The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

views updated

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen ★★ 2003 (PG-13)

There's little left of the “League” featured in the 1999 comic book by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill. Instead, there's overblown action and a lack of heart. Aging adventurer Allan Quartermain (Connery) is but one of the literary characters called to defeat a madman bent on starting a world war for profit in 1899. He's somewhat reluctantly teamed with Captain Nemo (Shah) and his Nautilus submarine, vampiric scientist Mina Harker (Wilson), the ageless Dorian Gray (Townsend), the invisible man Rodney Skinner (Curran), Dr. Jekyll and his hulkish alter ego Mr. Hyde (Flemyng), and Tom Sawyer (West), who's grown up to be a member of the American secret service. Clumsily telegraphs many plot twists, but the well-read should get a kick out of the many literary references. 110m/C VHS, DVD, Bluray Disc, UMD . US Sean Connery, Stuart Townsend, Peta Wilson, Shane West, Tony Curran, Richard Rox-burgh, Jason Flemyng, Naseeruddin Shah, David Hemmings, Terry O'Neill, Max Ryan, Tom Goodman-Hill; D: Stephen Norrington; W: James Robinson; C: Dan Laustsen; M: Trevor Jones.

More From encyclopedia.com