Stormbreaker (2006)

Director:

Geoffrey Sax

Writers:

Anthony Horowitz (novel)
Anthony Horowitz (screenplay)

Release Date:

21 July 2006 (UK)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Family

Tagline:

You're never too young to die.

Plot:

Alex Rider thinks he is a normal school boy, until his uncle is killed. He discovers that his uncle was actually spy on a mission...

Plot Keywords:

London England | Espionage | London Eye | Gadget Car | Piccadilly Circus London

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Sarah Bolger	...	Sabina Pleasure
Robbie Coltrane	...	Prime Minister
Stephen Fry	...	Smithers
Damian Lewis	...	Yassen Gregorovich
Ewan McGregor	...	Ian Rider
Bill Nighy	...	Alan Blunt
Sophie Okonedo	...	Mrs. Jones
Alex Pettyfer	...	Alex Rider
Missi Pyle	...	Nadia Vole
Mickey Rourke	...	Darrius Sayle
Andy Serkis	...	Mr. Grin
Alicia Silverstone	...	Jack Starbright
Ashley Walters	...	Wolf
Alex Barrett	...	Gary
Richard Huw	...	Teacher

Also Known As:

Alex Rider: Stormbreaker (International: English title) (UK) (poster title)
Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker (USA)

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

Germany | USA | UK

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Malaysia:U | Finland:K-11 | UK:PG | USA:PG | Australia:M | Argentina:Atp | Norway:11 | Hong Kong:IIA | Portugal:M/12 | Germany:12 | Brazil:10 | Philippines:PG-13 (MTRCB) | Netherlands:MG6 | Ireland:PG | South Africa:PG

Filming Locations:

Broadgate, London, England, UK

Company:

Samuelson Productions

Trivia:

Anthony Horowitz, author of the book, recommended Alex Pettyfer to play Alex Rider after seeing his impressive performance in the lead role in the British TV drama Tom Brown's Schooldays (2005) (TV).

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Sayle says that the Portuguese Man o' War's scientific name is "Physalia physalia", but the correct name is "Physalia physalis".

Quotes:

Jack Starbright: Is it just me or are those bankers weird?

Movie Connections:

References The Bourne Identity (2002)

Soundtrack:

Ready Steady Go

An Excellent Film with An Excellent Cast

Many people who have read the Alex Rider series were looking forward to this upcoming film which projects the amazing adventures of the teen spy onto the big screen, however many people were afraid this would turn into another Cody Banks film and be given a bad image because of the recent teen spy films… That fear can now be forgotten!

Being a fan of the Alex Rider books myself you would probably expect a good review from me, but at first I had my doubts too. Things such as including Sabina Pleasure in this film seemed like a bit of risk and it looked like this film was going in the usual direction of a teen spy film (The save-the-girl-and-get-home-to-watch-the-Simpson's storyline). This turned out to be wrong, the author of the book incorporated these changes himself, and we can now call them improvements. It seems if he had one more chance to make changes, this was it, and they were great.

As promised we have been delivered an action-packed, amazing and riveting film! Book to film transitions often have their setbacks and sometimes turn out to displease the audience, but obviously having the author of the book writing the screenplay was a very, very good idea.

With amazing performances by stars such as Ewan McGregor, Mickey Rourke, Bill Nighy, Sophie Okonedo and many others this film turned out to be an excellent piece of work. Alex Pettyfer was an amazing Alex Rider delivering a performance worthy of an award.

Far from a family film, this movie was packed solid with action from start to finish. Lasting only around 90 minutes this proved to be enough time to fit Horowitz' well-written and great story into a feature film, nearly every aspect of the plot was included from the book.

A true work of art.

9/10