Thunderbirds | | Cast : | Bill Paxton, Ben Kingsley, Anthony Edwards | | Director : | Jonathan Frakes | | Studio : | Universal Studios | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Dolby | | Released Date : | July 30, 2004 | | DVD Released Date : | May 31, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed) | | Audience Rating : | PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 31, 2005 | | Summary | Looks Better Than Cody Banks | Content
 | Fans of the original should pass on this movie, but fans of "Cody Banks" should enjoy it. The question is whether there any actual fans of "Cody Banks"? Both films have interesting production designs with a kind of 1960's James Bond look. But both suffer from the same basic problem, they are allegedly targeted at children and are supposed to be about children. Yet for some reason the casts are populated with adults and they keep throwing in gags and dialogue that are only appreciated by adults. Since the only adults likely to view either movie are parents who are watching it with their younger children (the last thing children over age 10 want to do is watch a kids film WITH their parents), this serves no useful purpose. No matter how many adult moments are thrown into these empowered kids movies, they will never actually be "fun for the whole family". But throwing in this "sticks out like a sore thumb" adult crap makes for a poorer children's film.
Someday someone will figure out that the villains of these things should be the same age as the young heroes/heroines and that the adult roles should be kept at an absolute minimum. What does Ben Kingsley add to this thing? Although I must admit I enjoyed Genie Francis-if they had to use adults, they should have expanded her role as it provided the only real humor. I think Robert Rodriquez is finally beginning to get this so maybe that will inspire other directors.
Anyway "Thunderbirds" is a little better than the first "Cody Banks" and a little worse than the second "Cody Banks". |
| Rating | | | Date | July 29, 2005 | | Summary | Fun kids adaptation of a classic TV series | Content
| Growing up in the UK I used to watch the show THUNDERBIRDS religiously, it was one of my must-watch TV shows for me in my pre-teen years.
So it was with a certain sense of equal trepidation mixed in with insatiable curiosity that I approached the big budget live action version of the Gerry Anderson original.
Director Jonathon Frakes (Riker on Star Trek) brings the same colorful look to THUNDERBIRDS as he brought to CLOCKSTOPPERS, he also brings some of the same qualities - chiefly a light and loosely structured narrative. Perhaps this is a right choice however given the light comic book-style subject matter
You may take from the above that I did not like THUNDERBIRDS. Not so. Apart from what I mention above the movie does have some bright moments of originality and conviction. Ben Kingsley is wonderfully over-the-top as the main villain The Hood and the film does sport some truly great special effects. Ron Cook also does a simply amazing impression of the original marionette Parker - I was very impressed.
For those unfamiliar with the television show, let me fill in some background. The Tracy family (all male) - with the help of Brains and secret agent Lady Penelope (who seems to be very much inspired by Emma Peel) - head an organization named International Rescue from a secret Island base in the Pacific. With several amazing aircraft, submarines, rockets and even a space station (called Thunderbirds) at their disposal they travel the globe rescuing people from harrowing situations.
As this movie opens International Rescue (IR) is at it again, rescuing the crew of a stricken oil rig as the youngest of the Tracy siblings Alan Tracy (played by Brady Corbet) watches on television from his schoolroom.
However all is not as it seems, one of the rescued oil workers manages to tag one of the ships with a tracking substance that (undetected by the International Rescue team) allows The Hood, a character capable of mind control, to discover the secret location of the IR base.
Before long The Hood is in control of Tracy Island, the older siblings and father Jeff Tracy are trapped on a severely damaged space station and Lady Penelope, Parker and Brains are prisoners of The Hood. Its up to the younger members of the Tracy household (Alan, Fermat and Tintin) to rescue their parents and stop The Hood's plan to rob the world's banks using IR equipment.
Herein lies my chief grip with the movie, but luckily its not something the sinks the whole movie.
Sure the series was made with children in mind, but that's no reason to make our chief protagonists children in the big-screen version. It's not needed, the cast of characters was already good enough without hindering the production with this often used (and now clichéd) plot device. How many times have we now seen this Harry-Potter inspired formula of young kids taking on adult roles? We have already had SPY KIDS and CODY BANKS, with the adventures of teen spy Alex Rider to arrive at movie theaters soon, basically its been overdone and it always has the same effect of weakening the production. Just ask George Lucas about his misgivings over THE PHANTOM MENACE.
The action in the movie is primarily well handled and the acting suitably wooden (this was after all based on a marionette based television show). I enjoyed myself with this movie, but it certainly wasn't what I had expected growing up with the classic Gerry Anderson television show. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 28, 2005 | | Summary | Great Kids Movie | Content
| My 4 year old really likes this movie. It has some of the things he loves most, rockets,airplanes,and lots of action. I like the movie because it has a good story, no nudity, and the bad guys are not so bad. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 25, 2005 | | Summary | Weak, from start to finish | Content
| Frakes, famous for being "Number One" on Star Trek, directed a film that is definitely Number Two.
He had an opportunity to produce a film that would appeal to us 30-somethings and our kids. What he created was a film that is about as related to the Thunderbirds series as "I, Robot", relates to the Asimov novel.
Instead he opted for a teeny-bopper film that can hardly be mistaken for based-on-the-Gerry-Anderson series. If you have never watched the Supermarionation of Anderson, you will probably find the movie annoying, but better than a Hilary Duff film.
However, if you did see and love the original cult-TV series, don't bother, it will just disgust you. The passing references to old story lines should have been abandoned when the script was traded for banal drivel. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 19, 2005 | | Summary | A new kind of punishment for bad children | Content
| I've always thought that most huge box-office flops usually have something to recommend them, but after the remake of Around the World in 80 Days and Thunderbirds, I'm beginning to doubt it. For those not familiar, it's based on a puppet show about a family of astronauts who use state of the art rockets, spaceships and subs to rescue people from various disasters (falling bridges, stricken planes, burning buildings, etc) each week. Well, the puppets are gone (replaced by far more lifeless teenagers), and so is the premise - only one ineptly staged rescue and a plot shamelessly ripped off from Spy Kids without any signs of imagination, wit or entertainment. Young Alan Tracey feels left out of all the rescuing we never see the other Traceys do because dad won't let him play with a real rocket until he passes his exams. Grounded on a beautiful tropical island (some punishment!), his chance to shine comes when the rest of the family - a bunch of identikit bleach-blondes who look like a gay neo-Nazi boy band without a single bit of characterisation between them - are stranded in space and he has to have the day by, er, running around the jungle, making a phone call, firing a hose at the inept comedy relief villains and dousing them in gunk for bad measure.
The good points are few and far between. One of them is that the film is mostly in focus. The other is they all got to go to the Seychelles, which looks nice.
The bad points: where to start? Ben Kingsley's career lowpoint performance? The aforementioned inept comedy relief sidekicks who would disgrace the Children's Film Foundation at its worst? The almost complete lack of action or effects in a $70m sci-fi film? The terrible script, the lifeless direction, the odious moralising? But most of all is the fact that the film is so patronising in every possible way. Forget the life lessons and off the peg sentiment, this is a movie aimed straight at the under-eights by people who know they're making a kid's movie and are constantly talking down to their intended audience, throwing in fifth-rate jokes and routines that would insult most children who had only recently mastered the art of speech. This film could replace being sent to bed early without their dinner as parents' favourite punishment for kids.
The biggest flop in British film history (it didn't even cover the cost of prints and marketing), it's just about watchable if only as an object lesson in how NOT to make a summer movie.
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