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Bob Smithouser (Plugged In) says, "There was a novel 'cool factor' to a TV show in the pre-Star Wars era that bucked cell animation in favor of puppets. And if the acting was a little wooden we knew why. But this live-action version's stiff performances and insufferable dialogue (which shifts back and forth between banality and technobabble) are embarrassing. Furthermore, the lackluster story will have viewers old enough to tell time checking their watches well before the 30-minute mark."

David DiCerto (Catholic News Service) says director Jonathan Frakes "has jettisoned not only the puppets, but most of the show's campy charm, leaving only clumsily strung-together action sequences which showcase the eponymous vehicles—the net result being little more than an 87-minute commercial for the line of all-terrain toys the movie will undoubtedly spawn. Acting-wise, Frakes would have done better sticking with the puppets, as most of the Thunderbirds lay a collective egg."

But Michael Elliott (Movie Parables) writes, "Thunderbirds is a fantasy adventure that will tickle the imagination of young boys. Young girls may not get quite as much out of the film. For the most part … Frakes keeps things straightforwardly simple and age appropriate. There is an occasional lapse or two where an adult innuendo is allowed to pass through but these are limited and relatively innocuous."

Phil Boatwright (CBN) says, "This tongue-in-cheek action/adventure should be a successful summer release, and most likely the first of a successful franchise. Lively, inventive, and campy, Thunderbirds is a blastoff for the whole family."

Last week, I unintentionally overlooked a review by Peter T. Chattaway (Christianity Today Movies) of the family-friendly sci-fi adventure Thunderbirds: He calls it "the dullest and lamest" of the Spy Kids imitators. "Once again, regular children have to save their super-agent parents from some sort of villain, but Thunderbirds has nothing to offer in place of the surrealism and Latino cool that made Spy Kids so much fun."

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