by SARAH ROWLAND

Now I'll be the first to admit I've never been a huge fan of that crazy '60s cult TV show, Thunderbirds. I've never had anything against it, mind, but it just never really was a big deal among my social circle when I was a youngster. Also, it always seemed vaguely creepy, with those weirdo talking puppets and stuff. But those same puppets - brought to life via a process known as "supermarionation" - were a big part of the show's appeal, the one thing that really set it apart from your Hammy Hamsters and Rocket Robin Hoods. So, Thunderbirds, yet another new movie adaptation of an old TV show, begs an important question: what the hell is the point of remaking something when you leave out the one thing that people remember about it?

Directed by Jonathan Frakes, whom the keen will remember as Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Thunderbirds is entirely live-action - a concept about as pointless as making live-action Scooby-Doo movies.

Set in a world very much like our own, except there are more big goofy vehicles, Thunderbirds has Bill Paxton as Jeff Tracy, head of International Rescue, a do-gooder agency that rescues victims of natural disasters. Through the machinations of their resentful rival The Hood (Ben Kingsley, for crying out loud), Paxton and his keener sons are trapped on their orbiting space platform, leaving only the youngest Tracy, a resentful prick named Alan (Brady Corbet), to prevent The Hood from using a big drill to rob a bank.

Tracy and his friends employ their considerable skills to rip off the Spy Kids movies shamelessly and save everyone. They're assisted by the best thing about this movie, the saucy Lady Penelope (Sophia Myles), who actually makes Thunderbirds worthwhile whenever she's onscreen. But Myles alone is not nearly enough to make this weirdly misguided kids' flick worth watching.

Thunderbirds opens Friday, July 30

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