Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
not as bad as I thought it would be, 27 Dec 2008
I had dreaded watching this, especially after all the really bad reviews, but found that I couldn't resist any more.
I hope that you will excuse me while I give you some background.
In 1965 a genious called Gerry Anderson began production on a children's show called Thunderbirds - THUNDERBIRDS - Complete collection of 32 episodes incl extras - dig. remastered - 8 disc DVD Box set. Over the two years 32 episodes were made - 26 episodes in 1965 and 6 in 1966 - before production politics interferred and Mr Anderson decided to stop production of the show. Forty plus years later the puppet series is cult amongst adults, and popular with the young again.
In 2004 this Thunderbirds film was released. I'll be honest - I can live with an americanised Tracey family. With all the American money involved, I wouldn't have expected anything else.
Unfortunately the film makers (according to Director Jonathan Frakes's commentary and interviews in related articles and books) changed the script the day before filming started from the kidnapping and rescue of one of the Tracy boys to the current story. It would have had a more mature Alan Tracy rather than stroppy teenager. A second version of the script would have seen the Tracy family trying to recover important items of national security (sort of like Spy Kids [2001]). All alternative version were abandoned for this one, unfortunately.
At the start of the film we see a daydreaming Alan Tracy (Brady Corbet) wishing he was a member of the Thunderbirds, aka International Rescue, over the next 5 or so minutes it is established that he is the youngest son of Thunderbirds leader Jeff Tracy (Bill Paxton). Jeff Tracy has 5 sons, each one is named after an astronaut from Mercury Seven, Scott Glenn(Philip Winchester), John Carpenter (Lex Shrapnel), Virgil Grissom (Dominic Colenso), Gordon Cooper (Ben Torgersen) and Alan.
The main thing that ticked me off was the replacement of Lady Penelope's iconic pink Rolls Royce for a naff Ford bubble car, that turns into a plane and a boat - at least the director admits it was nothing more than product placement. Lady Penelope is played by Sophia Myles and Parker by Ron Cook.
Brains (Anthony Edwards) has gained a son called Fermat (Soren Fulton) who is about the same age as Alan Tracy.
The eternal enemy of the Thunderbirds, The Hood (Sir Ben Kingsley) is kept on as the enemy of choice for the film, thankfully. However, Tintin played by Vanessa Hudgens of High School Musical (Encore Edition) [2006] fame (who I found the most annoying child of the entire film) has inherited some of her Uncles special powers.
One I stopped looking at the film as Thunderbirds, and started looking at it as an American adventure film, I really enjoyed it. I do the same with the Geraldine McEwan versions of the Miss Marple stories - I try to forget that they are supposed to be Agatha Christies Jane Marple and think of them as the old lady investigates.
It has some good young actors playing the Tracy boys, in fact I believe that the entire film was let down by the wholesale changes that were made to the script.
Tracy Island was a wonder to behold and TB1, TB2, TB3, TB4 and TB5 were great representations of the machines which I had grown up with. For that I thank Mr Frakes. It is a shame that such considerations were not made for the script or for FAB1.
On the good side this was apparently meant to be a vehicle for the Baldwin brothers - thank goodness that idea fell by the wayside.
It is a great shame that this film was not handled better, but it is still a good piece of switch off the brain, sit back and enjoy entertainment. There are a good number of extras, many about the TB vehicles and far too short with the actors who played the characters in tiny little boxes. There are a number of short featurettes about Lady P but not a single one about the Tracy family. No outtakes, and no cast commentary.
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11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Don't be put off, 14 Jan 2005
By A Customer
I too am one of the generation who was brought up on Gerry Andersons Fireball XL5, Supercar and Thunderbirds in the sixties. Those programmes were intended for children and were enjoyed by such. Now that we children of the sixties are in our late forties its hardly surprising that we want this version of Thuderbirds to appeal to the people we once were.This film is for todays kids and by and large it does a pretty good job. I watched it twice and enjoyed it the second time round (the first time I was too busy comparing it to the original). Yes things have changed, but thats only to be expected. Its a pity this film was strangled at birth because I've no doubt the follow ups would have been much better.The first Star Trek movie was rubbish but the sequels went on to improve.
Don't be put off. Its a film you can watch with your kids.
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10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Probably the worst film I have ever seen!, 16 April 2007
As a fan of the Thunderbirds series in their original form, I was looking forward to the release of this film. I have to say I was bitterly disappointed. In fact it's the first time I ever seriously considered walking out of a film theatre in the middle of a film. Awful does not describe it well enough. It is absolutely dismal. I am a great fan of Jonathan Frakes (who directed this movie) in Star Trek, The Next Generation, but in directing this shambles, what was he thinking??? If I could give this 0 stars I would. Don't waste your money on this insult to Gerry Anderson's original creation. You're better of buying the DVD set of the whole Thunderbirds series.
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