The Avengers Studio:
Warner Brothers
Starring:
Ralph Finnes
Uma Thurman
Sean Connery
Eddie Izzard
Jim Broadbent		 Director:
Jeremiah Chechick		 Regional code:
2		 Disc Format:
Single Sided, Single Layer
Screenplay:
Don MacPherson		 Aspect Ratio:
16:9		 Anamorphic:
Yes
Year:
1998		 Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1		 Subtitles:
English Closed Captions, English, Arabic
Genre:
Action comedy
Extra disc featues:
None		 Length:
86mins
   

Review of the DVD - rating: * *

Review of the film - rating: * *
Hey, WARNER BROTHERS!!! STOP LYING!

Sorry about shouting, but this is starting to irritate me. Warners habitually label their discs as containing production notes - they don't. More and more recent releases have them left off - in the case of The Avengers, this makes for (to my knowledge) Warner's first ever disc with no extras on whatsoever - it could be a Disney. If the film were in any way good, this would be extremely concerning, but as it is, let's put it down to Warner's total embarrassment over the film.

The transfer itself is great - fine image and 5.1 sound quality. Although there is nothing specific to get too excited about, it is as consistently good as we've come to expect from Warners. And that'll be that, then.

 Notoriously shambolic production runs at only 77 minutes once the credits at both ends have been removed, but it's still way too long. Incoherent to the point of comedy, the music and the effects thrash about very dramatically, but ask yourself at any point - "do I understand what any of these poeple are actually doing?" The comedy is for the most part painfully laboured (one more tea joke, and I would have hurled my pot at the screen), and the lovely Uma just doesn't sit right with the otherwise Brit cast. It's also ridiculous that they made the film - needlessly - certificate 12, by using one "F" word. It's as if they wanted it to bomb at the box office.

Yet a few scenes and moments remain that appeal if you have a taste for the absurd. It actually looks for a while like the film might work as the demise of London is schemed by a boardroom full of huge multicoloured teddy bears, and an eccentric old biddy lets rip with her blunderbuss. "I do hope they were baddies", she muses. But no, before long any vestige of the story - involving the manipulation of the weather - has simply blown away.