The film definitely tries its best to be quirky, to the point where nearly every scene is weird and off-the-wall. Such eccentricities include a council of villains who dress up as giant teddy bears. There are at least a couple of scenes where old ladies whip out throwing knives or machine guns. The heroes are chased by robot bees at one point. One of the characters has an evil clone, with no explanation as to how or why. There are oodles of other odd things going on here, but the film pushes its quirkiness over the top with its script, in which every single line is a pun. Seriously, nobody ever talks normally in this film: every line is a funny remark, and it can get old really fast. The spaces in between these odd parts are filled up with fighting, explosions, chases, fighting, explosions, fighting, and more fighting!
My personal experience with this film has always been mixed; it's something I always wanted to like, but never could. The standard tropes of outlandish spy thrillers are there, and the action can be okay to watch at times. Unfortunately, the storytelling makes this a far duller experience, because there is no real story here to tell. With a whopping 28 minutes cut from the film in post-production, the plot is reduced to a constant string of action scenes, one after another, with zero character development, and zero reasoning given for why things happen on screen. In the end, it's hard to really latch onto this film beyond the aesthetics.
And the aesthetics get the job done. Photography isn't too bad. Editing is pretty stupid. Everybody in this film hams up their performances to match the quirky nature of the film. Ralph Fiennes bears a crud-eating grin the whole time, but still manages to channel enough charm and wit to make the most out of what he's given. Uma Thurman is pretty much reprising her role as Poison Ivy from B&R. Sean Connery doesn't seem to give a flying rip about anything, and in spite of that he seems to be the only one here taking his role seriously, even when he struts around in a kilt. I have no idea what Jim Broadbent and Eddie Izzard are doing here. Writing is horrible. This production uses okay-looking sets, props, and costumes. Special effects have not aged well. Joel McNealy's score is annoyingly repetitive and loud (which is a shame, because the movie's theme is not bad per se, and the CD soundtrack has been a favorite of mine since high school).
There may have been potential in this film somewhere, but so much of the story has been carved out in post-production that it leaves only a threadbare semblance of a plot, and a ton of frivolous action and ridiculous scenes. It's an interesting oddity at times, and a glorious guilty pleasure in its own right, but overall, it is the ultimate example of how a film with all style and no substance can fall flat on its face.
2/5 (Entertainment: Pretty Good | Story: Awful | Film: Marginal)
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