The League of Extraordinary Gentleman (2003). Extraordinarily Ordinary. 

I hate to be the one to tell you, but it's "The Picture of Dorian Gray", not "The Portrait..." It's an easy mistake to make; took me all of 40 years to finally remember that.

I don't care what everyone else thinks. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.

When the enemy drinks the whole bottle and transforms, I felt they did an amazing job of bringing Kevin O'Neill's artwork to life. You could clearly see it was based on his style.

Ahh, one of the great guilty pleasures in my life. I find it to be a far more interesting and dynamic movie than you do Stam. It has, as you pointed out, some nice effects, good set pieces (although a disturbing lack of color I admit), and fine acting. Even the plot, with its 'twist' reveal works for me, especially considering when it's set. I really like this movie. Yes, it could have been better (could it have?) but all in all, it's good fun and surprisingly witty! Captain Nemo: We have trouble! Mr. Hyde: Trouble? I call it sport! Dying Goon: What are you? Dorian Gray: I'm...complicated.

Interesting fact: the actor who played Tom Sawyer went on to play Bane in the show Gotham… when I found that out that blew my mind lol

I remember laughing uncontrollably during the car chase on the "Streets" of Venice. Whoever wrote that scene has never been to Venice.

I will never forget calling Jason when he was in the make-up chair for Hyde. He said 'If you could see me now, you'd see I have a huge ear attached to my head...'

I think the movie holds up today. The Nautilus Ship is one of the coolest concepts I've seen in movies.

I still love the insanity of this one.

Mostly agree on the review. I loved the original comics, as well as the literature that inspired it. The Invisible Man change was due to Universal having trademark on their version and the name given to Wells' character, in the film. It couldn't be used for this, though moore based his on the Wells novel, which is public domain. We get into copyright vs trademark, with that, which confuses people. Moore wasn't totally original in this, because other writers had done meta-fictions before, especially Phillip Jose Farmer. Farmer wrote a Sherlock Holmes pastiche, The Peerless Peer, where Holmes and Watson meet Tarzan, plus some cameos from pulp literature, like The Shadow and The Spider. He had Phileas Fogg as an agent for an alien entity and gave Dorothy Gale a barnstorming pilot son, who ends up in Oz. Farmer wrote a fictional biography of Tarzan, Tarzan Alive!, based on the various Burroughs stories. In it, he creates a scenario, based on a famous meteor crash site, Wold Newton, in England. he posits that the locals and passers by become extraordinary adventurers and villains, as do their descendants. It is called the Wold Newton Universe and Farmer had a whole family tree, linking Tarzan to other literary characters. He followed that with a bio of Doc Savage, doing the same and expanding it further. He then wrote three novels, crossing Tarzan and Doc Savage, but changing the names (Lord Grandreth and Doc Caliban), with a novel for each and one where they meet. His Riverworld series had all kinds of people meet and his Greatheart Silver trilogy was filled with pastiches of pulp adventure heroes, like The Spider, The Shadow, Operator 5, G-8 and his Battle Aces and similar. Michael Moorcock did a bit of work along this line and British writer Kim Newman has done a bunch, in his Anno Dracula series. Connery did the film after turning down The Matrix (or was it Star Wars?) and The Lord of the Rings, then seeing them become massive hits. He took the next big one that came along and it was this. The production was hampered by major flooding, in Europe, at the studio. Stuart Townsend was fired off the Lord of the Rings, as Aragorn, leading to Viggo Mortensen getting the role.

This and Van Helsing are both of my guilty pleasure films!!!

I for one adore Van Helsing! I may have been the only person in the theatre when I saw it in the cinema but I grinned the whole way through.

I love this movie - Connery is great even tho he doesn’t want to be - it’s epic 👍

"Electric Boogaleague" 🤣🤣🤣

While Van Helsing (2004) is not without its flaws I would argue that it is a far more entertaining and coherent film the tLoEG. Plus I also like Van Helsing, whereas tLoEG is dull with little creative flair, despite the good cast.

I'd have been in the first of my 20's when this came out. I'll be honest I didn't mind it. It clearly lacked the Blockbuster edge but it was ambitious in its own way. It was a silly but enjoyable action romp, if you take it too seriously you won't enjoy it. Van Helsing was more enjoyable for me. Better actors who were directed to ham it up. VH had a comic booky feel, it was playful, well-paced stylish and visually stylish. Again if you don't take it too seriously you will enjoy it more.

The fact that this links to my one of my favorite dr who episodes makes me sad.

I love this flick, extraordinarily. What a fun romp. I wish they'd have completed the next installment as they had planned.

I still enjoyed this film. I won't argue that it's great cinema but I found it to be a fun movie to watch. Partially because I recognized the characters from the various novels but also because I'm a sucker for a story where a group of people who normally would never hang out together now have to team up to save the day.

This should have been a good movie. The premise and cast are really good.

This looks quite good, I might see if I can rent this on VHS from my local video store.

The League of Extraordinary Sliders

Watch this recently again and it was more entertaining than i remember

Watched it a couple of times it's anenjoyable romp😊

Sean Connery only said yes to this movie because he previously said no to The Matrix and LOTR due to hella confusing scripts, so he took a chance on yet another confusing script thinking he was the golden child when it came to movie scripts. Turns out it was more of a roll of the dice. Alright I'm not sure about The Matrix but he was asked to be in LOTR. I remember this movie as "good looking" but also a confusing mess. I laughed out laud when I realized Dorian Gray was in this movie. That's so random, and that's possible not even the worst character in the movie. Why anybody would play a character that's invisible is beyond me. Didn't we learn anything from that Humphrey Bogart movie where he plays a runaway convict with bandages all over his head. You can't see the star, he's all covered up half the movie (Dark Passage). That's why they put lights inside space helmets. The power of invisibility only works in real life, not in movies.

I've seen the movie but whenever I try to picture it, I can only remember the graphic novel. In particular the part where Hyde blanks the Invisible Man to death. This movie didn't have a chance. "The book has a lot of sex, violence and nudity. What are we aiming for?" "PG-13." Rips the book apart "Bloodless violence then."

I do think this would pretty much be an impossible comic series to adapt effectively, especially as it went on. I don't actually hate the film, though.

Thank you, Stam.

Hope you also do videos on From Hell (2001), V for Vendetta (2005) and Constantine (2005)

It was not too bad though after I got the graphic novels which were better :) but over all I enjoyed it :) Got it on dvd somewhere :)

I loved the LXG comic (all of the ABC comics line were top-notch, actually 🤔) and saw both the movie and Van Helsing in theaters. Ended up liking Van Helsing better as i was expecting much more from LXG. Great expectations resulted only in great disappointment ☹️

Huh....I actually enjoyed this flick. I`m a sucker for comics and the story is`nt too bad. Thanks again for the review.

I loved this movie. Thought it was a good pisstake on these characters. Are you saying it was meant to be taken seriously?

I have to agree 100% with this review. I've watched this movie a few times, always hoping it would be better on the next viewing and always being disappointed. That feeling of disappointment comes right at the plot twist reveal. Maybe if I just stop the movie when they get to Venice, I'd be happy with it. This movie has a similar feel to Armagedon to me with scenes and events going on with a frenzy that that is really off putting.

I remember liking this movie as a kid, then again, I remember liking it until they has to go to the antartica. That´s when it go boring. The first hour it´s entertaining at least.

Dr. Jekyll is a public domain Hulk.

I honestly thought it as an OK movie when I saw it in the theater, not the worst thing I'd ever seen, but not that great either. Then I read the source material and, yeah, kind of hate it now.

The movie that retired Sean Connery

'Van Helsing' is great fun, man. I don't know what you're on about.

Dunno. I quite liked it. Hadn't read the graphic novels, despite being an avid comic reader well into adulthood.

Went to see this at the cinema and thought it wasn’t terrible at the time. Haven’t seen it since then. Went to see van helsing at the cinema and thought it was terrible.

I heard Connery gave his agent the back of his hand after this bombed.

I quite enjoy this movie, and i also enjoyed the Avengers tv show movie. Lol

I loved this film, i saw it twice at the cinema

I actually liked this movie.

I saw this movie and agree with Mr. Fine that it started out well and then they fumbled the ball. Tom Sawyer seemed an unnecessary addition to the team.

In the future can we look forward to the League of Copyright-Struck RU-vidrs?

Wha...what are you? I'm complicated.

Pop a Block on it

Stuart Townsend was also Aragorn for two weeks before he got replaced.

I mean, it's a mess of a movie but at least it's different. I'd watch this over your average generic Marvel/DC movie because those are all the bloody same. Plus this has Sean Connery AND Tony Curran.

And I quite.liked Van Helsing too.

I thought it was a pretty decent movie. But, if the writer didn't like it, what did they do wrong.

So much wrong with this movie, but for some reason the fact that the Nautilus seems to change size repeatedly is what really infuriated me.

It was bad enough that, did i watch it? Theres still a demon in me that wants to watch the avengers...

In so wanted to like this film, but three things ruined it for me: 1) abbreviating it to 'LXG' 🤮 2) The pointless token american character 3) There was a newgrounds animation out at the time called 'LXG in 15 minutes' which was such a perfect skewering of every plothole and contrivance in the film I just couldn't take it half-seriously at all. Arguably more entertaining than the actual film.

I thought it was alright- back in the day, it’s better than most of the shite ( with woke politics) that gets churned out nowadays , I always hoped that sequel would get made , it’s got Guy Ritchie all over it I reckon!

"... like messing up the food truck with the truck emptying the septic tank" ROFL

I remember watching this in the cinema when it came out. Felt it betrayed the comics from the very beginning on. Hollywood bastardization of a cool concept: super people who are basically normal fallible guys with extraordinary and complex circumstances around them. This made them too cartoony in my opinion: Mina is a vampire, Hyde is the hulk , Nemo does kung fu, Connery plays Connery. Lost is the comics ambiguity and ugliness, all i see is Hollywood farce.

Another good review mate. Dorian is a great creepy story. One of my favourites.👍🏻

I wanted to like this movie, but the story was such a let down.

The design, effects and film craft were great. The rest I blame on Connery for being an intolerable obnoxious prick.

If they remake this now, they would add steam boat Willie :)

This kept almost being a good movie - but kept letting itself down! Every time I thought 'this isn't too bad - the movie just embarrassed itself by doing something really dumb!

Something about this movie feels so hollow

Not to be confused with the League of Gentlemen which is supposed to be funny. People seem to get the names mixed up.

I skipped LXG and Van Helsing because of the poor reviews. As a fan of many of the literary characters, I went back to LXG a couple of years ago and it was... fine. Not great, but not the disaster I was expecting and I actually quite enjoyed it. With that in mind, I watched Van Helsing, well... about 10 minutes of Van Helsing. 😯🙁😟😤🚫💩

Nearly every portrayal of Jeckel/Hyde is very different from the source material. The compound didn't make him bigger or stronger, in fact he ended up being shorter as Hyde. The main effect was that Jeckel was freed from his feelings of obligation to society and any sense of compassion or dignity. If anything, it was Hammer Studio's film, Dr Jeckel and Sister Hyde, that seemed to get the point behind the story (albeit with a gender bending twist).

A vastly entertaining dumpster fire that's gloriously BAD, and damn proud of it!!

Great concept. Questionable execution...

The _Nautilus_ moving at 100 knots. The _League_ standing on the open deck with a slight breeze. 🤦

I'll say here what I say to anyone about this film, read the comic instead. (or watch the TV series Penny Dreadful).

Now Pal The Movie Was Ok

A friend who was a huge fan of the comic book dragged me to see this movie when it came out. I thought it was okay (though I've never watched it again) but he was furious.

They stripped everything that was good and interesting from the comic and ended up with this crap of a movie

I would pay a King's Ransom for an immortal left knee.

I didn't mind it in a Doug McClure wet Saturday afternoon type of way

Oh i don't know i thought it was an entertaining Film

II: Electric Boogaleague.

I don't get the criticism of the twist?

Penny Dreadful did it better

Man I loved this movie for some reason as a kid in the early 2000s😂

I guess they got the sample from Connery's beard.

12:22 That rifle shot is just impressively bad. The hammer drops half a second before the badly animated muzzle flash, the recoil happens after that for some reason, and it's clear it's just Connery clumsily pulling back the gun.

Saw this in theaters in high school. I want to love this movie. What a premise! But it just misses its mark. It’s been 20 years time for e reboot 😂

I really loved the designs of Nemo's tech with it's sleek futuristic Indian steampunk aesthetic. Also I thought it was obvious that Dorian was a baddie. He's supposed to seem totally innocent and untouched by his sins, that's his thing. This version was just an immortal arsehole.

🔥👍🏽

👌

Great movie

While the movie itself may have had some, I love the concept of using characters in the public domain as the basis for a modern movie. Why we need to loosen up copyright laws back to where they were before Disney messed with them. If we go back to where the laws were a few decades ago Star Trek would already be in the public domain and people could be making good fan movies!

I like this. it is a trashy B movie and I like that. I make trashy B movies. This is fun^^

The Invisible Man was original, they couldn't use Griffin for obvious reasons.

I watched it back in the day and thought it was okay. Only in the last five years or so did I finally get into the comics and can only look back on the film as a massive missed opportunity. But to give it some props, the production design, cinematography and performances are good. Shame it robbed us of more Connery roles, and of more Stephen Norrington films. They may not have been good but they'd have been interesting.

This. Van Helsing. Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow. The Chronicles Of Riddick - that 2nd one, the 'sequel' to Pitch Black. Spielberg's TinTin. All very confusing movies. All wonderful - VERY wonderful - their intent. I enjoy these movies not only for what they are - which is rescued from a shitshow of bollixing-up like Ron Howard did with Solo (he did! Sure, it still fell short, but... come on! Relax a little). ...and all of them are still better than the current Marvel/Lucasfilm output, even if it's because they at least TRY. THAT's the horribleness of Marvel/Lucasfilm under Disney: the lack of effort. Oh, also better than V For Vengeance, too. Just remember: Jar Jar Binks ROCKS.

Suprise Sherlock Holmes and Robin Hood weren’t along for the ride Actually, Sherlock Holmes could have added something, especially as Moriarity is there

Oh it was supposed to be Tom Sawyer? and the guy that played Dr Jekyll from Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is the worst actor ever, it's like watching a talking piece of kiln dried timber, he was rubbish in Deep Rising and even worse in the remake of Quatermass and I agree Van Helsing kisses John Thomas's in hell, that is the campiest depiction of Dracula ever, of a pantomime standard

I didn't think it was thaat bad. But I did sit through the Star Wars Holiday Special so...

I actually liked the movie and even purchased the DVD.

Don't bother watching this movie. Go read the original graphic novels by Alan Moore. You'll enjoy them far more than the movie.

What a way for Sean Connery to call it a career. This should have been OK if it was darker, less pulp. Haven't seen Peta Wilson in ages since... except for small role in Superman Returns.