Movie DVD Store (UK) - Thunderbirds [2004]

	List Price: £19.99 Our Price: £3.98 Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Manufacturer: Universal Pictures Video Starring: Brady Corbet, Debora Weston, Soren Fulton, Lou Hirsch, Alex Barringer (III) Directed By: Jonathan Frakes
Average Customer Rating:
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Audience Rating: Parental Guidance Binding: DVD EAN: 5050582277487 Format: Anamorphic Label: Universal Pictures Video Manufacturer: Universal Pictures Video Number Of Discs: 1 Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Universal Pictures Video Region Code: 2 Release Date: 2006-05-08 Running Time: 91 Studio: Universal Pictures Video Theatrical Release Date: 2004-07-30
Related Items Thunderbirds Are Go - The Movie [1966] Thunderbirds Are Go / Thunderbird Six [1966] Thunderbirds Complete Series Digistack--9-Disc Box Set The Thunderbirds Story Book Thunderbirds: Volume 1 [1965]
Editorial Reviews: The deep love that young boys feel for planes, cars, and gadgets is the driving energy of Thunderbirds, a live-action movie based on the British puppet TV show of the 1960s. Bill Paxton (Near Dark, One False Move) plays Jeff Tracy, billionaire ex-astronaut, who's turned his family of heroic sons into a crack rescue squad, zooming to danger and saving people using super-sophisticated vehicles. The youngest boy (Brady Corbet) hasn't yet joined the team and resents every moment he's not in uniform---but he gets his chance when a malevolent villain called the Hood (Ben Kingsley, slumming a bit from Gandhi and Sexy Beast) traps the rest of the family on a crippled space station and turns the Thunderbird vehicles to his evil purposes. Expect bright colors, clumsy dialogue, and a less-than-thrilling plot, but many kids will enjoy the fantasy of a secret island, rocket ships, and flying cars. --Bret Fetzer
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: not as bad as I thought it would be Comment: 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. Customer Rating: Summary: Thunderbirds are ?????????? Comment: This has got to be the worst film remake of a classic TV series ever. I watched Thunderbirds as a kid and it was brilliant, goodness knows what they were trying to do with this film but it stinks.Even the wooden puppets in the original series could act better.If Gerry Anderson was dead he would be turning in his grave at this effort.90 minutes of my life I won't get back !!!! Customer Rating: Summary: Thunderbird Stink Comment: This film is without doubt the most nauseating, nasty, horrible, cheap, tatty, trashy, mindless, soul destroying 90 minutes I have ever sat through. Being a longtime fan of the original Thunderbirds TV series, I went to see this out of sheer curiosity, already knowing that it was going to be bad thanks to various stills that had appeared in some newspapers. I just was'nt prepared for how truely ghastly it really was. It totally stunk the place out, and left me feeling shell shocked. If you are a parent and really love your children, then keep them away from this piece of filth. Customer Rating: Summary: It's fun and your son will love it! Comment: I grew up on Thunderbirds during the 1960s. This film does not have the puppets but it has plenty of special effects. The stars are the teenage children as opposed to the characters of the series we all knew. The acting is solid and believable. The Thunderbirds themselves are great looking. The film has the over the top villains. It is fun. The story is pretty standard but entertaining. I enjoyed watching it once with my son. My son must have watched it 100+ times. Don't be put of by the adverse criticism, it was never going to win an Oscar. It is a family/chidlren's film and a good one at that. Customer Rating: Summary: THUNDERBIRDS ARE ............ NO????!! Comment: What I have realised from watching this film is that any movie that is a remake of a popular television series will NEVER be able to live up to its predecessor. This film just does not work with out the puppets and strings. It was the fact that they were puppets in the original series that made it so fun, fantastic and exciting all at the same time. This film was not the worst film i have ever seen (the worst is batman and robin). I did not get bored throughout it, but i immediately saw that something big was missing. There were far too many differences to the original series - How could they possibly think of changing the original outfits????????? The acting was very poor as was the storyline. Surely they could have come up with something better than the bad guy trying to rob a bank!!!!! - remember how every episode of the original series was better than the one before all because of the well thought-out storylines. I'm surprised that they didnt use one of the original storylines. One of the only parts that shined above the rest was sophia myles playing lady penelope - she was absolutely perfect for the part and she was one of the only good actors. Overall a poor adaptation of the original series but a reasonably good family film (hence me giving it 2 rather than 1.) More Reviews