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Visitors Review

Stephen Jones 2013-05-22 22:53:07

What a film

I thought that this movie was absolutely excellent. Of the reviews thatI've read, many of them have criticised the film for targeting anaudience of 12 year olds. As a 16 year old, I didn't see anything inthe film that was for 12 year olds. The film wouldn't be what it iswithout the great cast. Alex Pettyfer does a very good job of leadingthe film and uses the witty lines very well. Bill Nighy and SophieOkonedo are excellent as Alan Blunt and Mrs Jones, the heads of MI6 whoseem to lack emotion and do not understand human feelings. Missi Pyleis on form as the typical baddie's woman and Alicia Silverstone is goodas Jack Starbright, Alex's guardian and best friend. My only criticismsare how little Stephen Fry, Jimmy Carr and Robbie Coltrane are used inthe film and Mickey Rourke - I don't think he made a good DarriusSayle. But, overall a great film that should appeal to everyone.

maxpalombella 2013-05-22 13:22:53

What was being drunk or smoked during filming?

What were the producers thinking. What was there target audience.People in comas? Seriously. Did they think that aiming your films athuman beings below the age of anyone capable of understanding a filmwould make them more money. The book was gritty, raw and suspenseful.Where in the name of all things bright and beautiful, and sane, didthey decide on the path they chose?. What a mess. I am a film makermyself, well, in the making... and i personally would have kept itclose to the books original style and aimed it towards the youngpersons demographic (13/14-25/26 yr old) not babies... thats all i haveto say for the moment. But ill be back. possibly. well actuallyprobably not...who cares anyway.

2013-05-22 15:09:00

great movie.

This review is from: Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker (Widescreen Edition) (DVD) This movie is not known by a lot which is a shame, because it is a great movie. action is awesome.

Neil Welch 2013-05-22 01:04:56

Tolerable James Bond-lite

Having not read any of the books, I approached this entirely at facevalue.The feel of it is very much James Bond from the Roger Moore era - arelatively light hearted spy romp. Add in the training aspect, and thefact that a youngster is the main character, and you have anentertaining action thriller for family audiences.It may not match the books, and if that's important to you going inthen it's going to disappoint you. But the main cast is all fine, withMickey Rourke's comedy helpers making it clear the level on which thefilm is to be approached.Alex Pettyfer does satisfactorily as Alex, but doesn't set the screenon fire (not that there are many juvenile leads who do). On the whole,this is entertaining but forgettable.

2013-05-18 04:17:23

a good movie for kids!

Our grandchildren really enjoyed this video, even though it is not a new one...we purchased it to take to a beach vacation, and a tropical storm kept us indoors for a day, so it was great to have something to entertain them. The action is exciting and the special effects are thrilling. It is refreshing to have a movie with patriotic characters who don't have to use profanity constantly. I would recommend it for 8-14 year olds, but we "old folks" watched it too!

ron 2013-05-17 09:09:58

This movie was awesome!!!!!

This is the perfect movie for in between aged kids (10 - 14). My kids read the book and loved the movie. It is well written, well acted and had a great plot. You should take your kids to see this movie.

j-cherry-630-782328 2013-05-14 17:08:33

awful is too good for this film!!

OK i admit im not a huge fan of the alex rider series but i did admitthat stormbreaker could make a good film. so when it came out i decidedto check it out, i have consequently lost 1.5hours of my life THAT ICAN NEVER HAVE BACK!! there were so many plot holes it hurt i shall nowattempt to list the most obvious. 1 why was the access to MI6 in apublic photobooth? surely someone would have noticed the huge flashesof light and that certain people never left it..also Alex Rider is nota member of MI6 so does that mean other random members of the publiccan just waltz in? 2 Jack starbright's appalling fight with Missi pyle's character = whatthe hell? it is totally pointless and not even in the book. 3 the character of Alex is a travesty he practically gives his identityaway in the first 5 seconds "my uncle was a security guard, he waskilled and i'll find out who did it" well duh they just did it to hisuncle! he might as well have said ..hi im Alex..my unclesreplacement!and the whole bicycle chase scene had me crying withlaughter.. 4 Smithers in a toy shop!?...er so the man who makes all the secretgadgets for MI6 works in a toy store..yer i can see thathappening..NOT!! 5 what kind of martial arts security guard falls for such a stupidtrick like the "bowing scene" im sorry but that really was bad 6 all of the characters were rushed,stereotypical and even the greatactors like Mickey Rouke and Bill Nighy were restricted by theappalling director and were turned into cartoons. Alex was wooden,Missiwas a joke, Jack was completely out of character and Sabina was notonly badly portrayed by some hammy second rate actress but she Wasn'tEVEN SUPPOSED TO BE THERE!!! honestly i don't know how antony horrowitzcould have stood there and approve of the shambles made of a book,thatalthough i think not that good, had such great potential. the entire film was rushed, according to Mr Horrowitz the reason forthis was to get to the end scene...er what for? the hammy horse scene?the lame death of Sayle? the bad parachute scene? the pigeon gettingshot? what? what? what was there at the end that we all missed!!?? theend credits maybe? (best part of the film) a waste of characters,wasteof good acting potential,waste of money and a waste of time saveyourself from this utter waste of space and do not watch!!!!

Sam Carroll 2013-05-14 09:52:00

Just No.

I am actually astounded that this movie isn't in the bottom 100.Honestly, I never thought I would see a movie that wasn't on the bottom100 that would make "The Happening" look good. But wow.If you enjoy seeing crappy movies that have good budgets, see this(especially if you've read the books).Seriously though here are the elements that make it bad. It is a spythriller, these are typically a parody of themselves (bond etc..).First off, the movie overdoes the parody, and then overdoes that about50 more times. I have read the first book, I am not obsessed with itand I can guarantee that if I had never read the book I would have feltthe same way. In theory the movie did a good job if you see the movie,and then read the books and get similar pictures of the characters asyou saw them in the movie. Well some characters were OK (Wolf) somewere just off par a tad (Mr Blunt...?)Overall very little of it made any sense why it would happen. Half ofthe decisions made no sense either.I don't usually say movies are actually BAD. I usually spend agespointing out all the flaws, but at the end of all of it say 'stillworth 12 bucks'. You are wasting money if you watch this film, luckily I watched it onTV.

kitbradshaw 2013-05-10 08:35:07

Stormbreaker: Good Fun Movie

Just seen this film and thought it was very good. I read the book alongtime ago but didn't think I'd like the film. But I was very surprisedby how good it was. Bill Nighy and Micky Rourke are brilliant as theHead of MI6 and the villain. Alex Pettyfer is a good lead and the restof the cast are good. Its not an overly serious film and can bechildish at times but its not trying to be a serious movie. Good actionand humour at times. Great shots of London and the rest of the UK.Overall an excellent summer watch.(Note: This film is not released in the United States until Oct 8th2006)

The_Dman 2013-05-09 15:42:00

Very Disappointing

Being a huge fan of the Alex Rider novels, I must say that I was veryanxious about this film before even seeing it. Most novel to filmadaptations are disappointing, and i'm sorry to say that Stormbreakerwas no different.The secret, realistic world of espionage that Anthony Horowitz createdin the novels, is almost completely thrown out the window in favor ofthe sought of fantasy spy world you might seen in Agent Cody Banks orSpy Kids. Where the world is nice, shiny and filled with gadgets. Ithink anyone will find themselves sighing as they watch this film, asthis 14 year old boy pulls of impossible move, after impossible moves.This is a real shame, because the novels we're so believable.The acting is at best "okay" with quite a bit of bad dialog. Charactersare presented totally different to what they were like in the novel,and some moments come across lame due to some poor attempts atslapstick comedy (which even if they had pulled it of, these momentsare completely inappropriate).The good things I can say about this film is that there is plenty ofaction, as unbelievable as it may be, which is always fun to watch anddespite the dodgy interpretation of the novels, Mr. Horowitz'screenplay compresses the books events rather that remove them, whichis a pleasant change. He does however change and add quite a fewthings, which I know will annoy quite a few fans of the book.In conclusion, if you enjoyed the novels, this movie will annoy thehell out of you. If you have never heard about Alex rider before this,then you might have a bit of a thrill from the action, but overall willbe let down by the bad dialog, odd (without actually meaning to be?)characters and fantasy of it all. All up, I can only give this a 3.

2013-05-09 12:00:04

Well...

Nothing like the book. I know this is common, but honestly, a little much here...Second, one of the only reasons to watch this movie is because "Obi-Wan" is in it!!!Avoid unless you want kind of nonsensical action with some interesting twists.

2013-05-09 01:56:29

Yeah!

This review is from: Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker (Widescreen Edition) (DVD) My family read some of the books, then bought this. nice job follwoing first book. Movie is about a 8.5 out of 10. Not bad for low budget

2013-05-05 16:38:41

Action packed, non-stop excitement!

"ALEX RIDER: OPERATION STORMBREAKER" is of course not realistic at all, but it does not need to be. We can almost believe that the story is real, because the director, producers, writer (Anthony Horowitz, who also wrote the novel the film is based on), and actors/actresses do their best to make us believe. Rather than going in the tongue in cheek direction, like the earlier "AGENT CODY BANKS", they adapt a much more serious mindset and pessimistic outlook. Instead of the lead being a smart aleck, he is a very mature teenager well beyond his years, and is very well acted by Pettyfer. His character is not at all slick and perfect, but unsure of himself, and he makes mistakes. He does not own a cool sports car, is not 18, (which, according to Horowitz, were the requirements the American producers wanted for the film) but does have a girlfriend (of sorts). In short, these attributes and qualities make "STORMBREAKER" the much better movie. However, I do enjoy the "AGENT CODY BANKS" films, but they require the viewer to suspend their disbelief on a much higher level. The main plot is that Alex Rider (Alex Pettyfer) is a normal British schoolboy whose parents died when he was very young, and now lives with his uncle Ian Rider (Ewan McGregor) and eccentric American housekeeper Jack Starbright (Alicia Silverstone). Ian supposedly has a very boring job, for a bank, which keeps him away from home alot of the time. But he is eventually killed, and his co-workers cover up the cause of death at the funeral as not wearing a seatbelt. Alex investigates, however, and is forced to participate in an action sequence (expertly created by Martial Arts Master Donnie Yen) with a junkyard crew. He finds out that his uncle did not work for a bank, but actually was a special agent for M16, and was assassinated by Yassen Gregorovich (Damian Lewis) while on his way home with vital information from a mission. Alex is recruited by the director of M16, Alan Blunt (Bill Nighy) and his assistant Tulip Jones (Sophie Okonedo) to find out what Darrius Sayle (Mickey Rourke) along with his assistants Mr. Grin (Andy Serkis) and Nadia Vole (Missi Pyle) really intend by giving one of his company's own supercomputers to every school in the country. The cast is excellent, from the new star that has been found in Pettyfer, all the way to the veteran actor in Stephen Fry as Smithers. The action is fast and unforgiving, especially in the junkyard scene. The stunts are great, such as at the Rider house with Jack and Nadia. A movie not to be missed, and I also recommend that you read the excellent Alex Rider books.SPECIAL FEATURES From Page to Screen The Stunts The Horse Chase Creating the VFX for Sayle Tower Casting Alex Martial Arts Master Donnie Yen Theatrical TrailerAlso Recommended: STAR WARS: EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE (1999), SPY KIDS (2001), SPY KIDS 2: THE ISLAND OF LOST DREAMS (2002), AGENT CODY BANKS (2003), AGENT CODY BANKS 2: DESTINATION LONDON (2004) THIS REVIEW IS DEDICATED TO ANYONE, LIVING OR DEAD, INVOLVED IN THE MAKING OF "ALEX RIDER: OPERATION STORMBREAKER".

m-r-monk 2013-05-05 01:54:18

good movie

iv read the books and was a bit disappointed about the "changes" to thestory and adding a character in. and i noticed the on the helicopternear the end where Alex is talking to yessan read the writing on thetail of the helicopter, one minute is says "GORMA" and the next it sayssomething like "GORSA", just wondered if anyone else noticed?. overallit was an entertaining movie but it wasn't faithful to the book.unfortunately with most book-movie films they cant stay faithful to thestory for time limit reasons but in my opinion they could have made itlonger. the movie was too fast and seemed rushed, its a shame becauseit had some really good actors in it and just seemed a waste. well letssee how they get on with the second movie. but the part where the jellyfish zaps the fish is also too fake but the fight scene between jackand Nadia was funny

AdamsKid93 2013-04-27 08:56:03

Disappointing

I can't believe how disappointing this movie was. I'm not saying it washorrible, it was just disappointing.The Alex Rider Series is my favorite book series in the whole entireworld and when I heard Stormbreaker the movie was coming out, I was SOexcited to see it! That was early July, late July came (the saidrelease date for the movie) and I hadn't heard a thing about it, nocommericals...no nothing. A little while later I figured out that lateJuly was England's release date. So I spent another several monthspouring over fan sites, reading comments about the movie from Englishpeople. Then October 13th (the release date for the US) finally came. Iwas very very VERY excited, but once again I hadn't heard anythingabout it. I looked the movie up in the newspaper and on movie theaterwebsites and I found out that it wasn't showing in my area, in factStormbreaker wasn't showing within a two-mile radius of my town! Ifinally drove two and a half miles to see it and was greatlydisappointed. The movie was okay, probably a 7/10, but everything feltoff. I don't think the actor that played Alex Rider was right for thepart. Also the fact that everyone figured out that Alex was a spy itgot rid of the secretive atmosphere and theme that the books had. Thisfact and because Alex Rider's actor was a bit too old for the role, gotrid of the scrambling of MI6 trying to hide the fact the they arerisking a child's life.This movie was defiantly not what I expected it to be. It might nothave been so disappointing if the movie company actually spent somemoney on advertising and got it in more theaters so then I wouldn'tfeel that I wasted my time and money driving so far.

2013-04-26 18:55:55

A pleasant surprise

This review is from: Alex Rider - Operation Stormbreaker (Widescreen Edition) (DVD) My son is a big fan of the Alex Rider series and looked forward to the movie, but it never came near us and took forever to come out on DVD. We assumed it must be terrible, but it is very good. The action is great and although it is not exactly like the book, the changes are OK. So what's wrong with it?--Some of the characters are too cartoonish, but Alex is great and Bill Nighy's version of Alan Blunt is brilliant. I had not pictured Mrs. Jones as a stylish Condi Rice but it works. Unfortunately there are so many split second film edits that it makes your eyes hurt. The girl fight scene is dumb and pointless, although the flash of the Avengers on TV during the fight was fun -- should have been Mrs. Peel instead of Steed. I enjoyed this movie far more than the grim Casino Royale. Alex Rider fans should not stay away; this is worth seeing.

bob the moo 2013-04-23 11:16:38

Reasonably OK "Bond for kids" but it needed to be a lot more fun to prevent it seeming silly at times

When teenage Alex Ryder's uncle Ian dies, Alex not only loses his adultguardian but also learns how little he knew of his uncle's "boring"job. For, you see, Ian was a top British spy and very good at his job(well, apart from the last twenty seconds of it). Ian's final missionis not complete though and his employer Alan Blunt needs someone tocomplete the undercover operation. Realising that Ian had been grooming(sorry – "training") Alex, Blunt sends him undercover as a studentcomputer geek into the organisation of American Darius Sayle and hismysterious and "Stormbreaker" devices.From the very start it is clear that this is going to try and be aJames Bond film for children and this in itself was not a real problemfor me. That said though I did think that some of the action wassailing very close to being silly from the outset. This continued intothe plot as what is delivered is a quite unremarkable affair thatserves as a way in to the character as well as a spy story that putschildren at centre stage as the targets. It doesn't serve up a greatdeal but I suppose it did just about enough as a story to be able tohang a film round it. The action has clearly been given a limitedbudget but you can see they are trying to make the most of it.However lack of budget isn't really the problem I had with this – itwas the tone. One side of the cast and crew genuinely seem to be tryingto make a semi-serious spy film for kids, while the other half areconvincing that it is actually a bit silly and, although not playing itfor laughs, are obviously trying to have a bit of a wink at the cameraand fun with the audience. Either approach might have worked and mypersonal preference would have been for the latter, but this mixedapproach just doesn't work. It is hard to describe cause at times wehave people like Nighy producing ham that would suit a slightly"cheeky" spy film, but in a scene that is delivered as dry as you like;then conversely we have some action scenes delivered "seriously" wherereally the silly action would have benefited from a more "fun" deliveryto prevent us viewing it with serious eyes.I'm not sure where the failing lies but certainly a lot of it restswith director Sax for not managing to put his stamp on it and make ithis own. Pettyfer is also part of the problem I'm afraid. He has thelooks but it is charisma and presence where he falls down and he isunable to really get the tone of the film right. The support cast ismixed but mostly wasted. McGregor seems to enjoy playing James Bond butis only in a small part of the film. Nighy is stiff but hammy, Okonedois crisp and quite sexy, Fry does his best Q impression, Pyle isrubbish, Carr is mercifully limited to a few seconds and Coltrane isgiven a poor Tony Blair joke to fluff. Lewis is hampered with a badaccent but is still a solid presence but it is Rourke that makes for alack of villains in the film and he is too silly to buy into. Waltersand Serkis are OK in small roles but god knows what Silverstone got outof it apart from a paying job and maybe a shot at being a biggercharacter in a sequel.Despite all this it is actually a reasonably OK spy film for tweeniesunable to get into a "proper" film. It should have been better thoughand the mixed tone and lack of genuine fun is what limits it andprobably means that there won't be a sequel anytime soon.

Tracy 2013-04-22 19:57:43

The Best Movie Of The Year!!!!

Storm breaker is a brilliant movie and although people are saying thatit is for 10-year-olds,I am 13 and i enjoyed the movie so much, Notjust because Alex Pettyfer plays the lead role but because it is soaction packed and still with all the bad reports about storm-breaker itwas a GREAT movie and i cant wait until Point Blanc. Me And my friendwent to see it and she even thought it was a great movie (consideringthe fact that we both love him)But still i think that overall the moviewas great and all the bad reports are wrong, So just ignore ALL of thebad reports it is Great( I Would recommend this movie to people of allages )!!!! !!!!! !!!!

Cecilie Jensen 2013-04-21 06:00:26

Stormbreaker is about a boy, named Alex.

Stormbreaker is about a boy, named Alex. He thinks he is a regularschoolboy until his uncle gets killed. He thinks that it is a littlestrange at the funeral. So he is following after some men's and findsout that his uncle was a spy, on a mission that he got killed. Alex isthe new man for the mission. Mr.Blunt is sending Alex to the placewhere his uncle was. Darrius Sayle is the creator of the Stormbreaker,it is a game. Alex should try it. Darrius plans to give every school inthe country a Stormbreaker. But Darrius have other ideas and Alex mustfind out what it is. I think Stormbreaker is a movie where there is happening things everyminute. But it can be a little boring too. I got a little consume init, maybe because Alex is pretty hot. It is a good movie whit a goodstory.8 star because it is a good movie, but sometimes it got a little bitboring.

Spyro 2013-04-20 17:22:13

One of the best movies ever

I went to see this movie yesterday and thought it was great! It wasfunny and cool. For some reason i kept laughing at Jimmy Carr but hewasn't doing anything..i guess he's just funny.Stephen Fry was funny ilike the xylophone joke "no it's very annoying".and the Mario Kart DSthing was funny "and Mario kart is..?" "A game" Pettyfer made a good Alex Rider he was cool(who are they gonna use forPoint Blanc?).Ewan was only in the movie for about 5 minutes.But iexpected that.Darrius Sayle was kinda weird but loadsa bad guys areweird any way. I thought Damian Lewis played a really good YassenGregorovich the Russian accent was great.Yassen's cool I know it'sdifferent to the book but they never get the books exactly right.Likein the book Yassen don't pick up Alex at the end. anyway Long storyshort this was a great film! You should go see it.and reading the bookis good too