Could not have said it better!mousemeat wrote:
true. a total mis fire. giant wasted effort. could have been so much more.
one of the all time cinema turkeys....
Mona
That could be a review of any and all of her films. Are there any where she gives an intense emotional performance?Dandy Forsdyke wrote:One critic said Uma Thurman's performance was "so distanced you feel like you’re watching her through the wrong end of a telescope."
don't think she'll ever be considered one of her generations best actresses..in my opinion.Frankymole wrote:That could be a review of any and all of her films. Are there any where she gives an intense emotional performance?Dandy Forsdyke wrote:One critic said Uma Thurman's performance was "so distanced you feel like you’re watching her through the wrong end of a telescope."
That's true. I actually didn't even know there was a TV series at the time. I actually enjoyed it. As an action movie, I still think it's not too bad. It has loads more plot then a lot of movies made nowadays, which take a premise, set it up, do all of two things with it, then have the big setpiece and wrap it up. (The fact that a good chunk of the plot was cut just goes to show how bad a lot of the scripts are these days). So just as a movie, I thought it was a good, fun piece of cinema. It was when I became a fan of the show and went back that I bemoaned all the gaffes. But I'm glad I got a chance to see it through unbiased eyes. That's the reason behind my old "It's not a bad movie, just a bad Avengers movie" refrain.Dandy Forsdyke wrote:I think Timeless said she hadn't seen the TV series before she watched the movie version.
I enjoyed the Avengers movie as well. At the time I had not seen the show at all. It would be nice for WB to include the full cut of the film. The soundtrack for the film contained the full score, even to scenes not in the film! I believe the novel also had the full story. Anyway, I'm sure it will never be released.Timeless A-Peel wrote:That's true. I actually didn't even know there was a TV series at the time. I actually enjoyed it. As an action movie, I still think it's not too bad. It has loads more plot then a lot of movies made nowadays, which take a premise, set it up, do all of two things with it, then have the big setpiece and wrap it up. (The fact that a good chunk of the plot was cut just goes to show how bad a lot of the scripts are these days). So just as a movie, I thought it was a good, fun piece of cinema. It was when I became a fan of the show and went back that I bemoaned all the gaffes. But I'm glad I got a chance to see it through unbiased eyes. That's the reason behind my old "It's not a bad movie, just a bad Avengers movie" refrain.Dandy Forsdyke wrote:I think Timeless said she hadn't seen the TV series before she watched the movie version.
Here is an excerpt of a Michael Kamen interview published in a French movie mag (called "Starfix") in September 1998. The interviewer: Didier Lepr?Ye. (roughly translated from French by MightyMcT):
Interviewer: "- What happened exactly on THE AVENGERS?"
Kamen: "It's a long story! First, Jeremiah chose me after having seen 101 DALMATIANS (the live version). He wanted the same tongue-in-cheek tone for his movie. We talked a lot, about the project, the actors, the music, etc. I then started to work on the project around September/October 1997. I had lots of ideas. In December, we did a demo with the very first cut. Everything was fine."
Interviewer: "Did you re-use the Laurie Johnson theme?"
Kamen: "At first, I didn't want to. But the people from Decca made me change my mind. So I created a main theme mockingly inspired by Laurie Johnson's work. His theme was there, but with a twist, some more crazyness, especially in the percussions."
Interviewer: "And how did you get fired?"
Kamen: "The sneak previews, always the sneak previews! First, in the States, the producers showed some dailies to a targeted audience: it went wrong, the movie was not working. There was maybe one hour worth of footage, with the broad lines of my score played by an american orchestra. That's when the producers freaked out and decided to come to England to do the real test. It occured in mid-March, in London. There, the previews went even worst: they were disastrous!"
Interviewer: "So what happened next?"
Kamen: "From that point, all things were rushed. I had to cancel all the concerts I had scheduled mid-March at the Carnegie Hall in New York to re-score the picture. Jeremiah now wanted a closer identification to the original Laurie Johnson's music, and to the TV series, but I was not particularly interested in doing that. THE AVENGERS score ... turned into a James Bond movie score, see? In the Bond movies, I was always able to predict when the Monty Norman theme would play, because the musical and scriptwriting approach was so obvious. On LICENCE TO KILL, I tried to play that tongue-in-cheek, but, again, they did not like it and made me change it. On THE AVENGERS, what they wanted was: some Michael Kamen, then the Laurie Johnson theme, then some more Michael Kamen ... there was no room for identity, and certainly no room for playing it tongue-in-cheek. Yet I managed to rewrite my score, for a new cut of the movie, which was faster and dryer. Unofficial recording sessions took place here in London, then we came back during April. Then, the clash. Nobody understood my approach, or should I say noboby tried to understand it..."
Interviewer: "And you finally decided to walk away?"
Kamen: "Sort of. I'm not good at pastiche. My job is not to do scores "in the style of...". There are other composers out there who do that very well. But I feel somehow bitter about THE AVENGERS ... I'm sure it will be a huge hit, no matter what. Sean Connery is very good in it and the audience will just love the new Steed/Peel. With my non-stereotyped score, it simply would have been even greater!"
Interviewer: A question on THE AVENGERS. You left the project because of scheduling conflicts?
Michael Kamen: Yeah.
Interviewer: What had your involvement been prior to that? How much work had you done?
Michael Kamen: The movie was still in formation. It took a long time for them to make agreements about what they were trying to show. Never at any real, cohesive point was I presented with a film that was finished, for me to start scoring. I had made five or six different attempts at scoring the film, but the film kept changing. It was like aiming at a moving target. And you can’t really finish the score until the film is finished. I literally couldn’t finish THE AVENGERS and do LETHAL WEAPON, so I did LETHAL WEAPON IV.