who said that it was bad must have been lieing. This movie has Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde{The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson} Captain Nemo[ 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne]the Nautilus is AMAZING!!, Rodney Skinner[ HG Well's The Invisible Man (name was changed from Hawley Griffin do to rights issues]Dorian Gray[The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde] Alan Quartermain, Mina Harker[ Bram Stoker's Dracula, the same girl plays Mina in the Upcoming movie Van Helsing] Tom Sawyer[ The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain] Watch this movie. It is so awesome. If you liked this go see Van Helsing
Rating: 
Summary: Bad execution
Review: The premise of this movie is quite interesting, especially the twist that the main characters of this movie are famous characters from classic novels (captain Nemo, Dorian Gray, etc.) But everything else in this movie, quite frankly, stinks. It looks like Sean Connery is the only actor in this movie that can act (I was feeling sorry for him as I watched). The plot is practically non-existent - yes, there is a villain that wants to take over the world, but I would think there should be something more in the plot besides this. Whatever happens throughout the movie seemed to be glued together without much thought. I gave this movie two stars just because of the good original idea.
Rating:
Summary: Lovely Idea Poorly Realized
Review: It is a truly lovely conceit. Conceive a world in which all the characters of late Victorian popular fiction are perfectly real and have them join forces. So the British Empire, acting through 'M' (Richard Roxburgh), rounds up H. Rider Haggard's boy's own hero, Alan Quartermain (Connery), Captain Nemo (Bollywood megastar Naseruddin Shah), Mina Harker from Stoker's 'Dracula' (Peta Wilson), the Invisible Man (Tony Curran), Dorian Gray (Stuart Townsend), Henry Jekyll complete with alter ego (Jason Flemyng) and Tom Sawyer (Shane West), the latter absent from the original graphic novel but stuck in in the belief that Americans won't pay to see a movie with no American characters. Their mission is to save the world, most particularly the Empire, from the evil plans of the Phantom who has been inventing all kinds of fancy military hardware (tanks, automatic guns etc.) ahead of time and is trying to stir up enough mayhem to start a world war. It's a lovely idea and some time I'll maybe to check out the graphic novel. But only, alas, in the hope that it is a lot better than the movie. Which doesn't really work at all. One reason is that it is in too much of a rush to cut to the chase; so, with seven main characters, to introduce it does so in a breathless hurry. They then spend the rest of the movie chasing around the place fighting baddies in action set pieces. The result is an awful waste: having taken so many fun characters from classic stories, it gives itself no space to bring any of them to life as characters except in the most desultory way. So it's just like watching any old action adventure film except that the protagonists are wearing very odd costumes. It's as if what has been taken from these great late Victorian sources is just the coloured illustrations, with the characters to all intents and purposes left behind. With so many potentially great characters we need a movie which is character-driven and this is just a rather monotonous sequences of fights and explosions. And all these action scenes are lazy and poorly conceived. This is most striking in the long early scene in Venice where our heoes go to thwart a planned bombing of an international conference. Sawyer, Quartermain and Harker speeding through the streets in an open top motor car, are strafed from all sides for some time by a whole army of baddies with automatic weapons. But they're fine. Why are they fine? Well, um, the baddies are baddies, you see, and so they ALWAYS miss. Then at the end of the scene, Sawyer is trapped under the crashed car with only a split second to escape before a dirty great bomb hits him. But he does escape. How? Umm, we're not told, he just sort of does. Make life this lazily easy for our heroes and the result is simply not interesting or exciting. So the action scenes don't really come to life and the same has to be said for the movie as a whole.
Rating: 
Summary: bleah
Review: Premessa: nonostante le intenzioni non ci troviamo tanto di fronte ad un kolossal quanto piuttosto ad un popcorn movie bello denso delle spacconate che tanto possono piacere ad un pubblico di adolescenti. Peccato che l'adolescente medio odierno sappia tutto delle gesta televisive della De Filippi ma ben poco di Allan Quatermann, Dorian Gray, Mina Archer, Tom Sawyer, il capitano Nemo e, soprattutto, del famigerato professor Moriarty, nemico principe di Sherlock Holmes (quest'ultimo stranamente assente dal film, mah...). La tragedia è che si ha la sensazione che gli stessi autori del film poco sanno dei sunnominati personaggi, dal momento che sono tutti tagliati con l'accetta ed ognuno di loro è solo la caratteristica che lo contraddistingue e non una persona completa. Mentre è quantomeno curioso ri-vedere Sean Connery al cospetto di un M, storicamente almeno 60 anni prima del Bond al quale deve una lunga carriera cinematografica, è sicuramente imbarazzante assistere ad una serie di azioni che è difficile classificare sotto una categoria più elegante di "cazzatona". Qui si fa confusione tra Verne e Salgari passando per Melville e quindi il capitano Nemo di 20000 Leghe Sotto I Mari è vestito e si comporta come un attempato Sandokan, con tanto di spada usata come una vera scimitarra, il suo Nautilus è arredato come una Love Boat in salsa indiana (è grande come un grattacielo ma poi passeggia con disinvoltura tra i canali veneziani!!!) ed il primo ufficiale esordisce con un "Chiamatemi Ismaele" da reclamare punizioni corporali. Allo stesso modo forse gli autori pensano che Poe e Stevenson fossero lo stesso autore e quindi ci fanno sapere che era mr. Hide a compiere i delitti della Rue Morgue. Lo stesso Hide più che il lato oscuro del dottor Jeckyll appare come un gommoso incredibile Hulk con la faccia di Adriano Celentano che zompetta sui tetti di Francia come un Quasimodo qualunque e mai nel film è davvero cattivo come dovrebbe. Il vertice del ridicolo si tocca con il super-Hide, una enorme bistecca al sangue che mena sventole, e con la ventilata ipotesi di resurrezione (sic!) di Connery / Quatermann. Dal momento che il film si apre e si chiude in Africa c'è quasi da stupirsi che in questa incredibile montagna di fesserie non sia stato infilato anche Tarzan! Unico pregio: gli effetti speciali, davvero riusciti nel realizzare il viso a metà dell'uomo invisibile... Non vi avevo detto che c'era anche lui??
Rating:
Summary: Truly worthy of those who are super.
Review: This movie has a variety of wonderful characters with unique talants working together to defeat a villian known as the Phantom. The Phantom is a pre-Hitler who dreams and may succeed at conquering and remolding the world with his mechanical creations and loyal brutes who share his dream.
Against him is a team including Mina the vampire, Mr. Hyde, the explorer Quatermain, Nemo the incredible pirate/genius/fighter, Dorian Graye the immortal, the Invisible Man11 Skinner, and the brave and eager Tom Sawyer.
Each has demons coming back to haunt them and leaves them vunerable: But they confront them so as to maintain world peace.
It's very dramatic and sorrowful at some points. The fighting is breathtaking (Especially Nemo.) This movie is fantastic. I hope there's a sequel. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: UNDERAPPRECIATED LEAGUE WORTH A LOOK
Review: If you're looking for a COLD MOUNTAIN or MYSTIC RIVER you're looking at the wrong section of movies. But if you're looking for a fun, comic book-like adventure film about literary characters teamed up like super-heros, LXG is the movie for you. Alan Moore's comic book is brought to life with the likes of Alan Quartermain, Mina Harker (Dracula), Tom Sawyer, the Invisible Man, Capt. Nemo (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea), Dr. Jekyl & Mr. Hyde, and Dorian Gray, to make up the LXG. Their job? To save the world. My one complaint is that the Hyde character was a bit overdone in the CG department. Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend this movie. Total popcorn, but worth a watch if you enjoy the genre.
Rating:
Summary: Without Rhyme or Reason: More Fodder for the MST3000 Crew
Review: I knew what I was getting into when I agreed to view LXG with a couple of my friends. I'd heard all about the tumultuous relationship between Sean Connery and director Stephen Norrington, and how the latter was locked out of the editing room when the film was being cut. The slate of negative reviews the film received upon release - along with the not-encouraging fact that LXG had very little to do with its source material, other than the title, character-molds and a few recognizable symbolic props - made me avoid the film during its brief summer duration. And yet when my friend ChefGeno mentioned that he'd rented it, on the strength of Connery's legendary status, I couldn't resist sitting down for the bumpy, frustrating, occasionally amusing ride with these penny-rate geriatrics of a century-past. How wrong could Hollywood do it? Would LXG break the barrier from just plain 'bad' to MST3000 hilarious? Considering the amount of times I smirked, chuckled, and shook my head in stunned disbelief, along with my rather bemused recollection of the whole experience the morning after, I'd say so. For a film to reach that level of sublime incompetence, its intentions must be (somewhat) pure: the campy, convoluted result wholly unintentional from the original plan. Then again, I'm not sure if Norrington, aware he had a stinker on his hands and that his development power would be taken away in the editing room, consciously decided to monkeywrench the film mid-way through - this being, IMO, the only logical reason behind some of LXG's creative decisions. To clarify: * Hyde: at first I thought of a man wearing really bad prosthetics. Further inspection revealed it to be bad CGI pretending to be bad prosthetics. * Connery's Alain Quartermain, a hero in his 70's, jumps out of a car speeding at 80 miles an hour, and lands quite soundly and comfortably on his feet. * This same car manages to cruise through a good dozen stone columns without an apparent scratch or grumpy damage-snort; the passengers, exposed convertible-style, display a similar impervious nature to the rain of rubble/rain of gunfire. * Alain Quartermain has never driven a car, but when handed the wheel, he steers perfectly...and somehow manages to maintain an accelerating speed. * Upon sight of Nemo's Nautilus, my friend Dawn commented that it resembled a Chevy. * Nemo's costume is extraordinarily cheap looking, as are the submarine sets. Nemo doesn't look (or sound) very Indian, and his stunt double fight scenes are comically blaxploitation-obvious. *The Invisible Man is able to survive high-mountain winter temperatures without wearing a shred of clothing, the only consequence of this action being a smarmy complaint about numb extremities. * Tom Sawyer: his inclusion to the League is an excuse to have a father/son relationship with Quartermain. This sort of clichéd development doesn't tend to work, however, when it's left hanging after one scene. * Stuart Townsend: master of the smirk. I offer nightly prayers to the almighty, thanking all manner of heaven and earth that this fellow was fired from LotR . . . a preening Aragorn we need not *ever* see! (though the inclusion of Dorian Gray was an unexpected treat). Connery's hand in the editing room is abundantly clear. Certain transitions are unprofessionally rough. Scenes progress with minimal information as to where the League is going, and why: the film moves along as quickly as possible, resulting in a loss of coherence. Moments of conflict are often resolved speedily, without tangible logic. The Venice Bombing scene stands out in particular - in the time-frame of mere seconds a plan is formulated and carried out henceforth, leaving the audience in the dust, scratching their heads and gaping at the sheer fantastical nonsense. The DVD my friend rented had a scratch, forcing us to skip half of a chapter - though not without any real detriment to our viewing 'pleasure' - which in itself is telling about how involving LXG is. This ultimately saddens me, for the source material *could* have been adapted faithfully, complete with Moore's outstanding dialogue and O'Niell's fanciful designs, at a relatively low budget - the appeal of the illustrated LXG being, after all, more about the characters and peculiarities of the time-period, rather than the empty fury of a hundred guns blazing or any other flashy theatrics an SFX team might splatter upon the screen. If *The Hulk,* with its Freudian angst and disturbing abuse subtext, alienated mainstream audiences from the hype-bubble of the comic-book film, then LXG served in bursting that fragile barrier wide open. Yet in hindsight, I cannot say I regret watching this cinematic abortion of the first order. LXG is awful, indeed, but at least it is _amusingly_ awful . . . and an honest chuckle at high-price floundering goes a long way in this day and age.
Rating:
Summary: Joins My Worst Movie Club
Review: I saw this at the theatre and it joins my worst movie club with the likes of Congo, She-Devil and Dumb and Dumber.
Rating: 
Summary: Gothic splendor and Hollywood excess
Review: THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN (USA/Germany/Czech Republic/UK 2003): Toward the end of the 19th century, Prof. Quatermain (Sean Connery) is recruited to lead a band of superheroes - each drawn from popular literature of the day, each blessed with distinctive powers - to defeat a monstrous villain who is plotting to take over the world. Clearly riding the coat-tails of successful superhero movies like SPIDER-MAN, DAREDEVIL and X-MEN, Stephen Norrington's high-concept melodrama employs an 'all-star' cast of characters from 19th century fiction, reconfigured for 21st century audiences weaned on the likes of STAR WARS and the Superman mythos. Based on the celebrated graphic novel by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, the film combines the Gothic splendor of Victorian 'penny dreadfuls' with the excesses of modern Hollywood, resulting in a curious hybrid of "Boy's Own" adventure story and turbo-charged blockbuster (set-pieces include a spectacular recreation of Captain Nemo's 'Nautilus', the sinking of Venice, and several destructive rampages by the hulking Mr. Hyde!), though the mixture of styles never seems forced or arbitrary, thanks to a clever script by James Dale Robinson (COMIC BOOK VILLAINS). An unusual cast of veterans and newcomers is toplined by Connery, who coasts through proceedings on the strength of his established screen persona, while everyone else is upstaged by scene-stealer Stuart Townsend (QUEEN OF THE DAMNED), playing Dorian Gray as a dandified nobleman, bored with his immortality and contemptuous of the world around him, whose skirmishes with vampire/ex-girlfriend Mina Harker (Peta Wilson, TV's "La Femme Nikita") are charged with sexual tension - these characters surely deserve a movie of their own! Sadly, the film is undermined by a lackluster 'surprise' villain, miscast and misconceived, whose lack of visual presence leaves a significant hole in the narrative. However, despite this minor drawback and some well-documented production troubles (Connery and director Norrington were at loggerheads throughout), the finished article shows no signs of on-set problems, and is much better than its modest box-office performance would otherwise suggest. Norrington is absent from the audio commentaries on 20th Century Fox's surprisingly sparse DVD, which offers a pristine print of the film itself, along with a theatrical trailer and a series of deleted scenes, amongst other bits and pieces. A fullscreen version is available separately, which simply crops away half the picture, and while cinematographer Dan Laustsen (BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF) doesn't really use the scope frame to its full potential (par for the course these days), the Gothic visuals deserve to be seen full strength or not at all. 109m 57s
2.39:1 (Panavision) / Anamorphically enhanced
DVD soundtrack: Dolby 5.1
Theatrical soundtracks: Dolby Digital/DTS
Optional English subtitles and closed captions
Region 1
Rating:
Summary: This Movie Is GREAT! I Loved It!
Review: Why the heck does everybody hate this movie so much?! I am completely stumped at why this is so. LXG was definitely the most underrated film of 2003 (along with HULK and THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS), and it deserved much better than it got. One reason why I enjoyed this movie so much was because it's that kind of adventure we never get anymore: the Fantasy Adventure. You know, like the INDIANA JONES trilogy, or THE MUMMY. The very concept of mixing all these historic figures of literature and legend together I found very intriguing. I've heard fans of the comic say that the movie completely destroyed what the comic did so well. Well, since I've never even seen a single comic of LXG, the movie worked exceptionally well for me. I was so pleasantly pleased after watching LXG. From all the horrible reviews it received, I wasn't expecting very much. Just a big, dumb, stupid comic book movie. Well, let me tell you, my expectations were completely blown away! THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN is, in fact, a very well-done film, from the fine acting of its stars & supporting cast, the awesome production design, the fantastic and mood-setting/tone-matching music by Trevor Jones, and the very treatment of the characters. They're obviously altered from their original forms, but the actors and events never go so far as insulting the characters. Rather, the film brings the heroes into new ground, and provides each one with new twists. I found each of these twists highly entertaining (yes, even the turban-sprouting, kung-fu practicing Captain Nemo; I though it was fascinating how they showed him worshipping the god of death). And of course, you have Sean Connery: THE MAN. Thankfully, director Stephen Norrington did a much better job with this than he did with BLADE. I hear that he's going into independent films now, so knowing that, watching this film made it all the more interesting. Do yourself a favor and don't bother listening to the critics. But don't go in expecting LORD OF THE RINGS, either. Instead, go in expecting THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN to be a marvelous piece of entertainment, sure to become a cult classic as time goes by. It's the perfect thing for a Saturday night!
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