Avengers, The Review

Making a feature film from a popular TV series is a tricky business - for every Mission Impossible there`s a Beverly Hillbillies or a Saint. If, back in the 60s, you were a fan of The Avengers, in which the urbane John Steed, Patrick MacNee, assisted by gorgeous Mrs. Peel, played at one time or another by Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg and Linda Thorsen, you`re likely to be appalled by this new big screen version in which the uncharismatic Ralph Fiennes is hopelessly miscast as the debonair Steed and Uma Thurman, despite some eyecatching garments, is quite inadequate as Mrs. Peel.The plot has to do with a billionaire holding Britain to ransom, but it`s silly and unexciting, and Sean Connery looks utterly bored as the villain. Jeremiah Chechick, who ruined Les Diaboliques a couple of years ago, offers nothing in the way of humour, suspense, action or thrills. The Avengers is pretty much a disaster.