Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker

Name: Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker
Genre: Action, Adventure, Family
Released: October 13, 2006
Duration: 93 min
Rating: 42
Cast: Alex Pettyfer, Mickey Rourke, Sophie Okonedo

2006

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Mixed or average reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews

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Mixed or average reviews based on 48 Ratings

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4.6

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4.6	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 48 Ratings

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Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker

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Movie Details & Credits

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) | Release Date: October 13, 2006 | PG

Starring: Alex Pettyfer, Mickey Rourke, Sophie Okonedo

Summary: Alex Rider (Pettyfer) is a normal teenager who lives with his uncle, a nondescript bank manager. Or so it seems until his uncle, Ian Rider (McGregor), disappears under mysterious circumstances. Alex soon learns that his uncle was a spy for Britain's secret intelligence service, M16 and he is recruited to take on a dangerous mission forAlex Rider (Pettyfer) is a normal teenager who lives with his uncle, a nondescript bank manager. Or so it seems until his uncle, Ian Rider (McGregor), disappears under mysterious circumstances. Alex soon learns that his uncle was a spy for Britain's secret intelligence service, M16 and he is recruited to take on a dangerous mission for them. Within days he's gone from schoolboy to super spy -- but will Alex's first assignment be his last? (The Weinstein Company)… Expand

Director: Geoffrey Sax

Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Family

Rating: PG

Runtime: 93 min

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Critic Reviews

Michael Esposito

It's better than some James Bond movies--no matter what your age. Read full review

Steven Rea

Taken for what it is - 'tweenage escapism - Stormbreaker is moderately fun. Read full review

Jack Mathews

Despite a relatively paltry $40 million budget, Stormbreaker has the sheen and special effects of a Bond movie, and the ambition as well. Read full review

TV Guide Magazine Maitland McDonagh

Sax keeps things moving, but the best thing about the film is the British cast. Read full review

Mark Olsen

The film is forever trying to balance between being for younger teenagers and keeping their parents occupied as well, and never quite gets it right. Read full review

Lou Lumenick

This lame teenage James Bond will leave audiences neither shaken nor stirred. Read full review

Chris Kaltenbach

About as clunky as a movie gets. It lurches from scene to scene with no sense of narrative grace, gives its roster of prominent actors nothing to work with and screeches to a halt with all the grace of a sprinter whose shoelaces have been tied together. Read full review

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User Reviews

RenRala

Feb 22, 2022

I don't know why people hate this film so much. A good family film as well as one for the thrill seekers. Deserves my rating.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

[Anonymous]

Oct 30, 2007

Okay I so loved this movie and do not know y it got bad reviews. i mean how were they watching the movie anyway with alex pettyfer in it. so i liked it a lot. BUT I SUGGEST U READ THE BOOKS FIRST THEY R SO MUCH BETTER! i promise.

0 of 2 users found this helpful

Voodoo123

Aug 11, 2018

A cool idea that falls short of itself... great cast feel underused here. The direction and production value feel underwhelming throughout with below average action scenes that use obvious post effects explosions that really stand out. Despite these flaws the pacing is excellent and it heldA cool idea that falls short of itself... great cast feel underused here. The direction and production value feel underwhelming throughout with below average action scenes that use obvious post effects explosions that really stand out. Despite these flaws the pacing is excellent and it held my interest with its interesting characters and story.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

EpicLadySponge

May 11, 2016

You might want to forget about its existence when it was released to theaters because that's how Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker went when people saw it in theaters.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Sam

Oct 14, 2006

Clichéd, ridiculous, and rancid, Stormbreaker lacks anything that reminds you of the words "Fun" and "full of life"

2 of 2 users found this helpful

MovieMasterEddy

Apr 3, 2016

"Stormbreaker" is a high-profile bust. Opening July 21 in Blighty, amid much hoopla as a "homegrown" blockbuster, film pulled a disappointing $2.3 million from 370 screens the first weekend and looks to wilt fast once word gets out, even among Rider fans.

Horowitz’s young-adult novels,"Stormbreaker" is a high-profile bust. Opening July 21 in Blighty, amid much hoopla as a "homegrown" blockbuster, film pulled a disappointing $2.3 million from 370 screens the first weekend and looks to wilt fast once word gets out, even among Rider fans.

Horowitz’s young-adult novels, centered on a 14-year-old school boy who becomes an agent for MI6, have a semi-believability that’s completely vanished in this first screen version, scripted by the author himself. Mulched down into standard action fare, and directed by TV vet Geoffrey Sax (“White Noise”) as if he’s analyzed every Hollywood blockbuster of the past 25 years, pic emerges as a coldly calculated exercise in mid-Atlantic filmmaking that’s unsure exactly who its audience is.

This is a British “Spy Kids” without the fun, or a teenage “Johnny English” without the humor. Not helped by a wooden perf from (then 15-year-old) newcomer Alex Pettyfer as Rider, pic yoyos between eccentric supporting perfs by locals (Bill Nighy, Andy Serkis, Stephen Fry), who try to squeeze some laughs from the witless script, and bemused perfs by Yank guests, Mickey Rourke (as a mixed-race villain), Alicia Silverstone (as a housekeeper called, uh, Jack) and Missi Pyle (as a distant relative of Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS).

Luckiest thesp is Ewan McGregor who, as Rider’s largely-absent uncle, Ian, doesn’t survive the opening credit sequence. Turns out Ian prepared his nephew for an MI6 career by interesting him in scuba diving, martial arts and foreign languages. Soon after Ian bites the dust, courtesy of Russian villain Yassen Gregorovich (Damian Lewis, in pic’s only effective perf), Rider is recruited by MI6 boss Alan Blunt (Nighy) and his deputy, Mrs. Jones (Sophie Okonedo).

Prior to this, young Rider has chased bad guys through London on his mountain bike, escaped from a car crusher, defeated five meatheads with his kung-fu, and stumbled on MI6’s underground HQ.

So aud already knows he’s not an average school boy. Script then double-underlines this with an unnecessary training sequence in Wales, where he’s officially dubbed “a lethal weapon.”

Story finally comes into view around the midway mark, as Rider visits Darrius Sayle (Rourke, extravagant) at a Blofeld-like HQ in the wilds of Cornwall. There, he uncovers a plot involving rigged computers by the dusky villain and Gregorovich.

Aside from the dialogue, which doesn’t have one decent laugh in it, no attempt is made by Horowitz to capitalize on Rider’s youth in an original way. Upper-crust kid seems to have no weaknesses and operates as simply a teen version of James Bond, sans the wise-cracking charm and sexual frissons. He’s given a g.f. of sorts (Sarah Bolger), but only so he can use her horse in the finale.

Tech package and action staging are slick but impersonal; color processing on the print caught was cold and unattractive. Andrew MacRitchie’s restless editing and Alan Parker’s booming music both add to the feeling of being beaten into submission by a relentless machine.… Expand

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BrianL

Apr 29, 2008

this is not even related to the book.... what the hell, who kill people hanging upside down from a helicopter anyway? and why not just shoot alex rider in the head?

1 of 2 users found this helpful

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