Popcorn Reviews With Cybèle: The Avengers 

By Cybèle Elaine Werts  
CybeleW@aol.com

First  published in the Shelburne News, Shelburne Vermont\

Popcorn Kernel Rating: 2 Kernels. Mildly amusing but not anything to write your friends in Britain about.

I had heard that there had been no preview of The Avengers (not that I’ve ever been invited to one myself) because the producers knew the movie was pabulum. Dispite this clandestine knowledge, I attended The Avengers with a keen sense of hope because I can’t help but feel attracted to leather catsuits and witty repartee. Unfortunately, dispite Uma’s smart turnout, the movie failed to transcend it’s pabulumness. The first bit was amusing as we got to know John Steed (Ralph Fiennes) and Emma Peel (Uma Thurman) again, and compare them unfavorably to the 1960’s television show of the same name. 

Unfortunately, unlike its birthmother, this story went progressively downhill to the point where I was contemplating wandering outside to the September rain. The plot, if you must know, is that Sir August De Wynter, (Sean Connery - sometime sexiest man alive) evil scientist extraordinaire, has devised a way to control the weather and thus get every country of the world to pay up big buckaroos to avoid fifteen feet of snow. Steed and Peel do their thing via witty comebacks and swift kicks to the bad guys, and save the world, if not my waning interest.

While the story didn’t hold me longer than some twenty minutes, the musical score by Michael Kamen was a charge to the ears. Maybe even worth buying the compact disk.

Suggested Gustatorial Accompaniment: I’d suggest crumpets, but the snow domes littering the film reminded me more of those pink snoball cupcakes.

Copyright 2000