Pacionsbo
Absolutely Fantastic
Intcatinfo
A Masterpiece!
Yash Wade
Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.
studioAT
No, this film isn't great. There are too many changes from the original series to please fans and it is all a little bit too flash for it's own good BUT I still believe 10 years on from it's release this film remains good family entertainment.It's fast paced, it's exciting for kids (who were very much the target audience) and is a lot better than some of the dross family films we have to put up with.Yes,it would have been nice to see a bit more of the Tracey Brothers (telling which one is which is quite difficult) and making Alan younger and the star of the film isn't to everyone's taste but Sophia Miles as Lady Penelope more than makes up for it. Perhaps the only spot on bit of casting in the film.It's very much a family film but if you can get past the flaws (and it's taken me 10 years to be able to) I think you'll find a lot to like about this film.
sparkytb
I'd take a guess that nobody involved in the production of this disaster (pun intended) actually sat down and discussed what was truly at the core of Gerry Anderson's THUNDERBIRDS. The answer is peril. It's about large scale disaster, nail-biting tension, ticking bombs, cool mechanics and huge explosions. It is also quite serious. What Working Title and Commander Riker have done here is take a great concept and bastardise it into a sub-par Children's Film Foundation frolic that could have been adapted from any of a million and one concepts. Instead they've chosen to destroy any chance we could ever have of seeing a cool THUNDERBIRDS movie. Everything about this production is an insult to the intelligence of kids and adults alike. If only someone had had the guts to model it on THE TOWERING INFERNO (or indeed, ANY episode of the original show) instead of a SPY KIDS sequel, there might have been a chance to get a return on the $70m investment. A massive fail.
NikTesla
The only time this turkey should be served up is at about 3AM on the day after Thanksgiving or 3am on Boxing Day when everyone is sleeping off their dinners.The characters in this movie are more plastic than the puppets in the original series, despite the actors best efforts.Unfortunately Jonathan Frakes not only missed the boat on this one, he missed the whole fracking ocean! His purported quote about never directing should be quite true, but given the bean counters in charge of the movie industry these days, you never can tell.However he cannot be entirely blamed for this abomination. I had the impression that a bunch of blind, one armed chimps put together the script form the shredded rejects from The Spy Kids franchise.Avoid at all costs.
johnstonjames
i was surprised at how negatively received this movie was by 'Thunderbirds R Go' fanz. i mean it really wasn't all that bad. and i happen to be a babyboomer who was brought up watching the old retro TV show on Saturday mornings back in the sixties.the real debate here is probably not how faithfully this embodies the spirit of the old kidvid series, but whether are not the marionette freak show really justified a remake or a live action interpretation at all. like most retro junk entertainment the original show was what it was. it was hardly Tolstoy or high art in the first place. but babyboomers seemed to expect something better from this. only the good Lord knows why. i don't think much more could have been made out of this except to revive the Super Marionation technique and i don't see any point to that since that was what it was and couldn't be done any better than the original.the film itself is a innocent enough diversion, and in a time when children's entertainment becomes increasingly more crass and violent, it seems refreshingly wholesome and good spirited enough to be acceptable for young kids. i suppose older audiences will most likely perceive early on that no one is going to die, not even the villains and that a upbeat happy ending looms ahead. cynical, older kids will probably get impatient.for me the biggest plus here was the characterizations of Lady Penelope and her chauffeur Parker. they were faithful to the original and even included Lady P's marvelous big, pink, six wheeler, flying automobile. the actor who played Parker looked uncannily like his marionette counterpart.this film also had some very good, big budget CGI FX which utilized it's large 50 million dollar budget (eegads the movie only grossed 6 million?!oooooh. ouch.).i've always wondered how actors feel playing cartoon characters. i wondered here how Bill Paxton felt taking that a step further playing a character that was originally a puppet. personally i thought the puppet did his role better.i don't know what went wrong here with audiences and why on earth they expected more from this. i suppose more should have been done to appeal to a older babyboomer audience and not make this so much for the 'Spykids' age group.personally i don't think the film did all that bad. i think the problem was with the audience. it seems a good lot of babyboomers have been brainwashed into glorifying their entertainment drivel. if babyboomers want a more, sophisticated marionette movie, maybe they should be satisfied with 'Team America; World Police'.
