I'll go see LoEG so that none of you have to.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Fri Jul 11, 2003 2:13 pm

I am a sadist, I guess. I confess.

10:20pm showing across the street. It's on.

Roody_Yogurt · Post by **Roody_Yogurt** » Fri Jul 11, 2003 2:24 pm

I considered seeing that earlier today but now I'm just too completely tired from actually staying up through the day.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Fri Jul 11, 2003 2:41 pm

Roody_Yogurt wrote:I considered seeing that earlier today but now I'm just too completely tired from actually staying up through the day.

I hear that. I'm hoping that among its problems it isn't silently boring, otherwise I am probably right out when the lights go off.

Jesus, we sound like a couple of old tools fighting off our lurking comas. ICJ AND ROODY YOGURT: The League of Extraordinarily Somnabulent Gentlemen.

gsdgsd · Post by **gsdgsd** » Fri Jul 11, 2003 2:43 pm

Are the early reviews poor? I'm afraid I'm tragically out of touch as far as the buzz goes...

Of course, I've never read the comic either. So I'm tremendously behind the curve.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Fri Jul 11, 2003 2:50 pm

Yeah, it's getting hammered. 22% over at rotten tomatoes.

It also went through all the signs of a flick that the studio knows is a bust: no previews until 24 hours beforehand and a massive commercial campaign.

I still haven't seen the Hulk yet. I should probably go do that first, but I can't get "surprised" in the Hulk, so this one gets elected.

Debaser · Post by **Debaser** » Fri Jul 11, 2003 3:16 pm

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Jesus, we sound like a couple of old tools fighting off our lurking comas. ICJ AND ROODY YOGURT: The League of Extraordinarily Somnabulent Gentlemen.

I slept through the big highway scene in the Matrix: Reloaded. Maybe there's something in the water around here.

Okay, so we've got:

Hulk
Pirates of the Carribean
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

I should really see one of these this weekend. And buy the League trade paperback. And eat better. But I'll probably not do any of this.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sat Jul 12, 2003 9:20 pm

You'd think, based on the sheer number of bad reviews LEG got, that it was the single worst movie of all time. It isn't, not by any stretch.

The first third is downright competent. You have to go into it having bought the concept (that these characters in books are real) otherwise some of the dialogue, especially Peta Wilson's regarding Dracula, come off as hokey, but if you can't do that then you've got no business seeing it otherwise.

Unfortunately, there is a chase scene which goes on for way, way, too long, a scene with Hyde being heroic which drags, and one quick scene in the middle of the movie where we learn something about Dorian Gray that is just horribly acted and directed.

The thing never recovers from that 20 minute stretch in the middle. A lot of the CGI is bad, and I imagine that when the villain's identity is discovered, the name means nothing to much of the audience. If they are going to "dumb it down" then do it all the way -- either call it "LXG" and give the villain's backstory or call it by its real title and don't. Fucking pick one.

Connery is great. Completely over-the-top, chewing through his lines, kicking the shit out of everyone he sees. Shit does blow up nicely in this one. Hyde is really well-done, except for the actual transformations into Hyde. Wherever they found the guy to play Jekyll... geez. Well done, there. And Mrs. Harker looks great throughout, but especially in a couple scenes in particular.

It's too bad. Any one of us could have sat down and in a week, taken the print that they ultimately ran with, and edited this thing so that it didn't suck. But the producers (of which Connery was one) were simply too incompetent to bother and/or do it right.

There's good stuff in LEG, but probably not more good than bad. Certainly, the endless slagging of the thing in the press has lowered everyone's expectations properly to the point where you can have a bit of fun with it.