If watching a cast of actors mugging their way through a vapid and disinterested kid-friendly adventure film sounds like your cup of tea, then you might just enjoy STORMBREAKER. Those viewers with a decent amount of taste, however, will surely find it as difficult to sit through as I did: it's one of those lowest-common-denominator movies, an utterly puerile and crass attempt at money spinning.
Alex Pettyfer, a good-looking but ultimately bland young actor, stars as an ordinary schoolboy whose uncle (hammy Ewan McGregor) just happens to be a secret super-spy. From the opening action scene, which screams overkill, I knew the action in this film was going to be appalling: a mess of disjointed editing and seen-it-all-before stunts as Pettyfer trains to take over his uncle's job. Perhaps realising the crappy action choreography they were saddled with, the producers called in Donnie Yen to spice up a couple of martial arts bouts, but even these aren't enough to enliven the film.
Realism disappears on the horizon at the film's outset and from then on in it's content to recycle old Bond ideas while ripping off Harry Potter here and there (check out the phone booth scene which is directly copied from the entrance to the Ministry of Magic in that film series) In terms of the cast, STORMBREAKER has a tendency to show off the worst of the actors it employs and only Sophie Okonedo and Damian Lewis walk away with any kind of credibility. Andy Serkis is a walking caricature, Stephen Fry uncomfortable as a Q shoe-in, while Mickey Rourke is plasticky and uncomfortable as the nonthreatening villain. Alicia Silverstone has long since vanished from our screens, and you'll see why when you witness her wooden acting here. Bill Nighy turns out to be hammy and one-note, although the worst actor by far to appear is Missi Pyle, whose excruciating Russian accent is the most irritating thing I can ever remember seeing in a movie. Let's hope there's no sequel!
Alex Pettyfer, a good-looking but ultimately bland young actor, stars as an ordinary schoolboy whose uncle (hammy Ewan McGregor) just happens to be a secret super-spy. From the opening action scene, which screams overkill, I knew the action in this film was going to be appalling: a mess of disjointed editing and seen-it-all-before stunts as Pettyfer trains to take over his uncle's job. Perhaps realising the crappy action choreography they were saddled with, the producers called in Donnie Yen to spice up a couple of martial arts bouts, but even these aren't enough to enliven the film.
Realism disappears on the horizon at the film's outset and from then on in it's content to recycle old Bond ideas while ripping off Harry Potter here and there (check out the phone booth scene which is directly copied from the entrance to the Ministry of Magic in that film series) In terms of the cast, STORMBREAKER has a tendency to show off the worst of the actors it employs and only Sophie Okonedo and Damian Lewis walk away with any kind of credibility. Andy Serkis is a walking caricature, Stephen Fry uncomfortable as a Q shoe-in, while Mickey Rourke is plasticky and uncomfortable as the nonthreatening villain. Alicia Silverstone has long since vanished from our screens, and you'll see why when you witness her wooden acting here. Bill Nighy turns out to be hammy and one-note, although the worst actor by far to appear is Missi Pyle, whose excruciating Russian accent is the most irritating thing I can ever remember seeing in a movie. Let's hope there's no sequel!