Thunderbirds 2004 movie How bad could it be?

[Jaqhama]

Bad! I mean really freaking bad!

Ok...I bit the bullet and wasted a dollar and rented Thunderbirds the 2004 live action movie.
And wasted a dollar is right.
This movie is so appalling I cannot even begin to describe how bad it is.
I watched most of it on fast forward, so as to torture myself as quickly as possible and get it over and done with.
Gerry Anderson had nothing to do with this movie and has been quoted as saying, when he watched it on DVD himself.
"It's the worst load of crap I've ever seen!"
How right he is.

Sylvia Anderson (She being the divorced wife of Gerry) was the person responsible for selling the rights of Thunderbirds to the movie company. She has been quoted as saying what a marvelous movie she thinks it is.
Thereby proving that she is either insane or was just trying to boost the sales of box office tickets to prove her finacial worth to the movie company.
How the directors could get a movie so wrong beggers belief.

I think they tried making it for the kids of today, rather than for the adults of today who loved the original puppet series when they were young.

One reason we liked Thunderbirds when I was a kid is because there were no kids in the show to start with. All the characters were adults.

I was pleased to see the movie company lost a lot of money. Hurrah!!!
Comments on the movie on a lot of internet forums is mainly in the negative.

It's hard to imagine just why the movie company tried to turn Thunderbirds into a Spy Kids type movie, as the original series was always very serious.
This movie is a campy version of the kind of films made back in the late 60's.
Like the original Casino Royale and Modesty Blaise. And neither of those films worked either.

No matter how bad you think this Thunderbirds movie might be, trust me, you'll be horrifed at this modern re-make of a classic TV series.
The special effects are mediochre and I've got to say that the effects in the original TV series looked more realistic than in this movie.

Apart from the names of the characters and the look of the machinery there is nothing of the original TV series in this movie.
The girl playing Lady Penelope almost got it right. The chap playing Parker, almost got it right. Unfortunately their almost excellent characterisations were quickly spoofed and camped up to lend them the same pitiful roles as the rest of the sorry cast.

One can only hope that the directors and producers of this abyssmal effort never get anyone to invest in a movie of theirs again. Unlikely as that occurence might be anyway.

Sylvia Anderson must surely be living under a rock somewhere, as how she could show her face in public after prasing this movie is beyond me.
Gerry Anderson apparently refused to take money to praise the movie or attend its debut.
Gerry at least has integrity.

Public flogging would be the very least punishment that everyone who had anything to do with this movie should have forced upon them.

I've seen shite re-makes and take-offs of vintage popular shows before, but the Thunderbirds 2004 movie takes the cake.
One can only hope they choked on it.

[Craig Herbertson]

You don't like the movie then, Jaqhama?

[Jaqhama]

Feb 11, 2010 9:54:44 GMT Craig Herbertson said:

You don't like the movie then, Jaqhama?

Your astutness does you great credit, Craig.

I really don't think I've ever seen a re-make of anything as bad as this. And that's really saying something.

I have seen a modern animated Captain Scarlet series, and that was actually very good.

[Craig Herbertson]

As you can see from my avatar I consider Thunderbirds a johnny come lately. Fireball XL5 had an immense influence on me as a five year old kid.

Apparently - and this takes a lot to say - after witnessing Steve Zodiac do his thing, I used to leap to the floor holding a stool forwards as my little space hover craft and loudly decimate the aliens of several terrified galaxies.

However, I'm prepared to concede that Thunderbirds/Captain Scarlett could be akin to the fully flourishing tree with XL5 more the seeds not the full realisation of the ideal.

I think we all know that any Anderson film needs - visible strings, shadows on the sky-backdrops and ponderous human hands to succeed. Handy also would be a plot but again that wouldn't be essential, in fact on consideration, it might just get in the way.

[Calenture]

Feb 11, 2010 11:50:00 GMT Craig Herbertson said:

As you can see from my avatar I consider Thunderbirds a johnny come lately. Fireball XL5 had an immense influence on me as a five year old kid.

God made me do it. Honest.

Possibly Craig will be the only one present to appreciate this stunning cover which, despite the cunningly concealed insignia, still bears a suspicious resemblance to a certain Gerry Anderson model.

That was the 1968 reprint of Harl Vincent's Doomsday Planet. Completists might also be interested in Tower's 1966 first paperback edition (below). And if you think that picture looks familiar, too, Consul used it for their 1965 edition of Richard Marsh's The Beetle.

Hopefully someone will post something after this, so that spaceship won't be the first thing Dem sees tomorrow.

[shonokin]

I remember seeing very early demo treatments of the footage and at that point it was not like Spy Kids at all. But then it disappeared for a while and when it popped up with new trailers, it looked only like Spy Kids. So much so I couldn't bother seeing the movie. Gerry must've been pretty sad about the whole thing.

Well, to cheer things up some... take this! (just in case the XL5 on that cover wasn't cheep enough for ya). ;D

[Jaqhama]

Man, that second cover of Doomsday Planet. They just don't do them like that anymore do they?
Might scare the PC generation kiddies.

I'm not convinced Gerry Anderson needed strings...UFO was great.
Gabrielle Drake, Moonbase, purple hair and silver mini-skirts...

Ummm...what were we talking about???

[valdemar]

Thunderbirds the movie was one of the most appalling things I've ever seen. It was as if the makers had fed a hyperactive child orange squash and blue Smarties, let it get up to speed, and then said: ''Describe Thunderbirds to us, as fast as you can.'' As a final insult, the producers told Gerry Anderson that they could do quite nicely without him, thanks very much. The bastards.
The film has nothing to redeem it, save Sophia Myles and Ron Cook as Lady Penelope and Parker, who were great, although the fact that Rolls-Royce wouldn't provide a proper FAB-1, and the Ford replacement, although interesting, was Not great.
Once seen, best forgotten, eh?

[junkmonkey]

There is a story I picked up from somewhere (possibly from David Hughes' very readable, but out of date The Greatest Sci-fi Movies Never Made ) that at one meeting while this film was stuck in development hell, an executive was heard to ask if one of the Tracy Brothers could be made black.

It could have happened.

[valdemar]

I'm all for actors of any colour, creed or religion in movies - but some things are sacrosanct. I heard the Thunderbirds rumour elsewhere - and, more recently, some studio exec. did it with the recent [and oh, so very awful] Fantastic Four movie. Johnny Storm. In the comicbook, the very blond brother of the very blond Sue Storm. In the two previous [not very good, although the Silver Surfer was great in the second]movies, the Storms are instantly recognisable as the characters in the comics. This time, knowing full well that the Fantastic Four movies previously were not good, but the studio is giving them a new chance to be up there with the likes of the X-Men and Avengers, you'd think that the film maker would stick close to the source material, to give the fans nothing to gripe about. Only... A voice chimes up from the back of the production office: "What if we made Johnny Storm an Afro-American character?" Honestly, that's as stupid as if someone had said:"For the next Avengers movie, why don't we cast Dolph Lundgren as Black Panther..." Michael B Jordan who played Johnny Storm was actually very good in the role, but the movie was made by film makers whose sole experience of the Fantastic Four seemed to be from flicking through some comics one day, and so, all performances were handicapped by a story that was just drivel. Hey, Hollywood, here's a tip: when a voice at the back of the room comes out with a ridiculous idea, IGNORE IT.

[junkmonkey]

I'm still trying to track down the story I once read about an exec who came up with the genius idea of "remaking The Wiz - but white!"

[ripper]

Lol Great stuff, Junkmonkey.

I agree that it is a very disappointing film, failing to capture the atmosphere of the original and altering the characters far too much. Only seen it once and if I am in the mood for Thunderbirds on the big screen I watch one of the original 60s movies that were made.

[mcannon]

Jul 31, 2016 12:22:17 GMT junkmonkey said:

I'm still trying to track down the story I once read about an exec who came up with the genius idea of "remaking The Wiz - but white!"

I've heard that one, but just as a one-line anecdote of the "Nobody in Hollywood knows anything!" type. In an article by Harlan Ellison, perhaps?

Sorry I can't be more precise, but I would have read it a _long_ time ago.

Mark

[Dr Strange]

I am pretty sure the "white version of The Wiz" thing has always been a joke - though it seems that very recently (i.e. last year) social media went crazy over a Live US TV version made by NBC, with people claiming that the "all black" casting was racist (Google it and you'll see what I mean).

Meanwhile...

[junkmonkey]

LOL Thanks for that!